Free Games: A Year In Review - 2022
From
Spalls Hurgenson@21:1/5 to
All on Sun Jan 1 11:23:27 2023
No, sorry, this post isn't about a free game called "A Year In
Review". It's just me jabbering on about all the free games we got in
2022.
'Cause there were /A LOT/ of free games this year. Over 100, in fact.
Even with my already extensive library, that number made a noticeable
bump. You have to wonder how the industry intends to keep in business
if they just keep giving away their product.
And it's not like all the games they gave away were old games that
weren't making profit anymore, or weird Indie titles nobody would
normally buy; a lot of these games were fairly new (a year or two old)
and well regarded by critics and players. You could easily play only
free games and have just as fulfilling an experience as if you'd stuck
with games you paid for. So why bother buying anything?
Epic, of course, took the lead with the give-aways; once a week at
least one new game ended up in our greedy little hands, and some of
those were quite good. Highlights include the entire "Bioshock"
franchise, "Doom64", both "Total War: Warhammer" games, and "Death
Stranding". Of course, this was often padded out with a lot of
laughable Indie games, but the good easily outweighed the bad.
GOG was pretty prolific too; although in no way competitive to Epic,
it still pumped out 28 freebies. These tended to be older and or of
lower quality, but there were still some notable additions:
"Dishonored 2", "Ghost of a Tale", and "Daymare 1998", amongst others.
There were a handful of freebies on Steam too (although all offered by
the developers directly, because God forbid poor struggling Valve
kicks back any of their cash to their customers ;-). Most of these
were pretty timid offerings though.
Still, if you widen the scope to what I call 'almost free games' -
stuff that was so inexpensive (HumbleChoice) or included as part of a
package deal (Amazon Prime), you're selection more than doubles in
size. Don't get me started on subscription packages (Microsoft, EA, Playstation) either. You don't need to pay for games anymore, but even
if you do, you don't need to pay very much. Has it ever been a better
time to be a gamer?
Let the publishers increase their prices to $70 USD; I'm fine
languishing here at the $0 end of the pool, and have more than enough
to keep me occupied for years!
And you? Did you stuff your library full of freebies this year? Are
you, like me, becoming increasingly reliant on free games over
actually paying for them anymore? And how many of these free games did
you actually play anyway?
EPIC GAMES
Alba: A Wildlife Adventure, Amnesia Rebirth, Ancient Enemy, Bioshock 2 Remastered, Bioshock Infinite Complete Edition, Bioshock Remastered,
Bloons TD6, Borderlands 3, Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons, Captain, Car
Mechanic Simulator 2018, Century: Age of Ashes, Cook Serve Delicious
3, Cris Tales, Daemon Ex Machina, Dark Deity, Darkwood, Death
Stranding Director's Cut, Demon's Tilt, Dishonored: Definitive
Edition, Doom64, Drone Racing League, Encased, Evil Dead: The Game,
Evoland Legendary Edition, Eximius: Sieze the Frontline, F.I.S.T.:
Forged In Shadow Torch, Fallout , Fallout 2, Fallout 3 GOTY, Fallout
Tactics: Brotherhood of Steel, Filament, Football Manager 2022, Fort
Triumph, Game of Thrones: The Board Game, Geneforge 1: Mutagen,
Gloomhaven, Gods Will Fall, Hood: Outlaws & Legends, Horizon Chase
Turbo, Hundred Days - Winemaking Simulator, In Sound Mind,
Insurmountable, Iratus: Lord of the Dead, Just Die Already, Lawn
Mowing Simulator, LEGO Builder's Journey, ManEater, Mortal Shell,
Paradigm, Quake , Reborn, Redout Enhanced Edition, Relicta, Ring of
Pain, Rising Hell, Rogue Legacy, RPG in a Box, Runbow, Sable, Saints
Row IV Re-Elected, Saturnalia, Severed Steel, Shop Titan, Slain: Back
From Hell, Spirit of the North, Star Wars: Squadrons, Submerged:
Hidden Depths, Tannenberg, Terraforming Mars, Them's Fighting Herds,
Toejam and Earl Back in the Groove, Total War Warhammer , Total War:
Warhammer II, Unrailed!, Warhammer 40K Mechanicus, Wildcat Gun
Machine, Windbound, Wolfenstein: The New Order, Wonder Boy – The
Dragon's Trap, XCOM 2
GOG GAMES
Daggerfall Unity, Daymare: 1998, Destroy All Humans: Clone Carnage,
Dex, Dishonored 2, Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion GOTY Deluxe, Fallout New
Vegas Ultimate Edition, Genesis Alpha One Deluxe Edition, Ghost of a
Tale, Greak: Memories of Azur, Iratus Lord of the Dead, Iris and the
Giant , King of Seas, Lovecraft's Untold Stories, Middle-earth Shadow
of Mordor GOTY, Narita Boy, Open TTD, Phoning Home, Shantae and the
Pirate's Curse, Stellaris, Terrior, Thea 2: The Shattering, Venetica
(Gold Ed), VirtuaVerse, Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory, Worms Revolution
Gold
--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
From
Spalls Hurgenson@21:1/5 to
JAB on Mon Jan 2 14:27:05 2023
On Mon, 2 Jan 2023 11:44:47 +0000, JAB <
noway@nochance.com> wrote:
On 02/01/2023 01:04, Spalls Hurgenson wrote:
Firstly it's a bit of a myth that the whales have money to burn and
secondly there is a correlation with certainly personality types of
in-game spending. Once you get over the hurdle of this isn't just like
Kinder Eggs then it becomes a lot easier to understand how this happens.
I don't know if I would call it a myth. There are certainly a number
of recorded incidents where people have spent six-digit sums on
DLC/MTX. Are they common? Certainly not. Studies show that the vast
bulk of people who buy MTX spend something in the range of $5-50USD,
and even most 'whales' tend to top out in the three-digit range.
Can they afford it? That depends. Very few people can really 'afford'
to toss away even one thousand dollars USD, much less anything in the
five- or six-digit range. Still, it happens, and its often taken in
stride. It's like any hobby. I've no (emotional) understanding of
gambling, but I know a number of people who happily toss money into
any flutter that comes across their desk because they like the thrill.
Can they afford it? Sometimes not (fortunately, the ones I have met
have never gone so deep into debt from their betting habits that it's
caused them serious problems) but that's part of the excitement.
(Anecdotally, I've had a friend who parted with several thousand
dollars in one of EA's sports games (the American football one, I
think). He wasn't entirely happy about it - he admitted going a bit
overboard - but neither did he entirely regret the loss. It was all
part of the game for him (mostly, his regret came from spending all
that money and it not having a major effect on his winning any more
games, I think, but honestly I'm not sure exactly what EA Sports MTX
buys you. It's just an area of PC gaming I've almost entirely
ignored).)
I think most players 'get out' before they get too deep, financially,
into a game. There are always a few who run afoul of their bad habits.
There are some who spend a lot who can afford (within reasonable
expectations of 'afford') because it's the cost of their hobby. And
then there's the bulk who spend miniscule amounts. Not every game
attracts the mega-whales who spend in the six-digit range, and even
those that do only get a tiny handful. Five-digits spends are likely
equally rare. But four-digit spends? While not everyday, there are
probably more than you expect.
--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)