Valve is closer to physical because they have a market place. In a way it’s more fair then any other game. (They still control the marketplace so it’s not as fair as physical). Also as a slight defense to digital, at least we’re not manufacturing and shipping more plastic waste for landfills just so people can get their gambling kick.

I mean, it’s not different. Pokemon and MtG also have departments to try to entice users with fomo. It’s what marketing is. It’s why they have limited runs, promotional crossovers, etc. Valve is just more open about the process.

Disagree, free loading customers still help their customer base. They are still seen as potential customers and normalize having epic store client, legitimizing their own walled garden. It’s similar to any free-to-play game. All the customers that pay $0 technically cost the company money, but it’s worth having that dead weight to build a player base to get the whales in. Just by installing and having an epic account will inevitably draw other people in that will spend money and lure in investors and developers. They’re not dumb.

Really don’t think of it from an individual point of view, but as a whole.

Not really, you cost Epic money but give them more users. Which is what they want. Only get free games from them if you want to support Epic.

Paradox is Swedish (Stellaris, Crusader Kings).

Factorio and Kingdom Come 1/2 is Czech.

Really there are a lot of games. Just not many AAA games.