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Epic Store's Free Games End Up Selling Better After The Giveaways, Says Tim Sweeney

Having a game featured for free on the Epic Games Store has helped sales after the fact, according to Epic's founder.

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The Epic Games Store has continued giving out free games weekly since its inception, and Epic Games founder Tim Sweeney says game developers are seeing better sales after they've put their game up on the store for free.

In an interview as part of our Play for All coverage, Sweeney explains that giving players the choice to try a genre for free has led to many recognizing their love for it, and inspired additional sales as a result. He doesn't mention specifics, but does say that developers have noticed an increase in sales across other platforms and stores after their games have been included as part of the free initiative.

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"You're not going to go out and buy if you're not into games like Satisfactory, you're not going to go out and spend money to buy Satisfactory but if you get it for free you realize it's an awesome game," Sweeney explains in the interview, which you can watch above.

"People have discovered a lot of great games that way. It's been a benefit for game developers. Most developers who launch their games for free on the store found that their sales on Steam and on console platforms actually increased after they went free on Epic because of increased awareness and so it's been a really positive thing and it's brought tens of millions of new users into the Epic Games ecosystem and that's been a wonderful thing for the company."

Sweeney also explains in the interview that Epic wants to bring the Epic Games Store to iOS and Android in the future, and the wonderful story of how his now-infamous plasma ball ended up in the middle of his office floor. If you want that exact office for your digital meetings, you can grab it here too.

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