Free games are free games, IMO it would be silly to reject them just because Epic bad. I can install them on my Steam Deck through Heroic without even having to use the official launcher.
Yes. I like free games, and while I won't pay Epic a cent, I'm not so self-righteous to look a gift horse in the mouth.
They'll learn I claim every free game, and they'll learn what I install and play, but whatever they learn from that will be wasted effort, since it will never turn into a sale.
Because those folks were not duped at all.
Better to look behind it as well.
I will vote with my wallet, my data and my decision that I don't support this giveaway behaviour to increase usage data so they can present great data for their investors.
Hell yeah. I'll never buy an Epic game but I'll take the free ones all day. And they've had some bangers this week. And Guardians of the Galaxy was an amazing game (with a handful of glitches) I was happy to pay $30 for. For free it's a no-brainer.
Run them all through heroic Launcher so you don't have to install the shitty Epic launcher spyware.
If they had stuck with being a cheaper alternativ for Indie Devs and maybe followed it up with even more favorable deals for using their Engine and being on their platform, I wouldn't have had a problem with them. It would have been a good strategy to compete with Valve.
Like GOG did with retro games. Tapping into something Valve didn't focus on.
But they didn't. It all came down to a shitty attempt at Storefront Exclusivity. And that isn't competition, that is just removing customer choice.
I've heard genuinely good things about the Guardians game. Ghostrunner is also quite fun for scratching that high-paced action in bursts, although I will say each level is a bit like a puzzle with semi-limited solutions, but it does feel really good when you complete a run.
Each is definitely of its genre though, if you're a Civ/Factorio type I can see these not being for you, for example.