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This week's free Epic Games Store games have been revealed
Game Reviews

This week’s free Epic Games Store games have been revealed

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With the weekend finally in sight (we just need to make it through this year’s Summer Geoff Fest first), it’s all change on the Epic Games Store. A fresh set of freebies are now available to download and keep, and one of them is Arkane Studios’ ultra stylish Deathloop.


Epic’s latest free games – which replace last week’s offerings of Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands and Limbo – can now be claimed, and come in both PC and mobile flavours. You will, of course, need to be in the EU to access Epic’s mobile store on iOS, but it’s available worldwide via Android devices worldwide. But regardless of your point of entry, here’s what free right now:

  • Deathloop (PC)
  • Ogu and the Secret Forest (mobile)

Deathloop launch trailer.Watch on YouTube


Deathloop, if you’re unfamiliar, traps players on the 1960s-styled island of Blackreef, where they’ll need to assassinating eight key targets before they can out their escape. The trouble is, the entire place is court in a time loop, meaning everything needs to be done before the day resets. And worse, another assassin is on your trail. It’s part exploratory immersive sim, part chaotic shooter and was good enough to earn itself an Eurogamer Essential backing the day.


As for Epic’s other freebie this week, Ogu and the Secret Forest is a hand-drawn exploration adventure promising puzzles, mysteries, an more. “Befriend bouncy characters, explains the official blurb, “and defeat strange creatures to unravel the mystery of the charming world.”


Deathloop and Ogu and the Secret Forest are available to download and keep via the Epic Games Store right now and will remain so until next Thursday, 12th June. After that, Two Points Studios’ fantastic Theme Hospital spiritual successor Two Point Hospital, will take their place.



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Fortnite character flexing
Esports

Epic Games Store update lets developers keep more profits

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Epic Games has updated its revenue share program to grant developers a bigger share of any profits their games make.

The changes, which came into effect in June 2025, were first outlined in May and allow any developer releasing a game on the Epic Store to keep 100% of the revenue generated from that title until they reach a certain threshold.

From June, any studio that releases a game on the platform will be exempt from paying revenue share to Epic on the first $1 million it earns. Should that milestone be reached, the revenue split will revert to Epic’s “regular 88%/12%.”

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In addition to the above, the Fortnite and Unreal Engine creator launched a new ‘webshop’ initiative that allows developers to “offer players out-of-app purchases.” Epic described the service as a “cost-effective alternative to in-app purchases, where Apple, Google, and others charge exorbitant fees.”

“As an extra bonus, players spending in Epic Webshops will also accrue 5% Epic Rewards on all their purchases,” the announcement continued.

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Competitor Comparison

Steam, by far the largest storefront on PC for digital games, works on a different revenue share model. By default, Valve takes a 30% commission of any game sold on Steam.

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RemedyAlan Wake 2 is one of many games only available on PC through the Epic Game Store.

In 2018, the Half-Life creator introduced a tiered revenue share system that allows developers to retain more of a game’s revenue on the platform the more it makes, up to 80% for any title that makes more than $50 million.

Whether Epic’s new initiative will be enough to incentivize more developers to choose its storefront over Steam remains to be seen.

The former already plays host to numerous high-profile exclusives not available on the latter, including Remedy’s Alan Wake 2. Likewise, games such as Rocket League and Fall Guys, previously available on Steam, were subsequently removed after Epic purchased developers Psyonix and Mediatonic in 2019 and 2021, respectively.

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Here're this week's free Epic Games Store games
Game Reviews

Here’re this week’s free Epic Games Store games

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Another week is here, meaning another opportunity to expand your already dangerously swollen games library with yet more titles you won’t have time to play. And this week’s Epic Games Store refresh means users can currently grab two new freebies on PC, including Gearbox’s well-received Borderlands spin-off Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands.


