Shadow of the Tomb Raider | Image: Square Enix
If youâre a PC gamer who has not already done so, you may want to open up the Epic Games Store and snag the final installment for its 15 Days of Free Games promotion. Itâs especially worth your time because instead of gifting users a single title like Shenmue III or Control, the Epic Games Store is ready to cough up the entire rebooted Tomb Raider trilogy: Tomb Raider Game of the Year Edition, Rise of the Tomb Raider 20 Year Celebration, and Shadow of the Tomb Raider Definitive Edition.
Trying to add the titles to your digital library earlier today was harder than it shouldâve been, as continued server problems, following yesterdayâs Fortnite outage, slowed down the store. Itâs unclear if Epic Games is still having issues or if people just really wanted these games, but according to its status page, everything should be running smoothly now.
Letâs go out with a bang.
For the final day of 15 Days of Free Games, weâre giving you⌠not one, not two, but three (3!!) Tomb Raider titles! https://t.co/1bzgT8Rlyy pic.twitter.com/G83gfAhncb
â Epic Games Store (@EpicGames) December 30, 2021
If youâre wondering how Epic Games can afford to just give away games, check out the documents that surfaced earlier this year as a part of its legal battle with Apple over the App Store. As Tim Sweeney confirmed on Twitter, the company negotiates a flat fee for the giveaways instead of per copy, so suddenly billions of dollars worth of software become much cheaper.
We donât know how much the company is paying Square Enix to give away the Tomb Raider games, but an Arkham Trilogy giveaway in 2019 only cost the company $1.5 million â a relative drop in the bucket compared to the money Fortnite brings in, plus the value of adding more customers to its games store.
They will be available to add for free until January 6th at 11AM ET, so you have plenty of time to get them â unless you forget and never actually do it, so itâs probably a better idea to just click that âGetâ button now.
Thatâs right! And it has proven to be a fantastic success in reaching gamers with great games and a fantastic investment into growing the business! https://t.co/MN8OjM5FEP pic.twitter.com/Yl0LmCZjKB
â Tim Sweeney (@TimSweeneyEpic) April 10, 2021