Civilization VI is this week’s Epic Games Store freebie

By Jen Diaz May 21, 2020

Sid Meier’s Civilization VI is the latest free game available on the Epic Games Store. The game normally carries a $60 price tag, but through May 28, you can own the PC version for free on the Epic Games Store. This isn’t a trial, either — the game will remain a playable part of your library forever.

Civilization VI released in 2016 but continues to evolve, and The New Frontier Pass, announced earlier this week, promises to keep things fresh for a while. This new season pass offers bi-monthly content updates with new civilizations, leaders, and game modes. The first of these, the Maya & Gran Colombia Pack, is out now, with new packs releasing every other month through March 2021.

Four years ago, Digital Trends heralded Civ VI as “one of the best strategy games of all time,” and not many others have come close in the interim years. At release, it broke records as the fastest-selling game in the series, shipping more than a million copies in its first few weeks. And it’s kept that momentum up quite well, thanks to two major expansions and a handful of smaller DLCs. These updates brought the balance and polish that many in the Civilization community felt was lacking at release.

The new scenarios, features, and mechanics add new depth to an already strong foundation, leading Civ VI to surge in popularity over recent weeks. Nearly twice as many people have played it over the last 30 days compared to this time last spring, according to steamcharts.org. In April, 70,000 Steam players spent time in Civilization VI, compared to the 85,000 who played in the game’s first month.

This is the second big-name title in as many weeks offered for free through the Epic Games Store following Grand Theft Auto V. The overwhelming popularity of last week’s GTA V offer brought the Epic Games Store’s servers to its knees for several hours.

If turn-based strategy isn’t your cup of tea, the Epic Games Mega Sale has plenty of other options. It’s offering 75% off dozens of other titles, including a $10 coupon off any game or add-on over $15. The sale covers a wide variety of games, including Red Dead Redemption II, Borderlands 3, Farming Simulator 19, and Uno.

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Gaming

Grand Theft Auto VI didn’t need The Game Awards

Woman at a rooftop pool party.

This past week was one of the most crowded for video game news because of two events: The Game Awards 2023 and the Grand Theft Auto VI trailer. Initially, I was surprised the two weren’t one and the same. GTA 6’s reveal is the most significant game announcement of the year, after all, and Geoff Keighley always seems to be searching for big Elden Ring- or GTA 6-level moments for his show, even if he doesn’t always get those. After taking a step back and looking at how each performed independently of the other, I think both were better off staying separate.
Taking center stage
When it first teased the Grand Theft Auto VI trailer in November, it said the trailer would be released “in early December.” Like many others, I assumed that this meant it would show up at The Game Awards because that tends to be the case when game developers tease an announcement for that window. For example, Focus Entertainment also said a release date for Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 would be confirmed “in early December,” and that ended up happening during The Game Awards.

Ultimately, Rockstar had the GTA 6 trailer slated to release on the morning of December 5, but ended up releasing it on the night of December 4 due to a leak. The game would not go on to make any marketing-related appearance at The Game Awards 2023 on December 7. Although GTA 6 skirted The Game Awards, was leaked, and got posted earlier than intended, it was still a groundbreaking reveal.

Gaming

The impending Xbox 360 Store closure makes me wary of Game Pass’ future

I'm an avid Xbox Game Pass user, often trying almost every game that comes to the service and closely following the games coming to and leaving the service each month. Following some recent announcements by Microsoft, though, I've been thinking a lot more about something else about Xbox Game Pass and Microsoft's current digital-focused Xbox storefronts and ecosystem: what happens when it all goes away?
Microsoft announced last week that it will shut down the Xbox 360 Store in July 2024. After that day, it will be impossible to buy games, movies, or TV shows digitally on the Xbox 360 store; it's just like what happened with the 3DS and Wii U eShops earlier this year. That announcement also came not long after Microsoft revealed it would replace Xbox Live Gold with Xbox Game Pass Core in September. With these changes, Microsoft is stamping out any support or focus its giving to the Xbox 360's era as a platform. As someone who grew up mostly playing Xbox 360, seeing these things I grew up with go away is saddening. It's also making me think about the day this will eventually happen to Xbox Game Pass or the store on the Xbox One and Xbox Series X/S.

Frankly, I'm not as concerned that Microsoft is going to do it anytime soon. Microsoft has given no indication that it plans on abandoning Xbox Game Pass. It's a really successful subscription service heavily integrated into all of its current platforms, there are titles confirmed to launch day one on it into 2024 and beyond, and Xbox initiatives like Play Anywhere and Smart Delivery ensure that at least some version of most Xbox games are available on other platforms. While I expect it to be the primary part of Microsoft's gaming strategy over the next decade, as someone who mainly played Xbox 360 growing up and is now seeing its storefront and subscription service go away, I'm now thinking about what the end of the Game Pass era will look like.
These recent actions have indicated that Microsoft will eventually be willing to do the same to the storefronts and subscription service we're currently using. Even after the backlash PlayStation, Nintendo, and Xbox all faced from these announcements, Sony is the only one that has backtracked its plans to close down older digital storefronts, at least temporarily. Xbox Game Pass is the current hotness for Microsoft, but what happens come the day it isn't? A lot more games are digital-only or tied to a subscription this generation, and those are the games most at risk of being lost if a digital storefront shuts down.
What happens to the Xbox console versions of games like Pentiment or Immortality on Xbox once Xbox Game Pass and the current iteration of the Xbox Store are shuttered? Yes, they can be played on PC, but the Xbox console version will be lost forever. And right now, it doesn't seem like Microsoft has any publicly shared plans to permanently preserve those experiences, nor has it done so for all of the Xbox 360 digital games going away. Game preservation is a significant problem facing the game industry, and Microsoft has just made a move showing that it's on the wrong side of that effort.

Gaming

Don’t miss this free Epic Games Store gem from the creators of Fall Guys

Honor and Miss Terri stand back to back in Murder by Numbers.

If you're looking for a new game to fill your weekend (but don't want to drop a ton of cash on Exoprimal or Pikmin 4), Epic Games Store's latest freebie is a must-download. Welcome to the puzzling world of Murder By Numbers.

Developed by Fall Guys studio Mediatonic, Murder By Numbers is a unique blend of visual novel and traditional puzzle game. And all of that is wrapped up in a witty 90s murder mystery story full of colorful characters, talking robots, and absolute bops.