Epic claims its free games promotion has increased sales on other platforms

Epic has claimed its weekly free games promotion has caused sales to increase for developers who participate in the scheme.

In an interview with Gamespot, Epic CEO Tim Sweeney claimed the Epic Store free games promotion had led to many players discovering new genres and increased sales on other platforms through increased awareness generated by the scheme.

“People have discovered a lot of great games that way,” he said. “It’s been a benefit for game developers.

“Most developers who launch their games for free on the store found that their sales on Steam and on console platforms actually increased after they went free on Epic because of increased awareness and so it’s been a really positive thing and it’s brought tens of millions of new users into the Epic Games ecosystem and that’s been a wonderful thing for the company.”

The Epic Games Store’s weekly free game promotion, which launched alongside the storefront in December 2018, will run throughout 2020.

Sweeney’s comments echo those of ID@Xbox’s European lead Agostino Simonetta, who told VGC last year that Xbox Game Pass was helping players discover new genres of game that they’d never tried before.

According to Simonetta, 40 per cent of those who played Curve’s Human Fall Flat as part of their Game Pass subscription had never played a puzzle game on Xbox before.

“If you have a Netflix subscription, you might go in for the blockbuster but you’ll then start watching documentaries and stand-up comedy,” he said. “I’ve never bought stand-up comedy, but suddenly through my subscription I can experiment.

“Game Pass offers the same opportunity, to present to people games that people might not go out and buy in big numbers, but they’ll be excited to experiment with and try.

“And I’m sure that those 40 per cent of people who tried Human Fall Flat are probably now more than happy to take a risk and try more puzzle games in the future.”