Epic’s latest free games – which replace Sifu, Deliver At All Costs, and Gigapocalypse from last week – are available to download now in PC and mobile flavours. You’ll need to be in the EU to access Epic’s mobile store on iOS, of course, but it’s available via Android devices worldwide. Here’s what free right now:

  • Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands (PC)
  • Limbo (PC/mobile)

Here’s a lengthy look at Tiny Tina’s Borderlands.Watch on YouTube


That, then, gives you one surprisingly decent recent-ish release and a stone-cold classic from the ancient days of gaming yore. Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands is the former, taking the tabletop-inspired action of Borderlands 2’s much-loved DLC episode Tiny Tina’s Assault on Dragon Keep and building it out into a full-length game of first-person fantasy adventuring. We called it “endearing” despite its “hodgepodge design” in our 2022 review.


As for Limbo, it’s developer PlayDead’s hugely influential and deeply atmospheric side-scrolling puzzler in which a nameless boy traverses the titular black-and-white void in search of his sister. It’s packed with physics-based platforming, gruesome demises, arachnid horror, and forlorn vibes – not to mention one of gaming’s most memorable opening acts – and Eurogamer called it “a game that has very few humans, but a surplus of humanity” back in the day.

Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands and Limbo are available to download and keep via the Epic Games Store right now and will remain so until next Thursday, 5th June. After that, a fresh batch of (still mysterious) freebies will take their place.



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Target Leaves 20 Switch 2 Consoles In A Cage On Store Floor
Game Updates

Target Leaves 20 Switch 2 Consoles In A Cage On Store Floor

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Nintendo’s next big console, the Switch 2, is set to arrive on store shelves in just 10 days. So it’s not surprising to see photos showing dozens of Switch 2 consoles sitting in store warehouses and back areas. However, I wasn’t expecting a bunch of Switch 2 consoles to be sitting in a metal cage in the middle of a Target already.

Nintendo Switch 2 Could Launch With Almost No Reviews

The $450 Nintendo Switch 2 launches next week on June 5. After years of rumors and leaks and more rumors, it’s nearly time to actually buy one of these consoles and start playing around with $80 games like Mario Kart World. So, with launch right around the corner, the consoles themselves have to be making their way to stores in time for players to pick them up next week. Thanks to Redditors and retail employees, we now have photo evidence that Switch 2 consoles are indeed arriving at big-box stores. And apparently, at least one Target has left some Switch 2 consoles sitting in a cage in the middle of the store.

On May 26, YouTuber Jake Randall posted a photo that appears to show 20 or more Switch 2 consoles sitting inside a metal cage on wheels inside a Target. Based on the items near the cage, it seems this Target has left the consoles locked up in the electronics department between some phones and TVs.

This Target seems to be begging someone brave (and stupid) with wire cutters to show up and snag a few Switch 2 consoles. Or just push the whole cart, which is on wheels, out of the store. Throw on a red shirt, name badge, and khaki pants, and you might be able to pull off an Ocean’s 11-like heist.

Elsewhere, someone on Reddit allegedly shared some photos of Switch 2 consoles and games located in the back storage area of a Target. There are quite a few Switch 2 consoles back there, but I bet they’ll be gone in minutes on June 5. Another post showed Switch 2 consoles in a metal cage, similar to the one mentioned above, but was later deleted.

So yeah, Switch 2 consoles and games are now sitting inside retail stores like Target and Walmart. That means it’s very likely that a few of these have probably already been swiped by people or have “accidentally” gone missing. I wouldn’t be shocked if, in the next few days or so, we see some leaked footage of Switch 2 games running on consoles that slipped out the door before June 5.

.



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Here're this week's free Epic Store games
Game Reviews

Here’re this week’s free Epic Store games

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It’s a kung fu kind of week on the Epic Games Store, thanks its latest headline freebie: developer Sloclap’s acclaimed Sifu, which arrives alongside several other free titles for mobile and PC.


