[UPDATE 2: The game is now up for grabs at the store until May 21.]
[UPDATE: The surprise game has been leaked via a now-deleted tweet from Epic Games, and confirms that the next free game is indeed GTA V. It’ll go free to keep from today 8:30PM IST until May 21.]
Reportedly from an “anonymous, but very well-informed” source, GTA V could be the next free to keep title on Epic Games Store starting tomorrow through May 21.
The news comes from Gamepressure, which is a reputed site in itself, so hopefully true. But unless anything is officially confirmed, don’t forget some salt. We’ll keep you updated.
This is supposed to be the Premium Edition of the best-selling game of all-time, and will include GTA Online, the online component of Rockstar’s massive open-world title. As usual, adding the game to your library will make it yours forever.
This makes a lot of sense as Epic Games Store have been teasing something big since a week. And they’ve recently implemented 2-factor authorization to claim free games, to keep fake accounts away.
5 years after launch, GTA V still ranks under Top 5 games on Steam by player count. This is due to its online component, with several more thousands of players hailing from Rockstar Games Launcher as well (which aren’t counted here).
The game recently also joined Xbox’s subscription service, Gamepass, for a few months before being replaced by another blockbuster from Rockstar, none other than Rootin’ Tootin’ Cowboy Shootin’ 2.
Grand Theft Auto V is Rockstar’s money making machine, launching cross-gen, and still going strong throughout all platforms. People have been spending thousands on microtransactions on the Online component of the game. That, combined with it still being on top of the charts after 5 years, makes it Rockstar’s biggest success, making more revenue than any movie ever.
Giving away GTA V might be Rockstar’s move to create more hype for the next game in the series. GTA 6 isn’t official yet, but a lot of sources claim it to be in its final stages of development already. It is rumored to be smaller than GTA V in scale at launch, to be expanded later via DLCs. These updates could be paid expansions, like Red Dead Redemption‘s “Undead Nightmare” or Grand Theft Auto 4‘s “The Ballad of Gay Tony”, or maybe just a development decision to mitigate the crunch. Several reports have confirmed that it is Rockstar’s next game, and they’ve been working on it since long. It could be announced later this year, with an early 2021 cross-gen release. We can’t say much yet.
And while you’re at it, don’t forget to grab this week’s freebie Death Coming.