Way to stick it to em!
You can use this FOSS tool to automatically claim those games.
https://github.com/vogler/free-games-claimer
Some even work pretty well on Linux using the Heroic Launcher.
What the hell, I had no idea such a tool existed… I do not intend to use it… But it is so cool regardless.
That’s actually pretty awesome, thanks!
Does that still work? Last updated over a year ago and the free games are usually protected by some rather creative captchas.
Never had to fill a captcha to get one of the free games
lol, it was last updated 3 days ago
This is the point though. They have beefed up my Epic Games library to the point where if I got banned from Steam, I would have a viable fallback.
That cannot be understated. It has a network effect and makes adopting it as a new platform versus a legacy one with two decades behind it, far easier to adjust to.
I love that at least someone is really trying other than MS with their poorly supported windows games store attempts.
It’s pretty easy to avoid being banned.
No shit.
You have to be a dick to even be remotely worried about this kind of thing.I just like to own the things I own. And I’m more worried about someone hijacking my account because they want some bullshit inventory item or something than getting banned for something toxic. Account theft is sadly still pretty common.
You don’t own anything on Epic either. Epic is actually significantly worse for people losing their accounts and having no way of recovering them.
If for some reason I lost access to my Stream account I would just pirate copies of the games I’ve already purchased.
The same applies for Epic as well regarding piracy. Again it’s just a matter of diversifying.
If I had to rebuy 100% of my games, Id never adopt Epic at all. Atleast this way the library has something of value as an alternative without costing me a fortune.
Absolutely. But if someone got you in one of those steam inventory scams or stole your access token, it sucks if you lose your entire game library and have all your eggs in one basket.
So having a bunch “backed up” so to speak with Epic gives some peace of mind. VAC bans aren’t common for most users, but they do make mistakes sometimes.
It will always be weird to me that microsoft sells some games both on the microsoft store app and the xbox app, but other games exclusively through the xbox app.
I’m thinking even farther back to their wretched Windows Live and then Games for Windows Live platform (now dead). MS is one of the biggest companies on earth and couldn’t find a cohesive way to migrate that game ownership forward.
- Steam: 1325
- GoG: 174
- Epic: 406
Epic and GoG I’ve not bought a single thing from either of them, that’s all free shit. For Steam, most of that is stuff that’s been accumulated from Humble Bundles and just from having an account for ~20 years now. If I were to just quit my job and game full-time for the rest of my life, there’s probably more games to play in my collection than I have years left to live.
Hmm. Let’s see here…
Steam: 147
GOG: 174
Epic: 286I’ve paid for about 2/3 of the Steam games, probably a quarter of the GOG ones, and maybe two or three of the Epic ones.
Only 200? Try harder, noob.
(I’m at 410, and my Epic library is now three times the size of my Steam one, lol.)
There’s no way I’d catch up to my Steam library, there’s like 1,200+ games in there at this point. 2nd biggest is GOG with ~300 but I’ve been using Steam since HL2
Yup, I’m at 372 free games on epic, plus 3 bought ones, and 2 key activations. It’s amazing.
I too have basically all of them. A few have caught my interest on PC. More than a few were a big pain to get working on Steam Deck even with Heroic Launcher.
Initially I, too, claimed those, but ultimately I never ended up playing them and often I’d just end up buying them from steam instead. It’s funny how I’m willing to pay for something I can have for free, if it’s convenient and easy. So I didn’t claim them for very long, stopped a long time ago, and still just ignore it if a game I thirst for is available for free.
But that’s also a pretty dark prospect: Because I have my entire extensive library on steam, I’m kind of stuck with them. And while they are not abusing that presently, I’m fairly confident they will someday. And I, along with most everyone playing on pc, will be shit out of luck then.
It’s hard to diversify at this point, when I’m too far gone, and knowing changing or adding services will increase the complexity of using it all and keeping mental track of all the games and where they are.
Ugh.
If Steam ever fucks over consumers I will pirate 100% of my games from that day on unless an indie company allows me to buy directly from them or through GoG.
“If they make me angry, I will pirate, unless I don’t.”
I don’t like pirating indie games. Pirating from big developers though? I have no issues doing that.
