Last night during 2018’s Game Awards ceremony, Epic Games launched their digital storefront with some fire. The Epic Games Store has hot games like Journey and the Early Access launch of Supergiant’s next game Hades. It has games big and small, ranging from Darksiders 3 to Hello Neighbor. Most importantly, it’s focusing on a highly curated experience, something that Steam hasn’t had for quite some time. So, what’s the best way to attract a customer base to your new storefront? Giving away indie hits like Subnautica and Super Meat Boy.
The Epic Games Store promises a new game giveaway every two weeks. This starts next week with Subnautica, an underwater survival game where you need to explore and survive in an underwater world. That lasts from December 14 to the 27, and then you’ll be able to get Super Meat Boy starting on the 28. This is the precision platformer that launched the splatformer genre, featuring hidden characters and rock-hard gameplay. Developers at Team Meat are currently hard at work on Super Meat Boy Forever, the game’s runner-based sequel. So, it’s a great time to familiarize yourself with the original before the new release.
The most valuable members of the Steam audience, the ones that Epic wants to court, are the ones deeply invested in digital games. They have thousands of purchases on the Steam store. They were once fiercely loyal to the house that Gabe built. When looked through this lens, all this just makes sense. Giving away classic indie hits that most players already own is perfect to bring in the collectors. You can just see their mouths water at the chance of having another number go up over time. The fact that new PC gamers get to play these hits at no cost is just the cherry on top.
