Free download games for PC
Until a few years ago, to buy a new video game it was necessary to physically go to a store or order one from some store that sold by mail order, with delivery times that were certainly not what we are used to today. And to play a game for free? Well, at most you could aim for the classic demos sold with the magazines on newsstands, or you had to “industriate” with the exchange of used games.
Since then, a lot of water has passed under the bridge and the spread of the Internet has made the possibility of choice for us players wider than ever, who now can count on games distributed digitally, even at no cost, and even services. game streaming. The same goes for developers, who have found many new ways to monetize without necessarily making users pay an “entrance ticket”.
In this context, it is interesting to deepen the world of free download games for PC. I am therefore going to analyze the issue by examining a little of all the main digital stores from which it is possible to find titles that do not require you to pay anything to be played on the computer, as well as obviously mentioning specific productions that could be right for you. . If you are interested in this – and I think so, since you are reading this article -, below you can find all the relevant information. Enjoy your reading and have fun!
Index
- Free download games for PC
- Steam
- Epic Games Store
- Other digital stores
- Complete free download games for PC in Italian
Free download games for PC
Before providing you with some specific advice on free download games for PC, I think it might interest you to know which are the main “sources” that fans usually consult to find what is right for them, that is the main stores that allow downloads digital video games.
Steam
The most popular digital store for PC video games is Steam, owned by Valve Corporation (yes, the very company behind hits like Half-Life, Dota 2, Portal, and Counter-Strike: Global Offensive).
The latter includes such a large number of titles that it will be essentially impossible not to find something that is right for you. In fact, on Steam there are not only “triple A” productions with a stellar budget, but also many video games made by smaller companies.
I’m not just referring to independent video games that have attracted particular attention, but also to titles that have only been played by a very small number of people. Put simply, everything can be found within Valve’s digital store.
I give you a detail related to the “behind the scenes”: once they have completed their video game following all the appropriate guidelines (perhaps using graphics engines such as Unity or Unreal Engine ), developers can release their video game on Steam by paying a publication fee (which is typically $ 100 and is reimbursed after the first $ 1,000 in sales).
The fact that you have to pay tries to act as a “filter” for the publication of titles of poor quality, as one person will probably think twice before publishing an invalid title on Steam. However, clearly not all video games in the digital store are “perfect”, so it will be up to you to make a selection.
In any case, you understand that in this context countless free titles have been published on Steam , which try to monetize in an alternative way (micro-transactions) or simply represent productions without too many pretensions made for passion (or again, demos or complete chapters published by large and small software houses to “attract attention”).
In short, both the main productions and the “undergrowth” of indie titles on Steam could definitely be for you, among other things, potentially allowing you to also find video games that are generally difficult to find on other platforms (indie developers generally prefer for “convenience” the creation of a PC version, then only eventually passing to the console world).
If you’ve never used Valve’s digital store, you can refer to my tutorials on how to download Steam and how Steam works .
Finding free titles is a breeze: once you open the program, log in and press the SHOP tab (or log in to the official website via browser ), just click on the Free-to-Play item , present on the left, to access a page that includes a large number of possibilities.
All the titles in this section are in fact free . Sure, they could have micro-transactions inside them and DLCs could be offered to you , but the “entrance ticket” is not there. Among other things, you can take a look, by clicking on the appropriate boxes, at Popular news , Best sellers , Popular products and New arrivals .
I also remind you that you can use the labels on the right to filter the free titles available, as well as press the buttons View all new releases , View all best sellers , View all the most popular ever and Discover upcoming releases to learn more about the wide possibilities offered by Steam. Perfect, now you know how to find a good number of free titles that might be right for you.
In any case, you have surely noticed that there are two different terms: Free To Play and Free . In the first case these are titles that can be played for free but which have micro-transactions or other monetization methods , while in the second case it means that the game is free in its entirety (generally these are “minor” titles, perhaps made with a lot of passion).
For the rest, you should know that sometimes even well-known developers decide to make some titles free on Steam in the context of promotional initiatives with a limited duration . Generally video games made free in this way are not really new releases, but they certainly could be for you.
However, there is no “safe” way to find these free titles, other than to continually inform yourself about the new promotional initiatives launched on Steam and redeem the video games for free at the right time. In this context, it might therefore be of interest to keep track of some newspaper that usually deals with video games on a daily basis. Alternatively, there is a community group called Free Game Finders, where many users “gather” to find and report all the new free titles available.
In addition to this, you should know that Steam often gives away access to some games for a limited time in the context of the weekend. The titles that fall into this type of initiative will not remain yours forever, but you can play them until the expiry of the period involved. Put simply, this is a kind of “free trial”, which may still interest you.
To “find” this type of possibility, generally just open Steam and take a look at the SPECIAL OFFERS section on the main page. In any case, if there is any game offered for free for a limited time, you will surely find it put “in plain sight”. For the rest, if you want to learn more about the subject in general, you can refer to my tutorial on how to get free games on Steam.
Epic Games Store
A relatively recent major digital store is the Epic Games Store , built by the software house behind titles such as Fortnite and Gears of War (as well as the Unreal Engine ).
Launched in December 2018, this digital store is grinding important numbers and “stealing” market shares from the “historic” Steam , so much so that according to many it is the first “serious rival” for the Valve platform.
