Starting today, the Epic Games Store is offering a rewards program called, not surprisingly, « Epic Rewards. » No registration is necessary to participate: two weeks after making a qualifying purchase on the Epic Games Store, you’ll receive 5% back in the form of « Rewards » that you can spend on future purchases on EGS.
5% of a $60 game is $3, which is not insignificant.
As with all such things, terms and conditions apply. One of those conditions is that Rewards eventually expire, but they have a long shelf life: two years after receiving them. (25 months to be exact).
It’s nice not to be under immediate pressure to spend or lose those Epic Rewards – Epic could have approached this effort to encourage customer loyalty more stingily. The rewards program adds another dimension to Epic’s aggressive customer acquisition strategy, which also includes temporary exclusivity deals on the Epic Games Store and free games every week.
Steam also has some sort of rewards program, but it does not provide discounts. Instead, Steam Points can be spent on profile backgrounds and emoticons or complimenting other Steam users with rewards.
Epic has also started to encroach on those big sales that Steam is so well known for. In addition to this rewards program, it has just launched the 2023 Epic Games Store Mega Sale. In addition to the discounts on individual games, Epic is bringing back the 25% renewable coupon for this sale – every time you use it on a purchase of $15 or more during the sale, you’ll receive a new one.
You can also earn the new Epic Rewards during the sale, but also after the sale: it’s a permanent addition, unlike the coupon, which is tied to the sale.
Meanwhile, on Steam, Valve has just introduced a new free trial system, and sports games are currently being promoted during the Steam Sports Fest.
