Way to stick it to em!
I like Epic as much as anyone but why would you want your library filled with bloat?
You can use this FOSS tool to automatically claim those games.
https://github.com/vogler/free-games-claimer
Some even work pretty well on Linux using the Heroic Launcher.
What the hell, I had no idea such a tool existed… I do not intend to use it… But it is so cool regardless.
That’s actually pretty awesome, thanks!
Does that still work? Last updated over a year ago and the free games are usually protected by some rather creative captchas.
lol, it was last updated 3 days ago
Works for Prime and GOG. Epic sometimes works outside the docker container, but sometimes you still get a CAPTCHA still. There’s an active discussion for fixing Epic inside a docker container.
Thank you, shared with my friends who claim free games!
…are you Jesus?
Initially I, too, claimed those, but ultimately I never ended up playing them and often I’d just end up buying them from steam instead. It’s funny how I’m willing to pay for something I can have for free, if it’s convenient and easy. So I didn’t claim them for very long, stopped a long time ago, and still just ignore it if a game I thirst for is available for free.
But that’s also a pretty dark prospect: Because I have my entire extensive library on steam, I’m kind of stuck with them. And while they are not abusing that presently, I’m fairly confident they will someday. And I, along with most everyone playing on pc, will be shit out of luck then.
It’s hard to diversify at this point, when I’m too far gone, and knowing changing or adding services will increase the complexity of using it all and keeping mental track of all the games and where they are.
Ugh.
If Steam ever fucks over consumers I will pirate 100% of my games from that day on unless an indie company allows me to buy directly from them or through GoG.
“If they make me angry, I will pirate, unless I don’t.”
I don’t like pirating indie games. Pirating from big developers though? I have no issues doing that.
Because I have my entire extensive library on steam, I’m kind of stuck with them. And while they are not abusing that presently, I’m fairly confident they will someday.
Yeah. I am confident that long term access to classic games is a torch only sufficiently carried by software pirates.
Don’t get me wrong, I adore things like the Atari 50th Anniversary collection, and what Evercade is doing with esoteric arcade titles. (And I delight in throwing money at them.)
But only a small fraction of the greatest games get that kind of loving licensed treatment.
For the rest of gaming history, software pirates are essential.
While I don’t disagree with anything you said, I think this comment descended into nihilism with alarming rapidity and I hope you’re okay.
Just enshittification fatigue. Every service being provided is hostile to us, so it makes us uneasy if one isn’t.
I too have over 200 games on Epic and have purchased non of them. This is none news. I buy my games on Steam and get my free games on Epic.
And the once or twice a year Epic offers a free game I actually want to play, I enjoy it just as much as if I’d bought it elsewhere.
Interesting thought: “Because I have my entire extensive library on steam, I’m kind of stuck with them. And while they are not abusing that presently, I’m fairly confident they will someday.”
Steam subscription $9.99 to access your library 😐 - man that feels wrong. But also can probably happen with the TOS noone reads
It could happen, but if it does, it’ll be decades down the line. Gaben has surrounded himself with true believers on purpose, in part to prevent that scenario.
They certainly cant do that in places with actual consumer regulations, ToS and EULA mean nothing if they go against the law.
In the past couple years, I’ve gone from buying exclusively from steam to prioritizing buying/rebuying single player games from GOG.
Multiplayer games are still mostly through steam for convenience - same with VR games/games with VR mods.
I just wish GOG Galaxy was better. Development seems kinda stagnant.
I constantly have issues with the plugins to access other storefront libraries among other things.
That’s literally the only reason I have Epic on my PC.
Free games every week.
i went a couple years, pretty steady. now it’s whenever i remember–and it’s not been that often. only one during the winter deals.
I have a reminder to check it on my Proton calendar every week, haha.
You can just claim them on the webpage, no need to install the launcher.
Sure, but if he wants to play them, he’ll need the client. And it sounds like actually does want to play them.
Heroic is also on Windows and Mac. It works with GOG too so that’s one less launcher necessary.
I stopped claiming epic freebies when I realized I ended up buying the game on steam anyway.
Just use Heroic launcher to play the free Epic games.
Of course i know him that’s me.
This is the point though. They have beefed up my Epic Games library to the point where if I got banned from Steam, I would have a viable fallback.
