Guy never bought a game on the Epic Store... Owns 200+

You can use this FOSS tool to automatically claim those games.
https://github.com/vogler/free-games-claimer
Some even work pretty well on Linux using the Heroic Launcher.
- What the hell, I had no idea such a tool existed... I do not intend to use it... But it is so cool regardless.
- That's actually pretty awesome, thanks!
- Does that still work? Last updated over a year ago and the free games are usually protected by some rather creative captchas.
  
  Never had to fill a captcha to get one of the free games
  
  Works for Prime and GOG. Epic sometimes works outside the docker container, but sometimes you still get a CAPTCHA still. There's an active discussion for fixing Epic inside a docker container.
  
  I used it on deck a few months ago
  
  lol, it was last updated 3 days ago
- .......are you Jesus?
- Thank you, shared with my friends who claim free games!

Initially I, too, claimed those, but ultimately I never ended up playing them and often I’d just end up buying them from steam instead. It’s funny how I’m willing to pay for something I can have for free, if it’s convenient and easy. So I didn’t claim them for very long, stopped a long time ago, and still just ignore it if a game I thirst for is available for free.
But that’s also a pretty dark prospect: Because I have my entire extensive library on steam, I’m kind of stuck with them. And while they are not abusing that presently, I’m fairly confident they will someday. And I, along with most everyone playing on pc, will be shit out of luck then.
It’s hard to diversify at this point, when I’m too far gone, and knowing changing or adding services will increase the complexity of using it all and keeping mental track of all the games and where they are.
Ugh.
- If Steam ever fucks over consumers I will pirate 100% of my games from that day on unless an indie company allows me to buy directly from them or through GoG.
  
  "If they make me angry, I will pirate, unless I don't."
- Because I have my entire extensive library on steam, I’m kind of stuck with them. And while they are not abusing that presently, I’m fairly confident they will someday.
  Yeah. I am confident that long term access to classic games is a torch only sufficiently carried by software pirates.
  Don't get me wrong, I adore things like the Atari 50th Anniversary collection, and what Evercade is doing with esoteric arcade titles. (And I delight in throwing money at them.)
  But only a small fraction of the greatest games get that kind of loving licensed treatment.
  For the rest of gaming history, software pirates are essential.
- There's programs that keep track of all your libraries... GOG Galaxy is one of them.
- While I don't disagree with anything you said, I think this comment descended into nihilism with alarming rapidity and I hope you're okay.
  
  Just enshittification fatigue. Every service being provided is hostile to us, so it makes us uneasy if one isn't.
- I too have over 200 games on Epic and have purchased non of them. This is none news. I buy my games on Steam and get my free games on Epic.
  
  And the once or twice a year Epic offers a free game I actually want to play, I enjoy it just as much as if I'd bought it elsewhere.
- Interesting thought: "Because I have my entire extensive library on steam, I’m kind of stuck with them. And while they are not abusing that presently, I’m fairly confident they will someday."
  Steam subscription $9.99 to access your library 😐 - man that feels wrong. But also can probably happen with the TOS noone reads
  
  It could happen, but if it does, it'll be decades down the line. Gaben has surrounded himself with true believers on purpose, in part to prevent that scenario.
  
  They certainly cant do that in places with actual consumer regulations, ToS and EULA mean nothing if they go against the law.
- In the past couple years, I've gone from buying exclusively from steam to prioritizing buying/rebuying single player games from GOG.
  Multiplayer games are still mostly through steam for convenience - same with VR games/games with VR mods.
  I just wish GOG Galaxy was better. Development seems kinda stagnant.
  I constantly have issues with the plugins to access other storefront libraries among other things.

That's literally the only reason I have Epic on my PC.
Free games every week.
- i went a couple years, pretty steady. now it's whenever i remember--and it's not been that often. only one during the winter deals.
  
  I have a reminder to check it on my Proton calendar every week, haha.
- You can just claim them on the webpage, no need to install the launcher.
  
  Sure, but if he wants to play them, he'll need the client. And it sounds like actually does want to play them.

I stopped claiming epic freebies when I realized I ended up buying the game on steam anyway.
- Just use Heroic launcher to play the free Epic games.
  
  I like Heroic but it doesn't always help. I spent hours yesterday trying to get the Hot Wheels game working and never did get it working in game mode, only desktop.
- Guess their free giveaways kinda work as a promotion then.
  I'm cheap, once I get the game free somewhere I take it off my Steam wishlist.

And never plays any of them.
The whole UX is just so bad
- Use Heroic. It’s GPL.
  
  If this added itch.io it'd be a fantastic filler for managing all the non-DRM off-Steam stuff.
  
  Or Playnite (MIT license) which aggregates all your libraries, not just Epic.
- Install, launch from the shortcut on the left side of the main screen. How much easier do you want them to make it?
- Don't need a complex UI to list some games for 5 seconds before I start playing them.

And thats exactly why Epic is untrustworthy. Its like a shady guy on the corner saying "Hey i will give you 500 bucks if you just do this easy little thing for me. Will be done right away no worries".
- Epic needs to pump their MAU stats to look like a legitimate platform. They know what's going on and are happy to pay.
  What I don't know is what they actually pay the publishers.
- That makes GOG untrustworthy as well, I guess, since I have 300 games on there, but never bought one.
  
  With GOG you can download all game files to your local storage and play them even if GOG goes to shit. Thats the difference. But yes Steam is the same as Epic in that regard.
- It's their marketing budget they're spending on that

Of course i know him that's me.

I'm pretty sure there are tons of people like that. It's the same for me.
- Yeah, that's pretty common. 200+ games and they don't even have payment info for me.
  
