How many times this year have we started a thread in this newsgroup
with those two words, "Free Games"? It turns out... a lot. And for
good reason, because there were just SO MANY free games made available
to savvy gamers. Close to 200 free games, in fact. If you were quick -
and not too particular - you could easily grab more games than ever
you could play... all without paying a cent!

Epic, of course, led the pack with a whopping 90 games on offer. But
GOG was surprisingly competitive too; 45 games from them. Steam lagged
behind (and, unlike the rest, the freebies weren't a beneficence from
Valve* but instead were made free by the individual publishers). Then
there were a handful of other freebies from Itch.Io, Fanatical, UPlay
and the rest.

And these were only the ones I knew about! It's quite possible there
were more. With so many free games on offer, it's a wonder that
developers can make ANY money whatsoever!

All that, and we still haven't taken into consideration 'nearly' free
games like you can get from HumbleChoice or AmazonPrime. There were so
many of those from just those two sources that it would have doubled
the size of the list. And if you member of a subscription service
(like XBox or Playstation or any of the rest) you'd have had an even
larger selection to play with. And the whole price for all of those
would have only equaled four or five full-price games.

Frankly, it's all sort of amazing, the way the industry has
transformed. I'm not sure it's amazing in a good way, but it is
amazing.

Anyway, here's a list of all the freebies of 2023. How many of these
games did you add to your library? And, as importantly, how many did
you actually play?

EPIC - 90 games
----------------------------------
911 Operator / Adios / Against All Odds / Art of Rally /
Beyond Blue / Black Book / Blazing Sails / Bloons TD 6 /
Breathedge / Call of the Sea / Cat Quest / Cave Story+ / Chess
Ultra / City of Gangsters / Cursed To Golf / Death Stranding /
Deliver Us Mars / Destiny 2: Legacy Collection / Dishonored: Death
of the Outsider / Divine Knockout / DNF Duel / Dodo Peak /
Duskers / Dying Light: Enhanced Edition / Earthlock / Epistory -
Typing Chronicles / Eternal Threads / Europa Universalis 4 /
Fallout 3: Game Of The Year Edition / Fallout: New Vegas - Ultimate
Edition / First Class Trouble / Gamedec - Definitive Edition /
Ghostrunner / Ghostwire: Tokyo / GigaBash / Godlike Burger /
Golden Light / Grime / Guacamelee! 2 / Guacamelee! Super Turbo
Championship Edition / Hell is Others / Homeworld Remastered
Collection / Homeworld: Deserts Of Kharak / Horizon Chase Turbo /
Human Resource Machine / Idle Champions Of The Forgotten Realms Pack
/ Jitsu Squad / Kao the Kangaroo / Kerbal Space Program / Loop
Hero / Melvor Idle / Midnight Ghost Hunt / Might FIght
Federation / Model Builder / Mordhau / Murder by Numbers /
Never Alone (Kisima Ingitchuna) / Orwell: Keeping An Eye On You /
Out Of Line / Payday 2 / Poker Club / Predecessor / Q.U.B.E.
Ultimate Bundle / Recipe for Disaster / Rise Of Industry /
Saints Row (2023) / Second Extinction / Severed Steel / Shadow
Tactics: Blades Of The Shogun - Aiko's Choice / Shapez / Snakebird
Complete / Soulstice / Spelldrifter / Surviving The Aftermath /
Tandem: A Tale Of Shadows / The Dungeon of Naheulbeuk: The Amulet of
Chaos / The Elder Scrolls Online / The Evil Within / The Evil
Within 2 / The Forest Quartet / The Outer Worlds: Spacer's Choice
Edition / The Silent Age / The Sims 4 The Daring Lifestyle Bundle
/ TheHunter: Call of the Wild / Train Valley 2 / Tunche /
Turnip Boy Commits Tax Evasion / Warhammer 40,000: Gladius - Relics
Of War / Warpips / World of Warships Starter Pack: Ishizuchi

GOG - 45 games
----------------------------------
Akane / Alien Breed 2: Assault / Alien Breed 3: Descent / Alien
Breed: Impact / Alwa's Awakening / Amnesia: A Machine For Pigs /
Ancient Enemy / Beast Inside, The / Beholder 2 / Betrayer /
Biing Sex Intrigue and Scalpels / Blacksad: Under the Skin /
Bloody Hell / Caveblazers / Crusader Kings II / Deep Sky
Derelicts / Doom 3 (with Resurrection of Evil) / Elder Scroll III
Morrowind GOTY / Eschalon Book 2 / Fiendish Freddy’s Big Top o’
Fun / Figment / Ghost Master / Haven Park / Helium Rain /
Hell Division / Hero of the Kingdom II / Heroine’s Quest: The
Herald of Ragnarok / Indigo Prophecy Remastered / King’s Bounty:
The Legend / Lacuna - A Sci-Fi Noir Adventure / Legend of Keepers
/ Lorelai / Lost Ruins / Neurodeck: Psychological Deckbuilder
Game / Night of the Rabbit, The / Requiem: Avenging Angel /
Sigma Theory / South of the Circle / Styx: Shards of Darkness /
Sunblaze / Terminal Velocity: Boosted Edition / Truberbrook /
Under the Moon / Whisperer, The / Wolfenstein: The New Order

