Epic Reels Me in with Free Subnautica

There’s been a bit of a debate lately with the Epic Games Store and Discord both elbowing into the digital game storefront, offering developers a larger cut of the profit than Steam. I’ve been side-eyeing the whole thing, interested but not really invested enough to take a position one way or another. 

Competition is good. But folks who already have a vast game library on Steam (and GoG… and Origin… and Switch…) may need a bit more persuading when it comes to downloading and purchasing from yet another launcher. A basic consensus is — Yes, but, I already have so many games on Steam, and I like my games all in one place. 

While I’m not really super loyal to any one launcher, I do have a bit of OCD when it comes to my backlog. I generally won’t by a newer game on GoG — not because I don’t like Galaxy or the sales aren’t good, but because I’ve regulated GoG to be the “Good Old Games” like the name says. So older games stay on that platform (aside from the occasional times a game overlaps with Steam, and I’m given the option to import it to GoG for DRM free), and newer games are on Steam.

That being said, I hadn’t even looked at the Epic launcher until this weekend when Syn promptly told me, “Subnautica is free on Epic.” 

Puzzled, I took a look. And sure enough, Subnautica is free on Epic. And it’s the first of apparently a rotating list of games that will be free to the launcher every two weeks

Now… Subnautica has been high on my Steam wishlist since 2015. For some reason or another, I just never bought it. I deliberated over it during a few Steam sales, but always chose another game over it. However, it was still on my “I’m very interested” list of games to get. 

So, now I have it. 

Well played, Epic Games. You got my foot in the door and your launcher on my computer. You also have my interest with rotating free games. 

Overall, the launcher worked just fine, and the download was fairly quick. I rather like the large-block design they opted to go with, featuring images and clips of the games. Steam always feels like it’s bombarding you with a ton of games in tiny boxes all over the place. Of course, this could be because Epic Games only has a small selection of games to choose from right now… but it’s still a pleasing design choice. 

Anyhow. What’s done is done. One less game on my Steam wishlist (I’ve been moving a lot of the indies over to my Switch wishlist this past year), and one free game on my PC. Now let’s just hope this launcher doesn’t get a backlog! 

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