In total, Epic is giving away three free games across PC, Android, and iOS this week, and they’ll be sticking around for the next seven days. The full list looks like this:

  • Sifu (PC)
  • Deliver At All Costs (PC)
  • Gigapocalypse (PC/mobile)

Sifu’s launch trailer from back in the day.Watch on YouTube


Sifu’s the biggie, of course, even if it’s not the first time it’s been free on the Epic Games Store. For those unfamiliar, it takes players on a cinematic rampage of revenge through the streets of China. It’s a game of pulverising, cathartic martial arts action, with the twist being its protagonist gets steadily older each time they’re resurrected by their magical pendant upon death, despite the world around them staying the same.


“An elegant martial arts meditation on temporality and self-possession”, is what Eurogamer contributor Edwin Evans-Thirwell said in his Sifu review back in 2022, and given all the improvements it’s seen since then, it’s well worth the (free) entry fee.


Epic’s other two PC freebies this week come in the form of the newly released Deliver At All Costs – a game of bizarre delivery challenges across highly destructible environments, set somewhere in the 1950s – and Gigapocalypse. This latter title sees players customising their own giant monsters, Kaijū style, and then setting out on a mission of mass destruction developer Goody Gaweworks describes as “loud, punk, metal, anarchy and a lovely homage to the game and movie classics.”


Gigapocalypse is also currently free for iOS and Android via Epic’s mobile store, but you’ll need to be in the EU to access it on Apple devices.


All the above are available to download and keep via the Epic Games Store right now and will remain so until next Thursday, 29th May. After that, a fresh batch of (still mysterious) freebies will take their place.



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Tim Sweeney, CEO of Epic Games, looks at the camera.
Product Reviews

Epic CEO Tim Sweeney takes his victory lap as Fortnite returns to the app store after nearly 5 years: ‘Thanks to all of the folks who initially sided with Apple then later came around to the winning side’

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After a protracted legal battle, which is far from over, Apple has restored Fortnite to the US app store. Fortnite was removed in August 2020 after launching its own in-app monetisation system to bypass Apple’s in-app payment system and the 30% commission it charges.

This violated Apple’s terms, and led to a legal challenge from Epic Games, which accused Apple of operating the app store as a monopoly. Epic CEO Tim Sweeney was in an unsurprisingly ebullient mood at the news and thanked those who’d taken Epic’s side in the dispute which, as ever, he characterises as a fight for developer rights.

“Thanks to everyone who supported the effort to open up mobile competition and #FreeFortnite from the very beginning,” said Sweeney. “And thanks to all of the folks who initially sided with Apple then later came around to the winning side, supporting app developer rights and consumer rights.”


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Apple has made no comment.

“This is a clear win for Epic Games,” games business professor Joost van Dreunen told the BBC. “Epic has effectively forced open a door that Apple and others worked very hard to keep shut.

“The industry has long tiptoed around platform gatekeeping, but this moment signals a shift in the balance. Creators and publishers will now have more leverage to challenge entrenched distribution models.”

(Image credit: Epic Games)

Fortnite has been available on iOS in the EU since January. Apple is complying with the court order after it got absolutely slammed by judge Yvonne Rogers Gonzalez for an “obvious cover-up” in a ruling that left no room for doubt:

“This is an injunction, not a negotiation. There are no do-overs once a party willfully disregards a court order. Time is of the essence. The Court will not tolerate further delays. As previously ordered, Apple will not impede competition.”

That doesn’t mean this is the end: Apple is fiercely protective of its walled garden approach to the app store, which it argues is in consumers’ best interests, and of course has the money to fight this until the bitter end. And Epic Games may well be the David to Apple’s Goliath, but it happens to be an extremely deep-pocketed David with a pugnacious CEO that’s treating this fight like a holy calling.

“Apple lost the 2021 injunction appeal in 2024, and it’s final and unappealable,” says Sweeney. “Now there’s a new contempt of court decision, and Apple is seeking to stay and appeal it, but whatever happens, they’re still obliged to comply with the injunction and the law.”

