Epic Games Store sale could steal Steam’s thunder with big discounts like 45% off Metro Exodus

Metro Exodus
Image credit: 4A Games/Deep Silver

The so-called Epic Mega Sale has just begun on Epic’s online games store, and whatever your views on this sometimes controversial retail outlet, it can’t be denied that this is indeed a pretty epic event in terms of the discounts available.

The sale runs from now until June 13, and has interesting timing in terms of stealing thunder from Steam’s summer sale, which we’ve just heard is rumored to start on June 25.

So Epic is getting in there first, with the Mega Sale offering discounts of up to 75%. That’s not all, though, because on top of whatever discount the publisher is offering, Epic is also cutting a further £10 (or $10) off all games, providing they cost more than £13.99 (or $14.99). Note that this doesn’t apply to purchases which aren’t full games, such as DLC or in-game items.

Epic also clarifies that those who have pre-ordered an unreleased game will get the aforementioned £10 (or $10) discount automatically applied as a refund, so they don’t have to cancel their pre-order, and re-purchase the game.

Also, if you’ve just bought a game from Epic’s store, from May 2 through to May 15, and it is now on sale, fear not as you will get the current reduced price (and any difference in what you paid extra refunded). For the exact details, you can check out the FAQ here.

As you can see, Epic certainly seems to be in a generous mood, and that’s reinforced by the stepping up of its free game giveaways, with one game freebie to be made available every week during the sale (as opposed to two weeks). The first free offering will be Stories Untold, a novel sounding experimental adventure from No Code. (Although currently at the time of writing, World of Goo is free, with Stories Untold still marked as ‘coming soon’).

So, which are the best games on sale right now? Here are the top titles with chunky discounts that caught our eye.

Metro Exodus Standard Edition – 45% off

<a href="https://www.epicgames.com/store/en-US/product/metro-exodus/home" data-link-merchant="epicgames.com"" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Metro Exodus Standard Edition – 45% off
A shooter that needs no introduction, and is pretty much brand-new having only been released a few months ago as an Epic exclusive. At almost half-price, this is something of a steal.

Ashen – 56% off

<a href="https://www.epicgames.com/store/en-US/product/ashen/home" data-link-merchant="epicgames.com"" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Ashen – 56% off
Another Epic exclusive, this action RPG is a smart fresh twist on the typical Dark Souls formula, and with this discount, it’s barely more than a tenner to take on the challenge.

World War Z – 43% off

<a href="https://www.epicgames.com/store/en-US/product/world-war-z/home" data-link-merchant="epicgames.com"" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">World War Z – 43% off
This is another almost half-price offer, and considering that this co-op zombie shooter in the style of Left 4 Dead has only just emerged, it’s a pretty tempting bargain. Subtle it isn’t, but fun, this game most certainly is.

Of course, don’t forget that you get £10 (or $10) off almost any game you buy (with the aforementioned caveats). So if you want to pre-order Borderlands 3, for example, even though publisher 2K obviously hasn’t discounted that title, you get 20% off courtesy of Epic.

And with cheaper titles like Shakedown Hawaii, even though it only has the Epic discount applied, that means the game is reduced by 66% overall, and you can get the 2D GTA-alike for just five crisp notes.

Darren is a freelancer writing news and features for TechRadar (and occasionally T3) across a broad range of computing topics including CPUs, GPUs, various other hardware, VPNs, antivirus and more. He has written about tech for the best part of three decades, and writes books in his spare time (his debut novel - 'I Know What You Did Last Supper' - was published by Hachette UK in 2013).