If $'s was my only consideration, I'd pirate the game.
If my valid options are paying $25 to Valve, installing the Epic malware or dealing with pirate sites, I'm sending money to Valve.
this post was submitted on 18 Jan 2026
405 points (99.5% liked)
PC Gaming
13459 readers
514 users here now
For PC gaming news and discussion. PCGamingWiki
Rules:
- Be Respectful.
- No Spam or Porn.
- No Advertising.
- No Memes.
- No Tech Support.
- No questions about buying/building computers.
- No game suggestions, friend requests, surveys, or begging.
- No Let's Plays, streams, highlight reels/montages, random videos or shorts.
- No off-topic posts/comments, within reason.
- Use the original source, no clickbait titles, no duplicates. (Submissions should be from the original source if possible, unless from paywalled or non-english sources. If the title is clickbait or lacks context you may lightly edit the title.)
founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
Gabe Newell talked about this years ago.
“When you look at the fact that these people have $2000 PCs and they’re spending $50 a month or more on their Internet connections, clearly they’re willing to spend money.
So, from our point of view, what we saw more and more was that piracy is a result of bad service on the part of game companies...”
Gabe is one of the CEOs (if we can call him one?) of a gaming company, who truly understands gamers.
The greatest thing he's done is kept Valve a private company. He's not beholden to shareholders constantly demanding that the line go up at any cost.
Funny how he's still fantastically wealthy. It's almost like treating your employees well and providing a quality product to consumers is a viable path to success, and selling out isn't actually necessary to become rich.
Fuck shareholders. They are make no money out the ass. Why tether themselves to silicon valley douches or whatever.
load more comments
(12 replies)
load more comments
(1 replies)
malware? bro you can redeem the games on their website and use an alternate launcher to install them.
I refuse to play games on epic simply because I hate Epic and I won't go into detail. Rather pay Steam for the game any day.
That's fine and perfectly valid, Tim Sweeney is a dick, I just get perturbed if people call a fairly innocuous piece of software malware. Like if nothing else at least the devs are making a chunk of cash for these freebie giveaways. I even saw something the other day where a dev said they saw Steam sales double because of a free giveaway on Epic.
load more comments
(3 replies)
I don't get this. Probably because I don't grab those 'free' games from Epic. but... Why buy the game on steam if you already have it? Can you not play it on a steam deck through steam all the same?
Steam just works better. Their cloud save is reliable, and library organizing is actually a thing. I can see someone using the free Epic game as a sort of demo. Plus, if they really liked they game they may want to support the developer
The day Steam enshittifies will be a dark day for me.
I feel that's going to happen as soon as Gaben retires
Yeah an SSD just crapped out this weekend, reinstalled Linux and steam and was back to my save spot in my game. That alone saves so Mich time and effort of backup retrieval or playing 100 hours over again
Totally agree. Plus if there's DLC or mods you wanna mess with you often use the Steam game as a jumping off point
The article suggests that people are willing to pay to have all their games in one place.
A not-insignificant amount of people would rather buy a game they just got free than have to remember to open epic.
That sounds like such a massive failing on Epic's part to make an attractive launcher/platform.
It's really, really bad. Slow, janky, unintuitive layout, full of ads.
It launched in a terrible state and they took ages to make it even tolerable tbh. I used it anyway for free games but I get why a lot of people want nothing to do with it.
Tim Sweeney was too cheap to pay a dev to put in a shopping for two fucking years while in that same time he spent hundreds of millions of dollars on paid exclusives.
Tim Swiney is a fucking idiot, and the board should vote to remove him as CEO. He's been a liability for years.
I don't use it very much at all but the other day I saw a news item that they had introduced gifting games to other users. After how many years are they missing basic features? It's not like they need to put thought into it. All they need to do is build the same features as Steam. It's clearly not a budget issue with the millions they get from Fortnite and throw at exclusives
The worst part of Epic is that unlike GOG or Steam, if you can't connect to Epic servers. You can't play your game.
I would rather pay money than use Epic, not because I don't want another launcher but because it's Epic.
I am 100% one of those people. I try to check Epic weekly, to see if the current freebie is a game I'm undecided on. If so, I'll grab it to try for free but if I actually like the game I then add it to my Steam wishlist to purchase next time it's on sale.
Because its easier on Steam, at least for some (on Linux, or no hassle on Steam Deck in example) with more features if you care that too. Often the games are on sale on Steam too, so its not like paying full price. I think what is actually happening is, that people read about the game, find it interesting, the articles talk about it, people ask or want to try, because their friends tried maybe. And then they buy it on Steam, because they do not care giving a little money (me included), and don't want to mess around or use Epic.
Back then when when the GTX 970 was brand new, I got Witcher 3 on GOG for free buying the card. A little later I purchased it on Steam, because I wanted to have it on Steam. And because the updates were somehow broken on the old GOG launcher... But that's another story. The point is, lot of people prefer Steam over the other stores / launchers for multitudes of reasons and buying the game is not a big deal for most. Depending on the price off course.
I would assume the people buying it on Steam while it's free on Epic aren't bothering to claim it on Epic, so they don't "already have it"
Probaly coz people start talking about the game again after it was free and others jist buy the game on steam after reading the social chatter
People hate Epic* games.
You can, but it requires some setup in the desktop mode. I guess some people do not bother or don't know you can do that.
I don't think that's what's happening. It being free on Epic made people discuss it, then people saw that and purchased it on Steam. That's my assumption at least. I'm sure there's some people who just wanted it on the Steam launcher, but I'd bet on that being a minority.
It's been great advertising for sequels. I got 20XX free on Epic, then bought 30XX on Steam when it came out. Great games.
load more comments
(1 replies)
This is actually the whole idea, right? That having your game free on Epic is good advertising for the game.
It’s just surprising that it works!
The whole idea isn't the advertisement on itself. The idea for the publisher / developer is, to take the money from Epic, as it seems to be a lot. And for Epic this is obviously a reason to get users into the eco-system. That is the basic idea behind it. That games get free advertisement alongside, is a nice bonus effect.
Oh I see, I don’t think I realized Epic paid them for the free games but that seems obvious now that you said it!
Yeah. That's why demos are a thing.
Epic game store freebies are the demo..
Most of the time when I get a game for free I don't value it as much. There are some exceptions, I've gotten into a few giveaways like Dead Island 2 and Lord of the Rings Return to Moria.
But mostly I want gaming to be convenient. Steam is very convenient and has some really great sales. I recently found a space tower defense game I wanted to try and it was 0.79 on sale. Less than a dollar.
Which one? I love TD games
It's called Space Run. You have to make space ship runs and configure your ship for the best combination of speed, defense, and offense.
load more comments
(2 replies)
view more: next ›