Steam is the world’s biggest online gaming marketplace, but that doesn’t mean you always need to open your wallet. There are plenty of opportunities to get games for free on Steam, you just need to know where to look and have patience.
Free-to-play games, often abbreviated as F2P, have been designed around a “freemium” business model. The game was designed with a free price point in mind, with publishers looking to capitalize on it using in-app purchases.
These purchases often take the form of premium currencies used to buy items (often cosmetic) from the in-game shop, so-called loot boxes, or a battle pass system that rewards players with items as they progress through a season of events. While there is no need to pay any money to play a free-to-play game, players may feel pressured to do so.
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The free-to-play model has been criticized for its at-times predatory nature, where games target certain types of gamers and use fear of missing out to drum up sales. There are research papers and countless thinkpieces discussing this issue in-depth., Keep in mind that even if a game is free to play, it was designed with a profit motive in mind.
That’s not to say there aren’t some compelling free-to-play experiences to be had out there. Some examples of free-to-play games on Steam that you might want to check out include:
You’ll find these games have their own category on Steam. Simply open the launcher then hover “Categories” then select “Free to Play” from the menu that appears.
Many games are available on Steam for free, without the kinds of in-app purchases you’d associate with free-to-play experiences. Often these are also designed with a profit motive in mind, with many “base” games released for free in the hope that
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