Why can't steam give away games for free like epic games??

[Draken]

It would be awesome if steam starts giving away free AAA games sometimes like epic games does!

[Zarineth]

Epic started giveaways because they wanted to win over the market. Now they are in a point where they either continue or lose part of their userbase.

Steam doesn't need to bribe users, they are already the largest PC gaming platform. Also there are giveaways on Steam from time to time. But it's game developers who do them.

[ReBoot]

Epic's hemorrhaging money trying to buy market share. Be glad Valve don't follow suit playing loss leader as such races to the bottom don't end well for paying customers.

[Wolfpig]

The Free games on Epic are not free, as at least epic pays the publishers that they can giveaway the games for free.

BTW: back in the Day when Valve needed to get Users on the platform and strengthen their store "monopoly" they did gave away games for free at occasions like the Winter Sale.

[Unn4m3d (♥AUT♥)]

Because Steam doesnt need to bribe users into using their platform.

[Wolfpig]

Originally posted by Unn4m3d (♥AUT♥):

Because Steam doesnt need to bribe users into using their platform.

Valve has left that stage long ago and now 99% of the people have no choice as to use steam, as a lot of games are not sold somewhere else.

[Start_Running]

Originally posted by Draken:

It would be awesome if steam starts giving away free AAA games sometimes like epic games does!

There are free games given away on Steam all the time. You just have to find them.
But no Valve isn't going to be buying you free games. THey don't need to. Plus they like having a store that's actually profitable. WHich is something that EGS isn't.

I get it, free stuff is nice but, m'dude this tis a store.
Do you go into a supermarket expecting a random stranger to buy you stuff.

[76561199648916059]

It happens though just a few weeks ago someone paid for my groceries, completely random, and the other day I got free gas at a pump that was prepaid, lucky day.

Steam is capable for sure and boosts about record profits which is more insulting to customers that they refuse to do the right thing and provide some of the dead games they sell as free to steam users.

Why steam doesn't do it is they have mastered the art of deception, it would require them to use deceptive accounts to uptick free game downloads in order to forfil the narrative that 10 million people wanted to download this free game.

They don't have 10 million accounts to do it with, somewhere the range was 10,000 possibly growing but facades aside. It would take steam massive resources to give a game away as it could possibly back fire and expose the limited population side that face most titles.

[Chika Ogiue]

It is up to developers / publishers to decide if they want to give a game away on Steam, either to keep permanently or to play for a limited time.

You can track such events around the web, such as this page on Steam DB:

https://steamdb.info/upcoming/free/

[miakisfan]

Originally posted by Draken:

It would be awesome if steam starts giving away free AAA games sometimes like epic games does!

Uh ... Steam has plenty of free games already if you haven't looked.

It is up to the developers themselves to give away what some consider the top tier games free .. not Steam.

I don't think it is a good business model to always give something away for free anyways. That's when the leeches usually show up and stick around.

[wesnef]

Originally posted by Zarineth:

Epic started giveaways because they wanted to win over the market. Now they are in a point where they either continue or lose part of their userbase.

And Epic can only afford to keep "giving away" those bribes, because they're living off the infinite money Fortnite is pulling in.

[omgitsbees]

I wish Valve instead offered a subscription service similar to Game Pass Ultimate, but I don't think such a subscription would go over well with most people here.

[cSg|mc-Hotsauce]

Originally posted by omgitsbees:

I wish Valve instead offered a subscription service similar to Game Pass Ultimate, but I don't think such a subscription would go over well with most people here.

GabeN doesn't want to add a subscription to Steam, at this time.

GabeN would work with MS to bring Gamepass to Steam or any other dev/pub that wants to add a subscription to Steam, if they want to.

https://www.pcgamer.com/valve-has-no-plans-for-a-steam-pass-but-would-help-microsoft-put-game-pass-on-steam/

[Unn4m3d (♥AUT♥)]

Originally posted by Wolfpig:

Originally posted by Unn4m3d (♥AUT♥):

Because Steam doesnt need to bribe users into using their platform.

Valve has left that stage long ago and now 99% of the people have no choice as to use steam, as a lot of games are not sold somewhere else.

Everyone has a choice whether or not they use Steam.
And it's not Valves fault if developers and/or publishers only put their game on Steam and nowhere else.

[Crazy Tiger]

They can, they just aren't interested in it. Which makes sense. After all, Epic does it to gain more userbase, Steam already has a very large userbase.

Nobody gives games out for free just because they're nice. There is always a motive, usually financially.

On Steam, game devs/publishers can make their games temporarily free to keep. Happens often enough, I've gotten quite some games via that.

[Tsubame ⭐]

Originally posted by Draken:

It would be awesome if steam starts giving away free AAA games sometimes like epic games does!

Because they do not need to.

They are by far the largest online retailer.

There are games that are now and then that are made available for free, for some time, in the Steam store.