Turns out offering a new PC game for free can command a massive amount of downloads.
More than 7.5 million players decided to claim a free copy of Total War Saga: Troy, according to the game’s developer Creative Assembly.
The strategy title launched on Thursday as a free download, exclusively on the Epic Games Store. However, the promotion only lasted for 24 hours, so gamers had to claim the copy quick or pay the standard $49.99 price.
"We were optimistic but we couldn't have predicted this level of excitement," Rob Bartholomew, Creative Assembly’s chief product officer, said in a statement. In contrast, the company’s previous title, Total War Saga: Three Kingdoms, merely sold more than 1 million units in the first week of its launch while being priced at $59.99.
The massive download count is also a big win for the Epic Games Store, which is competing against rival PC marketplace Steam. To attract new users, the Epic Games Store has used the controversial tactic of getting developers to release their games exclusively on the platform, denying Steam the initial chance to sell them.
For Total War Saga: Troy, Epic Games Stores is presumably paying Creative Assembly for every copy downloaded, which made the deal “too good to pass up,” the gaming developer wrote in a blog post back in June. Although the exact terms of the exclusivity deal have not been disclosed, the revenue will be used to develop the Total War Saga series, and further diversify the company's business, Creative Assembly said.
However, the developer has no plans to make future Total War Saga games exclusive to the Epic Games Store. “In principal we’d like future Total War titles to be simultaneously available, from launch day, on as many store fronts as possible,” Creative Assembly wrote in its June blog post.
According to IGN, Total War Saga: Troy is a pretty good PC strategy game, which retells the Trojan War. But if you’re a Steam user, the title won't be available on the platform until August 2021.
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