STEAM - 35 games
----------------------------------
Archipelago Promise / Ashes to Ashes / Black Desert / Blockstorm
/ Cat-aclysm / CryptArk / Desktop Dungeons / Downbass Warriors:
Heroes of Maydamn / Exorsite / Fields of Glory / Figment /
Forgetful Dictator / Franzen / Friday the 13th: Killer Puzzle /
Half Life / Helium Rain / Heroine's Quest: The Herald of Ragnarok
/ Home Sweet Home: Online & Survive / Hue / Killer Instinct /
Locked In Mind / Metro Last Light Complete / Milo and the
Christmas Gift / Moonring / Pirate Souls / Sludge Life /
Street Sense 2 / Tell Me Why / TGV Voyages Train Simulator / The
Abbey of Crime Extensum / Their Land / Tiny Tina's Assault on
Dragon Keep / War Gun / Warsaw Rising: City of Heroes / Witcher:
Enhanced Edition

MISC - 17 games
----------------------------------
Alchemy Garden (Fanatical) / Alone on Mars (IndieGala) /
Assassins Creed Syndicate (UPLAY) / Byte Family (IndieGala) /
Chenso Club (Fanatical) / Crumble (Fanatical) / Die Young:
Prologue (IndieGala) / Immortal Darkness: Curse of the Pale King /
King of Dragon Pass (IndieGala) / Last Horizon (IndieGala) /
Lifeless Horizon (Itch.IO) / Nostradamus Last Prophecy (IndieGala)
/ Rayman Ravin' Rabbids (UPLAY) / Sega Bass Fishing (Fanatical) /
Six Sides of the World (IndieGala) / Unity of Command: Stalingrad
Campaign (Itch.IO) / Untamed Tactics

* with one exception. See if you can figure out which one ;-)

On 12/31/2023 10:13 AM, Spalls Hurgenson wrote:

> Anyway, here's a list of all the freebies of 2023. How many of these
> games did you add to your library? And, as importantly, how many did
> you actually play?

I'm not going to bother to look up how many I got. But played?

Some of them I paid for the game and played them before they were free.
Some I played for minutes.

>
> EPIC - 90 games

* Bloons TD 6 - minutes
* Cat Quest - Did play it, but I bought it ages ago, so doesn't count.
* Death Stranding - Did I get this free from epic? Probably, I don't
think I would've played it otherwise.
* Deliver Us Mars - Actually finished it, not bad, a bit heavy handed
with a questionable message.
* Destiny 2: Legacy Collection - I played Destiny 2, don't know if it's
this.
* Epistory - Typing Chronicles - I think I paid for this? Not entirely
sure. Played for a bit, but found it annoying/unfun after an hour or so.
Fallout 3: Game Of The Year Edition - Bought this ages ago, it makes my
3rd copy of the base game, 2nd GOTY copy.
Fallout: New Vegas - Ultimate Edition - Had this of course, I don't
think I bought the DLCs, so bonus there, but haven't played them yet.
* Ghostrunner - played this a bit from one of the giveaways, didn't get
into it.
* Guacamelee! Super Turbo Championship Edition - played a short bit from
epic, I remember getting annoyed and quitting though.
* Idle Champions Of The Forgotten Realms Pack - played this a bit, but
might've been on Steam? Ugh, horrible game.
* Kerbal Space Program - Played a few hours, didn't ever figure out what
I was supposed to do exactly.
Saints Row (2023) - I will play this Probably #1 after I finish
Bloodborne and I'm REAL close. I could finish it now.
The Elder Scrolls Online - I know I played it a bit, but I think it was
on a free weekend or something, no desire to go back.
The Outer Worlds: Spacer's Choice - Bought the base game and finished,
DLCs are bonus.

So possibly 9, Really only 1 played any length of time, and that was a
short o.k. game. I'd put actual value I got out of it about $4.

> GOG - 45 games

I guess I didn't play any of these.

> STEAM - 35 games

I bought/played these ages ago, didn't play any new ones, so no value here:

Metro Last Light Complete
Witcher:Enhanced Edition

> MISC - 17 games

No Misc.

I remember I played a few Amazon/Luna games

The Batman one on Luna, but it was too 'action' to work well on Luna.

I also just played Bloodrayne side scroller on Luna for a couple hours.
That was surprisingly fun. Not enough to keep beating my head on the
chapter 3 or 4 boss though.

I'm probably forgetting something, but I'm not sure how to check what I
played there. Probably about $10 worth to me (I definitely wouldn't do
Prime just for the free games, I don't think I ever would've done Prime
at all except my wife got it!)