Sweeney also put things in more Fortnite-y terms: “we back fam.”



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Xbox mobile game store launch "stymied" by Apple, says Microsoft
Game Updates

Xbox mobile game store launch “stymied” by Apple, says Microsoft

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Microsoft has sided with Epic in its feud against Apple, claiming the iPhone maker has “stymied” the company’s efforts to launch its Xbox mobile game store.

Back in May last year, Microsoft announced plans to release a new Xbox mobile game store. At this time, the company envisioned it to be ready for release by that summer. However, this did not happen.

Now, Microsoft has filed a legal brief in support of Epic Games as part of Apple’s appeal against a recent ruling, which follows a five-year legal battle between Epic and Apple, and has now resulted in Fortnite making its return to the App Store in the US. Here, Microsoft shed more light on the delay to its own mobile store.

The Death of Console Exclusives Is Inevitable and I Don’t Know How I Feel About It. Watch on YouTube

Microsoft stated it wishes to “offer consumers a workable solution by launching its own online store”, but efforts have been “stymied” by Apple and its strict App Store rules.

As shared by The Verge, this is how Microsoft explains its current situation:

“The district court’s injunction allows Apple to maintain its in-app exclusivity but at least should have enabled Microsoft to offer consumers a workable solution by launching its own online store – accessible via link-out – for in-app items to be purchased off-app and used in games or other apps. And that is what Microsoft wants to do. But even this solution has been stymied by Apple.

“Prior to the district court’s most recent order, Microsoft had been unable to implement linked-out payments (or even inform customers that alternative purchase methods exist) because of Apple’s new anti-steering policies that restrict Microsoft’s communication to users and impose an even higher economic cost to Microsoft than before the injunction.”

As noted by the publication, the recent court ruling does make it possible for Microsoft to launch its mobile store, but the company still wants to ensure Apple’s appeal against the ruling is unsuccessful, in order to avoid having to potentially remove its own store further down the line.

Microsoft notes in its filing that Apple “makes no argument that the technical or policy changes cannot be undone”, and that the company’s own “experience managing app stores confirms that Apple’s policies could be restored if Apple ultimately prevails on appeal”.

We will keep you abreast of any further developments regarding both Epic vs Apple, and Xbox’s mobile store.



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Fortnite is back on the US App Store, as Epic and Apple's legal battle royale over it concludes with a 55-year-old exec tweeting the word "fam"
Game Reviews

Fortnite is back on the US App Store, as Epic and Apple’s legal battle royale over it concludes with a 55-year-old exec tweeting the word “fam”

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Fortnite’s available on iOS in the US again, with Epic and Apple’s legal tussle over it seemingly having concluded, at least for now. Epic Games has at least managed to get one of the outcomes it wanted out of all the hoohah, and its CEO has reponded as only he could – by letting all know we’re his “fam”.

As we’ve recently chromicled, Epic CEO Tim Sweeney launched a fresh effort to get Apple to agree to re-admit the game to its App Store following a judge issuing a pretty damning verdict against the fruit company earlier this month. The suit was actually all about payment options and the cut Apple takes of them, in case you’ve forgotten in the five years it’s rumbled on for.

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Now, though, tensions have seemigly cooled, with the two sides having concluded their bickering over Fortnite’s return to the US App Store by filing a joint notice stating they have “resolved all issues”. That’s after Epic went back to the judge presiding over the case in response to the initial trouble it appeared to be having getting the game through Apple’s review process.

“Fortnite is BACK on the App Store in the U.S. on iPhones and iPads…and on the Epic Games Store and AltStore in the E.U,” Epic has since announced, “It’ll show up in Search soon!”

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“We back fam,” Epic CEO Tim Sweeney, a 55-year-old exec, tweeted in response to the game making its comeback. Am I being a bit harsh suggesting that it’s a bit embarrassing for someone firmly in the dad to grandad age range to be using the word fam in reference to them getting their way in some legal wranglings over who gets the cash people spend on games that turned into an argument over one game returning to one storefront? Maybe, but does have a very ‘How do you do, fellow kids’ feel to it.