That cannot be understated. It has a network effect and makes adopting it as a new platform versus a legacy one with two decades behind it, far easier to adjust to.
I love that at least someone is really trying other than MS with their poorly supported windows games store attempts.
It’s pretty easy to avoid being banned.
Absolutely. But if someone got you in one of those steam inventory scams or stole your access token, it sucks if you lose your entire game library and have all your eggs in one basket.
So having a bunch “backed up” so to speak with Epic gives some peace of mind. VAC bans aren’t common for most users, but they do make mistakes sometimes.
It will always be weird to me that microsoft sells some games both on the microsoft store app and the xbox app, but other games exclusively through the xbox app.
I’m thinking even farther back to their wretched Windows Live and then Games for Windows Live platform (now dead). MS is one of the biggest companies on earth and couldn’t find a cohesive way to migrate that game ownership forward.
Yup, I’m at 372 free games on epic, plus 3 bought ones, and 2 key activations. It’s amazing.
And thats exactly why Epic is untrustworthy. Its like a shady guy on the corner saying “Hey i will give you 500 bucks if you just do this easy little thing for me. Will be done right away no worries”.
That makes GOG untrustworthy as well, I guess, since I have 300 games on there, but never bought one.
With GOG you can download all game files to your local storage and play them even if GOG goes to shit. Thats the difference. But yes Steam is the same as Epic in that regard.
You commented on a post about a dude who never bought from Epic but still has 200 games there, that Epic is shady for doing this.
I said by that logic, GOG is shady as well, because they also give away tons of games.
Just saying that labeling them as untrustworthy, just because they give away games, doesn’t make sense. Steam was never mentioned, or the business practices of different storefronts.
Epic doesnt give games away. They give temporary licenses to games away which they can always take from you. Epic uses this to get people onto and dependent on their platform so they can then extract money from them. GOG has no way to extract money from people like that and has no leverage against their customers.
What are you even talking about? Why is Epic “extracting money” but GOG is not? Do you mean if you lose your games on Epic you will buy them again on Epic? Nobody does that, and it doesn’t happen in the first place.
Epic needs to pump their MAU stats to look like a legitimate platform. They know what’s going on and are happy to pay.
What I don’t know is what they actually pay the publishers.
And never plays any of them.
The whole UX is just so bad
Use Heroic. It’s GPL.
If this added itch.io it’d be a fantastic filler for managing all the non-DRM off-Steam stuff.
Or Playnite (MIT license) which aggregates all your libraries, not just Epic.
That looks nice but it looks like it’s for Windows- only. Heroic is cross-platform.
Heroic is Epic, GOG, and Amazon Prime.
Maybe don’t give Bezos more money, but if you have Prime alreafy anyways, then you get 4-5 games for every one that Epic gives away. Some are on their Prime service, but most of their codes are redeemed through GOG or Epic.
Don’t need a complex UI to list some games for 5 seconds before I start playing them.
Only 200? Try harder, noob.
(I’m at 410, and my Epic library is now three times the size of my Steam one, lol.)
There’s no way I’d catch up to my Steam library, there’s like 1,200+ games in there at this point. 2nd biggest is GOG with ~300 but I’ve been using Steam since HL2
I’m pretty sure there are tons of people like that. It’s the same for me.
Yeah, that’s pretty common. 200+ games and they don’t even have payment info for me.
I’m honestly astonished they don’t require payment info on file to collect them by this point - initially it’s a way to bribe people into making an account, and now they could bribe a bunch of people into giving payment info and lowering one more barrier to actually buying from them.
That’s some dedication! Sometimes I wish I would do this more often. I start doing it, then it just fades away… Might be because some of the games don’t apply to my taste, then I forget to keep up with it.
I just subbed to !freegames@lemmy.ml.
FYI that one was a bit quiet so I started !freegames@feddit.uk
Nice plug, thank you
My friend too have over 100 games. He never even play them but thankfully to him I don’t have to make Epic Account.
Hmm. Let’s see here…
Steam: 147
GOG: 174
Epic: 286I’ve paid for about 2/3 of the Steam games, probably a quarter of the GOG ones, and maybe two or three of the Epic ones.
Meh… Piracy is still better 🏴☠️
