Get one of the best new PC games for free

It’s not often that a brand new game for PC launches on Steam only to be included in Epic’s free games of the week three days later… but that’s exactly what’s happening with CYGNI: All Guns Blazing. The most interesting, technically advanced arcade shoot’ em up to be developed for personal computers and home entertainment systems in ages was released on PC, PS5 and Xbox Series S/X on August 6th for $29.99/€29.99, but everyone holding an Epic Games Store account will be able to add it to his/her library at no cost for a week (August 8th – August 15th). That’s… highly unusual and it’s probably no wonder it has already been commented on a lot over at Steam. So, how come?

It’s rather simple, actually: CYGNI belongs to a select group of games that have been awarded an Epic Games Megagrant in the past. This is a funding program Epic has been running for years, providing financial backing and software tools to promising indie games still in development. There have been many games awarded an Epic Games Megagrant and CYGNI was one of those, back in 2020 when the game was at the initial stages of development and still in need of such help (Konami emerged as its worldwide publisher later on).

Epic usually provides this kind of financial support in exchange for exclusivity: games receiving a Megagrant launch on EGS only or remain exclusively on EGS for a time or are included in Epic’s free weekly offerings. Konami would probably prefer CYGNI to not exclusively launch on EGS but KeelWorks obviously needed to honor its 2020 deal with Epic… so here we are.

The fact that CYGNI is given away for free on EGS, in other words, has nothing to do with its quality or critical acclaim and everything to do with Epic’s Megagrant program, which is important to indie developers but it does come with strings attached. The game itself is great, as yours truly already explained in this review:

CYGNI: All Guns Blazing is a love letter to the great vertical coin-ops of the 80s or 90s, an audiovisual tour de force regardless of genre and a well-crafted entertainment experience overall. It can be wholeheartedly recommended to the core audience of arcade shoot’ em ups, long-time veterans and casual fans alike. Those gamers will thoroughly enjoy it. Some mainstream gamers may have a kind of steep curve to overcome at first – not only is CYGNI hard, it is also not as newbie-friendly at it could have been – but those who persevere will be handsomely rewarded with lots of extremely satisfying runs through its levels later on.

People who haven’t already purchased the PC version of CYGNI on Steam now have a couple of choices: they can either get it for free on the Epic Games Store over the next few days or support the really nice work KeelWorks has done with the game by buying it on Steam instead. Its cost is well below that of most new PC releases ($29.99/€29.99) and the added revenue would help this small indie studio support the game in the long term.

No such luck, obviously, for PlayStation5 and Xbox Series S/X gamers this time around (they get more free day-one releases as part of their PS Plus or Game Pass subscriptions), but hey. Compared to the now established $79.99/€79.99 price point for new games released on those formats, $29.99/€29.99 already sounds like a bargain!