  If something is free, you're the product. They still have all your sweet data :)
  
  I'm honestly astonished they don't require payment info on file to collect them by this point - initially it's a way to bribe people into making an account, and now they could bribe a bunch of people into giving payment info and lowering one more barrier to actually buying from them.
- That's some dedication! Sometimes I wish I would do this more often. I start doing it, then it just fades away... Might be because some of the games don't apply to my taste, then I forget to keep up with it.
  
  I just subbed to !freegames@lemmy.ml.

Meh.. Piracy is still better 🏴‍☠️

My friend too have over 100 games. He never even play them but thankfully to him I don't have to make Epic Account.

I too have basically all of them. A few have caught my interest on PC. More than a few were a big pain to get working on Steam Deck even with Heroic Launcher.

So he didn't claim even half of them?

I bought Alan Wake 2, and glad I did. Accidentally decided to buy Red Dead redemption 2 on there because of a discount code making it much cheaper than steam a couple of years ago.
Huge mistake. I added it as a non-steam game so now to launch Red Dead redemption 2. I need to launch steam which then launches epic which then launches Rockstar Games launcher which then launches the game.
- You can skip one step and have just have many steps as if you had bought it on Steam, just launch it from the Epic launcher directly, ta-fucking-da
- Regretting a decision doesn't make it an accident.

Only 200? Try harder, noob.
(I'm at 410, and my Epic library is now three times the size of my Steam one, lol.)
- There's no way I'd catch up to my Steam library, there's like 1,200+ games in there at this point. 2nd biggest is GOG with ~300 but I've been using Steam since HL2

I have 0. Also interesting choice of words with “owns”.
- Not to mention "stick it to 'em" when he's doing exactly what Epic hoped for — engaging with their platform. It doesn't even matter if you're using Hero Launcher or not even playing it, it's a +1 in their system and that's what they care about.
- I mean if you're going to be like that, you don't own any software.
  
  exactly

This is the point though. They have beefed up my Epic Games library to the point where if I got banned from Steam, I would have a viable fallback.
That cannot be understated. It has a network effect and makes adopting it as a new platform versus a legacy one with two decades behind it, far easier to adjust to.
I love that at least someone is really trying other than MS with their poorly supported windows games store attempts.
- It's pretty easy to avoid being banned.
  
  No shit.
  You have to be a dick to even be remotely worried about this kind of thing.
  
  Absolutely. But if someone got you in one of those steam inventory scams or stole your access token, it sucks if you lose your entire game library and have all your eggs in one basket.
  So having a bunch "backed up" so to speak with Epic gives some peace of mind. VAC bans aren't common for most users, but they do make mistakes sometimes.
- It will always be weird to me that microsoft sells some games both on the microsoft store app and the xbox app, but other games exclusively through the xbox app.
  
  I'm thinking even farther back to their wretched Windows Live and then Games for Windows Live platform (now dead). MS is one of the biggest companies on earth and couldn't find a cohesive way to migrate that game ownership forward.

I have 10 free games from GOG too and without DRM!

I have 367 games in my Epic library. A few of them are f2p (e.g. Fortnite) but the majority are giveaways. The only game I've purchased on EGS is Alan Wake 2 due to exclusivity

Steam: 1325
GoG: 174
Epic: 406
Epic and GoG I've not bought a single thing from either of them, that's all free shit. For Steam, most of that is stuff that's been accumulated from Humble Bundles and just from having an account for ~20 years now. If I were to just quit my job and game full-time for the rest of my life, there's probably more games to play in my collection than I have years left to live.

Hmm. Let's see here...
Steam: 147
GOG: 174
Epic: 286
I've paid for about 2/3 of the Steam games, probably a quarter of the GOG ones, and maybe two or three of the Epic ones.

I got the tomb raider games and the screaming baby package delivery hideo Kojima game I can't remember the name of right now, and some stuff I've never played, and that's it. Worth it.
- Death Stranding. Good game, I bought it on steam on discount and it's great.
  
  It gave me a new way to look at things, like good art does.

Yup, I'm at 372 free games on epic, plus 3 bought ones, and 2 key activations. It's amazing.

I like Epic as much as anyone but why would you want your library filled with bloat?

Would this require using the games with the Epic launcher?

Yeah, but then you'd need the epic store/launcher, so...
- There is legendary which is command line and Heroic which is legendary with gui without telemetry from epic. Heroic also does gog but gog doesnt require a launcher anyways.
  Funfact, I have restricted work computer (windows). Certain websites are blocked and installing anything requires remote access by IT to enter admin password (they dont give admin rights temporarily). But it has pip installed.
  pip install legendary
  legendary install app-name
  legendary run app-name
  You can also create a shortcut and set the target as 'legendary run app-name'. I also have over 300 games I collected from epic. I don't condone gaming on work time, but it feels nice I can run something other than browser games during compiling and other downtime.

Never understood this shit, create a account and download a launcher to get a free thing that you don't own in a shitty platform, that's piracy with extra steps.
- There are always extra steps with piracy.
  But it's worth it.
- piracy
  This is legal.

I treat launchers like I treat social media. No new ones after around five years ago. So a pass from me. I have enough games.
- For the record, the Epic Game Store launched on December 6, 2018, and is over 6 years old now.

- Karma doesn't have any use on Lemmy. You can't even see the numbers any more.

I see the Valve bootlickers are out in force. How dare Epic fund indie games, what a bunch of bastards
- Eh paid exclusives are (one of) the reasons I'll never get a game from them. Fuck lil Tim
  
  You realize paid exclusives gives a guaranteed income to devs so they don't have to rely on the Steam gamble?
  Would you work for your employer if you had no guarantee you would get paid and you had to wait years for your potential first paycheque?
- Valve bootlickers
  It ain't like that, kiddo. I support other stores like GoG, too. I just refuse to ever use EGS unless they completely change.