Games are becoming progressively more expensive due to a combination of price increases and in-game purchases. It makes you wonder if the days of playing games for free are behind us – but that’s not true at all. If you follow the tips in this guide, you’ll never have to pay for games again.
Genuinely.
That’s not clickbait or a lie; you can legitimately enjoy free online games for eternity. Will you need to make a few sacrifices, maybe? Sure, but it’s worth it for the free gaming fun!
Find Legitimately Free Online Games
Start by finding free-to-play games – and we’re talking about proper free games, not freemium games here. A quick search across mobile app stores or various online gaming platforms will show you loads of games that claim to be free to play. You download them without spending money, but you eventually hit a wall. The game demands additional purchases to unlock content, which means you end up spending more money than you would if you’d just bought a game normally.
Annoyingly, the freemium business model is absurdly profitable. That’s why it’s increasingly harder to find genuine free games, so be on the lookout for titles that claim to be free but make your life harder unless you spend money.
The positive news is that free-to-play games are definitely still a thing. In fact, many of the most popular online games of this generation are completely free and don’t hide any freemium features to ruin your experience. Some of these titles are listed below:
Fortnite
Apex Legends
Valorant
Warzone
Counter-Strike
You can find big games like these in a lot of online gaming stores; we know that both Steam and the Epic Games Store have sections with “free to play” options for you to look at.
As well as these sorts of games, you’ll find plenty of browser-based online games that are entirely free and don’t have any strings attached. Play mahjong or chess as often as you like without spending a penny. Enjoy various versions of solitaire or hearts for free whenever you want. You’ll notice that these particular games have one key thing in common: they’re all strategy/puzzle-based games. This genre is excellent if you want freebies because the games are cheap to make, and most developers make money through ads in your browser anyway.
Don’t Give In To the In-Game Purchase Temptations
Look back at that bullet point list of games above and think about one trait they all share. Aside from the fact that all of those games are first-person shooters, they share a key similarity: the games make money from in-game purchases.
Hold the phone, didn’t we say that games with in-game purchases are bad and don’t truly count as free games?!
Ah, well, there’s one key distinction. Free-to-play games like Counter-Strike aren’t classed as freemium titles because they make money from cosmetic purchases. In that specific game, players spend money on CS skins and loot boxes that do nothing to their in-game experience other than giving them something nice to look at. The same applies to all of the other games on that list; they provide in-game cosmetic purchases – or battlepasses, where you can unlock things like skins, emotes, sprays, etc.
But here’s the thing: you don’t need to spend money on cosmetics to play the game. It’s purely an aesthetic thing, which means you can continue to enjoy these games for free if you don’t give in to the temptations. Remind yourself that this game didn’t cost anything, so why bother spending money on it? Also, remind yourself that you gain nothing from having a nice skin, so what’s the point?!
It’s…easier said than done. Some free games come out with crazy cosmetics that draw you in and make it almost impossible not to buy them. You just have to stay vigilant and avoid spending money if you want to enjoy free gaming.
Wait For Special Sales To Find Free Games
Patience is key when you look for a free gaming experience. You don’t have the luxury to pick and play any game you want – sometimes, you need to wait until games go on sale. It’s a good idea to join various sub-Reddits about games or free-to-play gaming because members of these communities often notify Reddit when some good free game deals are up and about.
Again, Steam and the Epic Games Store are great for this particular point. Both will have sales all the time, which sometimes results in big games being available for free. You can genuinely get a massive title like The Witcher 3 for free if you’re active at the right time. That’s the catch with these sales; they’re very short-lived, and the game goes back to its full price within a day or two.
Keep your eyes and ears peeled for any whisperings of upcoming sales and check to see if any fun games are on offer. To be honest, it makes sense to download a game when it’s free anyway. What’s the worst that can happen? Oh, you don’t like the game – who cares?! You didn’t spend any money, so you haven’t lost any money, and there’s always a chance you may discover a hidden gem anyway.
Check Out Emulators For Classic Games
If you’ve always been a fan of classic games on the Game Boy, PlayStation 1 or other older consoles, then you can relive your experience through emulators. A quick Google search will show you a host of great emulators for both PCs and mobile phones. If you’re using a PC, you can normally play the games through the emulator in your browser. For mobile gamers, you’re most likely going to download an emulator app.
Regardless, emulators are free – and you can then download emulated games without spending money.
It’s one of the coolest parts of modern gaming technology, and you get to enjoy classic games like Pokémon or Crash Bandicoot without buying an old console or trying to find the old games on eBay. The big tip for this is to research the best emulators before committing to one. Some are far better than others, so pick one that most people agree is a good choice.
Become A Game Tester
We’ll end with a fun tip that some of you may want to try, but others won’t. What if you made gaming your job? Search online for game tester jobs, and you could be sent various new games to play for free. Well, it’s better than that; you actually get paid to play the games.
Is this an ideal scenario? No. Will you probably play lots of rubbish games? Yes. However, you’re getting paid to play and test games, so you can’t really complain. It’s simply an additional way for you to enjoy free gaming without spending a penny of your money on a game.
And who knows, maybe you’ll be so good at testing games that companies promote you and you become a part of the game development cycle. It could be a fantastic opportunity for someone who loves gaming, so what’s the harm in giving it a go?
That brings you to the end of this post, so what have you learned? It’s entirely possible to play and enjoy loads of different online games without spending money. You need to know where to look, for starters, but the biggest thing is to avoid in-game purchase temptations. If you can do this, then you’ll be amazed at how many free games genuinely exist in the world.
The post Free Online Games: Follow These Tips To Never Pay For Games Again! appeared first on The Next Hint.