Epic Games Store Is Now Live, Offers a Free Game Every Two Weeks

Earlier this week, Epic Games announced that they were taking Steam head on with their own online PC gaming client. Offering third party titles, special incentives for developers, and a host of exclusive features, the Epic Games Store is now live for all to try out. Even better? It also wants to give gamers a free game every two weeks!

The new store is just that: new. The library is currently in progress, so it's a bit slim at the moment but that will soon change. Right now, it offers games like Ashen and the newly revealed Hades, but it will also offer upcoming titles such as World War Z and Outerlands.

As far as the free games go, the first one is Subnautica from December 14-27, with Super Meat Boy being the next freebie from December 28 - January 10. You can see what else the ambitious new client has to offer in the video above, as well as the official press statement below.

The Unreal Engine website updated their blog with the big announcement with a move that could shake up the PC community immensely. "For the past five years, we've been building tools enabling Epic to bring our games directly to players," read the latest reveal. "We built the Epic Games launcher on PC and Mac featuring Fortnite and Unreal Engine; we built a worldwide digital commerce ecosystem supporting dozens of payment methods; and we gained great economies of scale thanks to Fortnite's growth."

They mentioned that they had two visions for this undertaking: a store that offered "fair" economics as well as a direct relationship with their player base. Since Epic Games is already known for being incredibly hands-on with their gaming community, it's not a shock to see that be a priority for the studio.

The latest announcement also shared some important notes about how this will work, including what it means for developers. According to Epic Games, "Developers receive 88% of revenue. There are no tiers or thresholds. Epic takes 12%. And if you're using Unreal Engine, Epic will cover the 5% engine royalty for sales on the Epic Games store, out of Epic's 12%."

Players will also be able to subscribe to a game's newsfeed automatically following their purchase, giving them a front-row seat to any new changes.

But it wasn't just Fortnite that blew up in popularity. The streaming world has seen a massive boom in the past few years and the new client wants to help with that as well. "YouTube content creators, Twitch streamers, bloggers, and others are at the leading edge of game discovery. The 10,000-strong Epic Games Support-A-Creator program helps you reach creators, so they can help you reach players. If you opt to participate, creators who refer players to buy your game will receive a share of the revenue that you set (tracked by code or affiliate marketing link). To jumpstart the creator economy, Epic will cover the first 5% of creator revenue-sharing for the first 24 months."

Thoughts on Epic Games launching their own PC gaming client? Join in on the conversation in the comment section below, or hit me up over on Twitter @DirtyEffinHippy.