Folks in the EU have been able to enjoy iOS Fortnite again for a little while now, but this is a big day for Apple users in the states who’ve been having to get their mobile Fortnite fix by listening to this song on repeat.

You can finally talk to the AI Darth Vader that’s led Epic and Llama Productions to have an unfair labour practice charge filed against them by SAG-AFTRA.



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Fortnite Is Back On The iOS App Store In The US After Nearly 5 Years
Game Updates

Fortnite Is Back On The iOS App Store In The US After Nearly 5 Years

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Fortnite, Epic Games’ mega-popular battle royale, is back on the iOS App Store in the U.S. nearly five years after being removed. Apple kicked Fortnite off the iOS App Store in 2020 after Epic added its own payment system, violating Apple’s at-the-time rules and preventing Apple from receiving kickback fees.

However, after the court in Epic’s case against the iPhone maker ruled in favor of Epic last month, preventing Apple from taking kickback fees from purchases made outside of apps in the U.S., the game has finally returned to the iOS App Store. It’s also available in the Epic Games Store and AltStore in the EU now.

You can see the game in the iOS App Store here. Players jumping in on mobile will find the battle royale in the middle of a shortened Star Wars season featuring characters like Jar-Jar Binks, Darth Jar-Jar, General Grievous, and more. Check out a trailer of the Star Wars action below:

 

Are you going to play Fortnite on your iPhone now that you can again? Let us know in the comments below!



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Fortnite is finally back on Apple's App Store ... sort of
Gaming Gear

Fortnite is finally back on Apple’s App Store … sort of

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After being unceremoniously booted off Apple’s App Store in 2020, Epic Games’ Fortnite is finally back.

Take note, though — it’ll only show up on iPhones and iPads for searches made within the U.S., at least for now. 

The return of Fortnite marks the end of a nearly five-year ban caused by Epic Games’ implementation of a direct payment system that bypassed Apple’s in-app purchase fees, an act that violated the tech giant’s App Store rules.

In a message posted on X on Tuesday, Epic Games’ founder and CEO Tim Sweeney said: “Thanks to everyone who supported the effort to open up mobile competition and #FreeFortnite from the very beginning.”

Sweeney added: “And thanks to all of the folks who initially sided with Apple then later came around to the winning side, supporting app developer rights and consumer rights.”

Epic Games has been battling away in the courts to get the popular title back on the App Store. It scored a big win at the end of last month when a U.S. court ruling forced Apple to allow apps to include external payment links without charging commissions on those transactions. 

After Epic Games recently submitted Fortnite for inclusion in the U.S. App Store, Apple has finally approved it, though not before some additional legal issues and delays just last week.

If you search for Fortnite on the App Store outside of the U.S., however, it still won’t show up as Apple continues to fight in other regions. But in the European Union, for example, the game continues to be accessible via alternative platforms such as the Epic Games Store and AltStore.

Fortnite was allowed back on the U.S. App Store after the recent court ruling found that Apple had violated a previous injunction in 2021 by continuing to restrict competition and prohibit alternative payment methods in its App Store. The judge ordered Apple to comply with the earlier order, forcing it to allow Fortnite’s return and to permit external payment links in apps.

Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers made several scathing comments about Apple in her ruling last month, criticizing the tech behemoth for deliberately undermining her 2021 injunction, saying that Apple aimed to “sustain a revenue stream worth billions in blatant violation of this court’s injunction.”

She even went so far as to refer an Apple executive to federal prosecutors for a criminal contempt investigation into their conduct in the case.

The Fortnite saga was essentially a landmark battle over digital marketplace power, one that shone a light on the struggle between app developers and platform owners like Apple in areas of control, competition, and the right to offer alternative payment options outside walled-garden ecosystems.





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