The exclusivity clearly didn’t bring any boost to the Epic Games Store. In fact, Epic Games founder and CEO Tim Sweeney said that most investments aren’t even smart investments. Instead, what works for the company is giving away free games.
PC Gamer reports that Sweeney disclosed this strategic review to reporters earlier this week when discussing user acquisition issues for the Epic Games Store. “We spend a lot of money on exclusive products,” Sweeney said. “Some of these programs work really well. A lot of them are not good investments, but the free-to-play program is amazing.”
Sweeney did not elaborate on which “few” were successful. Arguably the latest Epic Games Store exclusive is Alan Wake 2, which developer Remedy said earlier this year had yet to recoup its development costs. Alan Wake 2 was named one of the 10 best games of 2023 by GameSpot.
Alan Wake II story and ending explained
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Meanwhile, Sweeney appears to be fully supportive of the Epic Games Store’s free-to-play initiative. “Giving away free games as a strategy may seem counterintuitive, but companies spend money to attract users into the game,” the Fortnite boss explained. “The cost of acquiring users through Facebook ads or Google search ads is about a quarter, we can pay game developers a lot of money for the right to distribute games to our users, and we can attract new users very economically. Head to the Epic Games Store for the price.
The Epic Games Store is currently giving away Death Tactics: Afterlife and World of Warships, with Callisto Protocol coming soon. Last year, Epic offered 86 free games and 586 million games were claimed by store users. In 2022, Epic Games Store customers received nearly 700 million free games.
