Amazon shared the latest list of video game titles that Prime members can snag for free this month. Members can pick up a code for BioShock 2 Remastered right now, and if you're patient, you can also grab a free copy of Deus Ex GOTY Edition or Super Meat Boy Forever later in January. The cloud-based Amazon Luna gaming service has also shared its current lineup of titles that Prime members can play. Airhead, Guacamelee! 2 Complete, The Magical Mixture Mill, Metro Exodus and Super Meat Boy are in the rotation for that service this month alongside Fallout 3: Game of the Year Edition, Fallout New Vegas: Ultimate Edition, Fortnight, LEGO Fortnite, Fortnite Festival, Fortnite Battle Royale, Rocket Racing and Trackmania. Some of Prime Gaming's freebies last for longer than 30 days, so you've also got some time left to pick up a copy of some of the December titles if you haven't already loaded up on those deals.

Amazon Prime Day 2024 will be here next month, but the company has already pushed out its latest batch of free(ish) games that Prime members can snag right now (there are also a number of regular early Prime Day deals live today, too). In the run up to Prime Day on July 16 and 17, Prime members can grab 15 PC games at no extra cost, and there are actually some pretty groovy titles in the mix. On July 11, you can scoop up Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic 2 -- The Sith Lords for the Amazon Games App. This sequel to one of the most beloved RPGs of all time is set five years after the events of the original game. It tells the tale of a Jedi Knight who was exiled from the Jedi Order, which the Sith has almost entirely eliminated by this point.

Gather'round, children, and let me tell you a story about the old bugaboo we used to call DRM. Digital Rights Management was the beast under every gamer's bed in the mid-2000s, an invisible bit of software baked into game discs that dictated and tracked player behavior under the guise of preventing piracy. DRM software, like SecuROM, limited the times a game could be downloaded and forced players to regularly connect to the internet for authentication checks, at a time when less than half of American adults had reliable broadband connections. DRM features soured the releases of BioShock, Mass Effect and Spore, and by 2010, anti-piracy software had rendered Assassin's Creed 2 and Splinter-Cell: Conviction unplayable. When Microsoft attempted to release the Xbox One with always-on DRM features in 2013, intense vitriol from fans forced the company to reverse its plans at the 11th hour.

The Epic Games Store launched just over four years ago, building an appeal for users on high-profile exclusives and tons of freebies, and appeal for developers and publishers with a more lucrative revenue split. While it's been growing in terms of both users and catalog, it's still a fraction of the size of the de facto standard for PC gaming, Steam. Today Epic is leveling the playing field for one of Steam's biggest draws, as it allows indie developers to post their own games to the store without the need for a publisher. The setup for Epic is similar to Steam: Pay $100 to submit a game, create a landing page, input some business info, and submit your game for review. Notably, the Epic Games Store is preserving the well-publicized 88/12 revenue split for indie developers (which beats out the usual 70/30 split of Steam, the Apple App Store, the Google Play Store, and most other digital storefronts).

Bioshock, the action-horror staple that blended RPG elements, solid gunplay, and Randian-inspired horror, is an undisputed gaming classic. Bioshock Infinite took it one step further, adding amazing swashbuckling movement mechanics, incredible supporting characters, and a reality-warping story that pulled no narrative punches. Also, Bioshock 2 was a video game. Following up its impressive Borderlands 3 freebie, the Epic Games Store is giving away the PC version of all three Bioshock games this week. PC gamers can grab Bioshock: The Collection, a bundle of 2007's Bioshock, 2010's Bioshock 2, and 2013's Bioshock Infinite, on the Epic Games Store. Like other Epic freebies, you can keep the games forever once they're claimed with your Epic account.

Free game promos are easy to find, but Epic is going one step further by offering an entire game trilogy for no charge. The Epic Games Store is offering all three Tomb Raider reboot titles (Tomb Raider, Rise of the Tomb Raider and Shadow of the Tomb Raider) for free between now and January 6th at 11AM. They're Windows-only if you grab them from the EGS, but they're also complete versions that include post-launch DLC. Your experience with the games may vary. Some will highlight Rise of the Tomb Raider as the star of the series, and aren't always enthusiastic about Shadow.

The bacchanalia of consumerism that is Black Friday is generally focused on physical items -- you can't really market a "doorbuster" for a subscription deal to your local newspaper. But there are plenty of digital game stores that get in on the fun around this time of year, too. It's definitely worth a look to see if you can find some deals, especially if you want some new titles to show off that new PC hardware you're loading up on. While there are literally hundreds of discounts to be found on PC games across the various storefronts, the absolute best bang for your buck is probably Microsoft's Xbox Game Pass for PC, which is already the best deal in PC gaming at full price. Normally $10 a month for Netflix-style access to a few hundred PC games, a current promotion is letting players subscribe for three months for just one measly little dollar.

Tim Sweeney finally made good on his word. Epic Games is suing Apple over anticompetitive practices, after a calculated act of disobedience forced the App Store to block Fortnite from the iOS platform. On August 13th, Fortnite developers introduced an option for iOS players to make in-app purchases directly from Epic, rather than using the App Store's payment system, which gives Apple 30 percent of each sale. As a reflection of this invisible fee, the direct-to-Epic option was cheaper. A few hours later, Fortnite was removed from the App Store.

Epic Games had an offer PC gamers couldn't refuse: The video game publisher's online store would give away free copies of "Grand Theft Auto V" beginning Thursday. But demand proved to be so high that it crashed the game downloading service. Epic Games, which also makes the hugely popular online game "Fortnite," has been releasing a free game weekly through its online store. It plans to continue giving "GTA V" away until May 21. But soon after the giveaway began Thursday, Epic Games tweeted "We are currently experiencing high traffic on the Epic Games Store. We'll provide an update as soon as we can."

Google has officially announced a major new effort in the video game world -- and it might just change the future of the roughly $135 billion industry. Speaking at the annual Games Development Conference (GDC) in San Francisco on Tuesday, Google CEO Sundar Pichai unveiled Stadia, a long-rumored cloud-based games streaming service. Unlike with a traditional video game console or computer, which processes a game locally as it's being played, Stadia games are processed in the cloud, with the action beamed instantaneously to players over the Internet. Google promises a lag-free experience, as long as you have a fast enough Internet connection. "We are starting our next big challenge: building a game platform for everyone," Pichai said.