Steam makes 8/10 RPG free to keep until 17 July

A relatively well-recieved game is being given away for free, right now, on Steam… but why?

Fantasy General II is a turn-based strategy game on Steam from developers Owner by Gravity and publishers Slitherine Ltd, and it’s currently being given away for free until July 17.

It’s got a pretty solid review score on the platform too, earning itself an 81% "Very Positive" score with over 970 reviews.

Here’s a glimpse at what the reviewers are saying about it.

“Fantasy General II brings back the classic hex-based tactics of the original game with a solid modern revamp,” writes user auroranyy.

“It’s a turn-based fantasy strategy title that knows its niche—tight tactical battles, solid unit progression, and just enough RPG flavor to keep it interesting.”

“I highly recommend this game. Best played on easy or normal at first, while allowing yourself to reload from time to time as you're learning the game, and then you can challenge yourself with an 'ironman' playthrough and / or try the hard mode while playing some of the missions you didn't do the first time”, writes reviewer Powerfulnnz Vikingcat.

“Missions can take pretty long so it's not a game you will simply blitz through in a couple of hours, there is a lot of value here!”

So, what’s the deal? Why is a game as supposedly good as this being given away for free?

Pretty simple explanation for that one, I think: there’s a bunch of DLC campaigns.

You know, when the sales of a game begin to decrease to a certain point, giving them away for free like this will actually end up making a publisher more money.

I can’t say I would have ever bought this, but now I own it. Maybe I’ll even play it. And if I do, maybe I’ll love it… and then the chances of me buying the DLC will have increase from 0% to something unquantifiably higher than 0%.

Smart move, really.