While I don’t disagree with anything you said, I think this comment descended into nihilism with alarming rapidity and I hope you’re okay.
Just enshittification fatigue. Every service being provided is hostile to us, so it makes us uneasy if one isn’t.
Because I have my entire extensive library on steam, I’m kind of stuck with them. And while they are not abusing that presently, I’m fairly confident they will someday.
Yeah. I am confident that long term access to classic games is a torch only sufficiently carried by software pirates.
Don’t get me wrong, I adore things like the Atari 50th Anniversary collection, and what Evercade is doing with esoteric arcade titles. (And I delight in throwing money at them.)
But only a small fraction of the greatest games get that kind of loving licensed treatment.
For the rest of gaming history, software pirates are essential.
Interesting thought: “Because I have my entire extensive library on steam, I’m kind of stuck with them. And while they are not abusing that presently, I’m fairly confident they will someday.”
Steam subscription $9.99 to access your library 😐 - man that feels wrong. But also can probably happen with the TOS noone reads
It could happen, but if it does, it’ll be decades down the line. Gaben has surrounded himself with true believers on purpose, in part to prevent that scenario.
In the past couple years, I’ve gone from buying exclusively from steam to prioritizing buying/rebuying single player games from GOG.
Multiplayer games are still mostly through steam for convenience - same with VR games/games with VR mods.
I just wish GOG Galaxy was better. Development seems kinda stagnant.
I constantly have issues with the plugins to access other storefront libraries among other things.
I too have over 200 games on Epic and have purchased non of them. This is none news. I buy my games on Steam and get my free games on Epic.
And the once or twice a year Epic offers a free game I actually want to play, I enjoy it just as much as if I’d bought it elsewhere.
There’s programs that keep track of all your libraries… GOG Galaxy is one of them.
Of course i know him that’s me.
I stopped claiming epic freebies when I realized I ended up buying the game on steam anyway.
Meh… Piracy is still better 🏴☠️
Yeah, but then you’d need the epic store/launcher, so…
There is legendary which is command line and Heroic which is legendary with gui without telemetry from epic. Heroic also does gog but gog doesnt require a launcher anyways.
Funfact, I have restricted work computer (windows). Certain websites are blocked and installing anything requires remote access by IT to enter admin password (they dont give admin rights temporarily). But it has pip installed.
- pip install legendary
- legendary install app-name
- legendary run app-name
You can also create a shortcut and set the target as ‘legendary run app-name’. I also have over 300 games I collected from epic. I don’t condone gaming on work time, but it feels nice I can run something other than browser games during compiling and other downtime.
And thats exactly why Epic is untrustworthy. Its like a shady guy on the corner saying “Hey i will give you 500 bucks if you just do this easy little thing for me. Will be done right away no worries”.
Epic needs to pump their MAU stats to look like a legitimate platform. They know what’s going on and are happy to pay.
What I don’t know is what they actually pay the publishers.
That makes GOG untrustworthy as well, I guess, since I have 300 games on there, but never bought one.
With GOG you can download all game files to your local storage and play them even if GOG goes to shit. Thats the difference. But yes Steam is the same as Epic in that regard.
You commented on a post about a dude who never bought from Epic but still has 200 games there, that Epic is shady for doing this.
I said by that logic, GOG is shady as well, because they also give away tons of games.
Just saying that labeling them as untrustworthy, just because they give away games, doesn’t make sense. Steam was never mentioned, or the business practices of different storefronts.
Epic doesnt give games away. They give temporary licenses to games away which they can always take from you. Epic uses this to get people onto and dependent on their platform so they can then extract money from them. GOG has no way to extract money from people like that and has no leverage against their customers.
I have 0. Also interesting choice of words with “owns”.
Not to mention “stick it to 'em” when he’s doing exactly what Epic hoped for — engaging with their platform. It doesn’t even matter if you’re using Hero Launcher or not even playing it, it’s a +1 in their system and that’s what they care about.
I mean if you’re going to be like that, you don’t own any software.
exactly
I got the tomb raider games and the screaming baby package delivery hideo Kojima game I can’t remember the name of right now, and some stuff I’ve never played, and that’s it. Worth it.
