Epic Games’ Tim Sweeney has admitted that while the free game giveaways were good for business, many of the exclusive deals were “not good investments.”
In a recent press conference, Epic CEO Sweeney spoke openly about the Epic Games Store’s user acquisition methods, but acknowledged that while “some (of its EGS exclusives) worked very well,” many of them “were not good investments.”
Conversely, Sweeney said the company’s free games program is “just magical” and “very economical,” even if the idea of giving away the games may seem “counterintuitive” at first.
“Giving away games for free seems like a counterintuitive strategy, but companies spend money to attract users to games,” Sweeney said, according to a transcript from PC Gamer.
“For about a quarter of the price of acquiring users through Facebook or Google search ads, we can pay a game developer a lot of money for the right to distribute their game to our users, and we can bring new users to the Epic Games Store at a very reasonable price.
“You might think this would hurt the sales prospects of games on the Epic Game Store, but developers who give away free games actually see an increase in sales of their paid games on the store, simply because their free game increases awareness,” Sweeney added.
“And it’s so far-reaching that when developers are close to releasing a new game, they often want to partner with us to release a timed free game just to get users’ attention for their next game. That’s a great thing. And it’s by far the most cost-effective aspect of the Epic Games Store.”
The Epic Games Store launched on mobile last Friday (August 16).
Fortnite announced that it will bring its gaming marketplace to Android globally and iOS in the European Union. This year’s Digital Markets Act requires Apple to allow third-party stores in its mobile ecosystem.
