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Epic's Sweeney says free games result in higher sales on other platforms

Epic's Sweeney says free games result in higher sales on other platforms

The CEO of Epic Tim Sweeney has said that the games it gives away for free on its storefront result in higher sales across platforms.

Speaking to GameSpot, the exec said that by exposing these titles to a wider audience, more people are willing to give it a shot. Since the Epic Games Store launched at the end of 2018, the platform has given away numerous titles entirely for free. To start with, Epic gave away one game every two weeks, but this increased to a free game every single week.

"If you're not into games like Satisfactory, you're not going to go out and spend money to buy Satisfactory. But if you get it for free you realise it's an awesome game. People have discovered a lot of great games that way," Sweeney 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."

It's estimated that the Epic Games Store has given away more than $2,000 in free games between its launch and May 2020. The Fortnite firm's storefront attracted 108m PC users in its first year.

Sweeney's remarks echo those of those made by Microsoft about its Xbox Game Pass subscription service. The firm has said that people play more games and are open to trying new games thanks to the all-you-can-eat offering. Xbox boss Phil Spencer has also claimed that the titles feature in Game Pass see increased sales across the board


PCGamesInsider Contributing Editor

Alex Calvin is a freelance journalist who writes about the business of games. He started out at UK trade paper MCV in 2013 and left as deputy editor over three years later. In June 2017, he joined Steel Media as the editor for new site PCGamesInsider.biz. In October 2019 he left this full-time position at the company but still contributes to the site on a daily basis. He has also written for GamesIndustry.biz, VGC, Games London, The Observer/Guardian and Esquire UK.