--
-Justisaur

ø-ø
(\_/)\
`-'\ `--.___,
¶¬'\( ,_.-'
\\
^'

On Sun, 31 Dec 2023 12:31:57 -0800, Justisaur <justisaur@yahoo.com>
wrote:

>On 12/31/2023 10:13 AM, Spalls Hurgenson wrote:
>
>> Anyway, here's a list of all the freebies of 2023. How many of these
>> games did you add to your library? And, as importantly, how many did
>> you actually play?
>
>I'm not going to bother to look up how many I got. But played?

I wasn't really expecting anyone to do that anyway. Mostly the post
was my way of indicating how prevelant and common free-game give-aways
have become, and how this has effected the industry as a whole.
>I remember I played a few Amazon/Luna games

I didn't include any Luna games since those are more 'subscription
based' games, more akin to Playstation Plus or Microsoft GamePass, and
adding all those would have made the list untenably long.

Heck, I didn't even get to include all the AmazonPrime or HumbleChoice
games which - although not free - are inexpensive enough that they
might as well be.

But this surplus of inexpensive games just shows how much the industry
has changed in the last twenty, ten or even five years. We're all
getting full-priced games for tuppence - literally hundreds of them! -
and these freebies are all in direct competition to the games which
cost $70 USD. Is it any wonder so much of the industry is moving over
to free-to-play and post-sale transactions to make ends meet?

On 1/1/2024 7:22 AM, Spalls Hurgenson wrote:
> On Sun, 31 Dec 2023 12:31:57 -0800, Justisaur <justisaur@yahoo.com>
> wrote:
>
>> On 12/31/2023 10:13 AM, Spalls Hurgenson wrote:
>>
>>> Anyway, here's a list of all the freebies of 2023. How many of these
>>> games did you add to your library? And, as importantly, how many did
>>> you actually play?
>>
>> I'm not going to bother to look up how many I got. But played?
>
> I wasn't really expecting anyone to do that anyway. Mostly the post
> was my way of indicating how prevelant and common free-game give-aways
> have become, and how this has effected the industry as a whole.
>> I remember I played a few Amazon/Luna games
>
> I didn't include any Luna games since those are more 'subscription
> based' games, more akin to Playstation Plus or Microsoft GamePass, and
> adding all those would have made the list untenably long.
>

Well the ones I played were free with Prime. I suppose that isn't any
more free than a PS Premium sub, but I tend to think of it that way as
I'm not specifically paying for them.

I could say I played Bloodborne free, but I paid for the PS Premium
specifically just to play it.

--
-Justisaur

ø-ø
(\_/)\
`-'\ `--.___,
¶¬'\( ,_.-'
\\
^'

On 12/31/2023 7:13 PM, Spalls Hurgenson wrote:
>
> How many times this year have we started a thread in this newsgroup
> with those two words, "Free Games"? It turns out... a lot. And for
> good reason, because there were just SO MANY free games made available
> to savvy gamers. Close to 200 free games, in fact. If you were quick -
> and not too particular - you could easily grab more games than ever
> you could play... all without paying a cent!
>
> Epic, of course, led the pack with a whopping 90 games on offer. But
> GOG was surprisingly competitive too; 45 games from them. Steam lagged
> behind (and, unlike the rest, the freebies weren't a beneficence from
> Valve* but instead were made free by the individual publishers). Then
> there were a handful of other freebies from Itch.Io, Fanatical, UPlay
> and the rest.

Steam doesn't have to do it because they have market dominance. After
all, how often did we actually BUY anything from Epic this year? Or
UPlay? (I did exactly once, with GigaBash, where I actually bought the
DLCs because my kids liked the game, but I was too cheap to buy the game
again on Steam).
Itch.io is the only one on the list where I actually spent money before.
>
> And these were only the ones I knew about! It's quite possible there
> were more. With so many free games on offer, it's a wonder that
> developers can make ANY money whatsoever!

It's not that difference from when I was younger, only back then you'd
get the nearly free games as a cover mount game, on a floppy or CD-ROM,
or DVD sold with a magazine. I wonder if they are still doing that? It
has been a while since I felt the need to buy a video game magazine.
>
> All that, and we still haven't taken into consideration 'nearly' free
> games like you can get from HumbleChoice or AmazonPrime.
Prime has games as well? I think I always keep forgetting that. I should
maybe check my wife's subscription for that. We got so many streaming
services we barely use...
By the way there's also Netflix Games which only do mobile games for
subscribers, but sometimes pretty good ones.

>
> Anyway, here's a list of all the freebies of 2023. How many of these
> games did you add to your library? And, as importantly, how many did
> you actually play?
>

From what I have seen I might have about 60-70% of the list, but some
of them I got in earlier years/with Humble/actually paid for them.
I played maybe 15, and very few longer than just a little bit.