Clearly, trying to “unseat” a giant like Steam requires an “aggressive” strategy, aimed at grabbing as many users as possible. For this reason, Epic Games has decided to give away almost constantly a good number of titles , in some cases even “triple AAA”.
In fact, just start the Epic Games Launcher , log in , press the Shop item (on the left), scroll down and take a look at the Free Games section . The latter generally includes one or more free titles to download, as well as information on other games that you can get later without shelling out a penny.
In addition to this, within the Epic Games digital store there are also Free To Play and similar titles . To take a look at the latter, I suggest you press on the Explore item (present at the top in the Shop section ) and press on the Free item , which peeps out to the right.
By doing so, you can “browse” the list of titles on the Epic Games Store which you can play without spending anything . In short, even this digital store can be a good “source” for your gaming sessions.
For the rest, if you have doubts about the procedure to redeem the titles , you may want to take a look at my guides on how to create an Epic Games account and how to download Fortnite (one of the flagship titles of the digital store). I remind you that you can explore the titles made available by the Epic Games Store also through the appropriate official portal .
Other digital stores
Of course, in addition to the ones mentioned above, there are also other popular digital stores that you can consider to download games to your computer.
Below you will find a list of digital stores that you might consider interesting (there are several, I will focus on those that I think are the most valid).
- net: this is the official digital store of Blizzard Entertainment, the software house behind titles like World of Warcraft, Overwatch and Diablo. Offers some Free to Play games, such as Hearthstone and Call of Duty: Warzone .
- Ubisoft Connect(ex Uplay): the official digital store of Ubisoft, a software house that needs very few introductions (who said Assassin’s Creed, Far Cry, Watch Dogs or Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Siege?). This isn’t exactly the best shop to find free titles, but you might be interested in taking a look at this page . In fact, I remind you that Ubisoft also offers titles such as Hyper Scape and Tom Clancy’s XDefiant.
- Game Jolt: If you are a gamer with a few years on your shoulders, you will probably remember this portal. It mainly includes “minor” productions made with a lot of passion and often downloadable for free.
- Origin: the official digital store of Electronic Arts, the software house behind FIFA, Need for Speed and Battlefield. The free games available through this store are not many, as you can see from the appropriate page , but I remind you that from here you can download popular titles such as Apex Legends .
- io: also available through the aforementioned Epic Games Store, this digital store represents an inexhaustible source of indie titles. There are also numerous free productions, so you might be interested in checking them out.
- Prime Gaming: if you have an Amazon Prime subscription , you can download, depending on the active promotional initiatives, some free games. In fact, contrary to what one might think, among the “rewards” of this service there are not only aesthetic elements for popular titles, but also complete games. Often these are “dated” pearls, but it is certainly an intriguing “free” opportunity (via the Prime subscription). Speaking of subscriptions, I remind you that there are also services like Xbox Game Pass for PC , EA Play, Ubisoft +, Google Stadia and PlayStation Now that allow you to access a vast catalog of titles, but in that case it is clearly necessary to activate a specific subscription.
- Microsoft Store: pre-installed on the Windows operating system, this digital store offers access to various free titles, as you can see on the dedicated page . It could be interesting, for example, even if you are looking for free download games for PC for children in Italian, as it also offers Free to Play titles such as SpongeBob: Krusty Challenge.
- Humble Bundle: a digital store different from the others, also based on charity (part of the amount collected from the bundles used for this purpose). This shop also gives away games from time to time, so you might want to “drop by” every now and then. To stay informed about the promotional initiatives launched by the store, which generally have a limited duration, you may find it useful to stay tuned to the magazines that deal with the gaming world, always ready to report “occasions” of this type. However, sometimes they are also given away codes (often called keys) to redeem on Steam to get the games.
- GOG: represents the official digital store of CD Projekt, or the software house behind video games such as The Witcher and Cyberpunk 2077. This store usually gives away titles based on active promotional initiatives. For example, there is a Free Games Collection.
Complete free download games for PC in Italian
How do you say? Now that you know the digital stores from which you can find free titles, you don’t know which ones to choose? No problem, I will give you some information that may be useful!
Well, among the most popular free titles we certainly find Fortnite, Call of Duty: Warzone, Apex Legends and eFootball (formerly PES ), just to name a few. Obviously, in most cases they are “complete” titles in Italian. You can learn more about the subject through my tutorials on the best Free to Play for PC , the best virtual reality games for PC and the best Free to Play on Steam . In short, you have a lot of material to “draw” from for your gaming sessions.
For the rest, if you are looking for free download games for your laptop, you might be interested in taking a look, for example, at Roblox. In fact, the latter platform, also popular due to titles such as Adopt Me, generally does not require particularly high requirements. Of course, video games in this case are often in English, but in reality, since these are usually titles intended primarily for a young audience, there is no need to know other languages perfectly.
If, on the other hand, you are looking for games to download for free for PC without registration, surely a portal like the aforementioned itch.io could be for you, as often just press on the box of a game and click on the Download button (or similar) to download it, without even having an account. It counts, however, that in this case many games are not in Italian.
In short, now you know a little everything there is to know about the vast world of free computer video games. I just have to wish you once again have fun!