Shenmue III kickstarts an epic 15-day giveaway season by Epic Games

Zohaib Ahmed — Fri, 17 Dec 2021 09:45:25 +0000

The Epic Games Store continues to reel in gamers through attractive offers, and most of all, its regular free games. Carrying on with the trend it has been following for the past couple of years or so, the store has kickstarted its year-end giveaways to commemorate the festive season and the first mystery game has now been revealed.

Shenmue 3 has been selected as the first offering and the game is quite the attention grabber given the solid title it is. In it, you play as Ryo Hazuki, an 18-year-old Japanese martial artist hellbent on avenging his father’s death. The game is a part of a series that was first launched back in 1999 and is of a story-driven, action-adventure genre.

It would not be wrong to say that Shenmue III has achieved cult status by now with many fans in the gaming community. The title manages to capture the essence of the original with all of its open-world environments interspersed with brawler battles and quick time events. But there are also a few improvements in certain aspects, such as its storyline.

A reliable tipster had earlier tipped that over the course of two weeks, Epic Games Store will be giving away 15 games for free. The giveaways have already started since yesterday and will likely be lasting until December 30th.

While it’s not known what the rest of the Epic Games Store mystery games will be, they will likely be titles similar in scope to Shenmue 3. Epic had first grabbed the limelight back in 2020 when it had offered GTA V for free, effectively pulling in around 7 million users to the store – although, it’s unlikely that a similar AAA title will be given away for free this season.

Epic Games Store to give away 15 games for free this Christmas season

Zohaib Ahmed — Mon, 13 Dec 2021 09:57:27 +0000

Epic Games Store will reportedly be giving away 15 games for free later this month, with one title being offered from December 16th every day until December 30th.

The info comes from Dealabs user Billbill-Kun (via Video Games Chronicle), who correctly leaked titles included in December’s Xbox Live Games with Gold along with PS Plus lineups for September, October, November, and December.

The user claims that the promotion will commence with a free copy of Shenmue 3 on December 16. An end-of-year sale will also be kicked off on the same day, running all the way until January 6, 2022. The first 14 games will reportedly be available for just one day each while the final 15th title will be available for an entire week.

Epic Games gave away 15 games last year and 12 free games in 2019 during the same period, meaning that this year’s giveaway will again be following the same format.

Currently, Godfall Challenger Edition and Prison Architect are available for free download and will be until the 16th of December.

According to a document released as part of the Epic and Apple legal battle, the former spend nearly $12 million securing free games between December 2018 and September 2019 for its regular giveaways. A total of 38 games were distributed during the nine-month period, each of which involved paying their developers a different ‘buyout price’.

While games like Subnautica, Mutant Year Zero, and the Batman Arkham Collection cost between $1 million to $1.5 million, there were also titles like Super Meat Boy that cost Epic lesser than $50,000.

Shenmue 3 Epic Games Archives - Gizmochina

Shenmue III kickstarts an epic 15-day giveaway season by Epic Games

Epic Games Store to give away 15 games for free this Christmas season