Key Takeaways
- Steam’s free play weekends are a great way to branch out and try new games with no financial investment.
- Games may have free play periods when they launch, or when they receive a major update.
- Free-to-play events often come with discounts and unique promotional items that you can collect.
We’ve all faced the problem before: you want to try a new game, but you’re not sure if you want to buy it. What if you dislike it? What if it runs poorly? What if you just want to try something new, and don’t actually want a new game? Free-to-play events are here to save you from your boredom.
Try Games During Steam Free Weekends
If you’re itching to try a new game without paying up front, Steam should be your first stop. Steam regularly has special promotions where select games are free to play for a limited time.
Free-to-play weekends are advertised on the Store tab of the Steam app, and they may also be listed in a pop-up that appears when you launch Steam.
Alternatively, SteamDB has a great page that lists all the free content available on Steam. It is much more condensed and there aren’t a million other promotions cluttering things up, and it is the way that I prefer to keep an eye on what is currently free.
The only semi-downside to Steam free weekends is that the games are a lottery. Sometimes they seem to be related to a theme; other times they’re effectively random. That isn’t necessarily a bad thing, though. You may try something you’d never normally buy and discover you love it, and at worst, you’ve wasted a bit of bandwidth.
Check Out Games At Launch or After Major Updates
Steam free weekends aren’t the only time you can play a game for free. When a game is set to leave early access or receive a large update, it is relatively common for them to have a limited free period.
This is especially true when the update makes significant gameplay changes that are likely to interest new players. For example, No Man’s Sky—arguably the great redemption story in gaming history—almost always has free weekends that coincide with major updates.
If you’re a console player, don’t worry, you’re probably not going to be left out—when games have free play weekends associated with a launch or major content update, they’re typically free on all platforms.
If you’re trying to guess when a game might have a free weekend, start by checking their update schedule and their past free play events.
Free-to-Play Events Have Perks
Free-to-play events, regardless of whether they’re through Steam or elsewhere, almost always come with perks for participants.
You’ll usually be able to save a few bucks if you buy a game during or immediately following a free play event. As an example, Civilization VI, which had a free weekend right before this article was written, was 90% off. If the game has microtransactions, the in-game currency or the items themselves are often discounted, too.
Of course, discounts aren’t the only reason to play. Free-to-play events occasionally come with limited promotional items. If they are included, they’re typically cosmetic items you can display on your character. In the case of multiplayer games, they’re sometimes items that allow new or returning players to more easily get into the action.
Other Ways to Try Games for Free
Beyond free play events, there are some other ways to try out games for free.
Epic Games regularly gives away games for free on the Epic Games Store with no strings attached. They’re yours to keep.
Xbox Live has something very similar to Steam Free Weekends called Free Play Days. What you get varies a bit depending on whether you’re a Game Pass Core member or a Game Pass Ultimate member, but there is usually something for everyone.
Demos, once thought to be a gaming relic, seem to be making a resurgence, and a reasonable number of games have them available. In most cases, demos will allow you to progress to a certain level, or use only a certain number of features, before pushing you to buy the game. But that is usually enough to know if you’ll like the game or not, and you’ll normally be allowed to keep the progress you made in the demo once you buy the full game.
If you can’t find anything you like between those options, Steam has a pretty generous refund policy, and “I didn’t like it” is considered a valid reason to return a game. However, there are two key restrictions that apply. You cannot play a game for more than two hours, and you cannot ordinarily refund a game you purchased more than two weeks ago. You’re also not guaranteed a refund, and Steam may start declining your refunds if they think you’re abusing the system somehow.
If all else fails, you could call up a friend and see if they’ll let you try something they own. Online gaming is a great thing, but there is no substitute for trash-talking someone next to you when they’re obviously hacking, cheating, or screen-looking. How else would they have beaten you?
