Steam makes hit game free to download, but you've only 48 hours

A brand new game is up for grabs on Steam for only another 48 hours, although you’ll have to jump through an extra hoop to claim it.

Breathedge, a 2021 space survival game by first-time developers Redruins Softworks, sees you “take on the role of a simple guy called the Man who is just carrying his grandpa's ashes to a galactic funeral and suddenly finds himself in the middle of a universal conspiracy.”

And it is currently free… if you sign up for a newsletter.

That’s it though. No extra weird stuff. Just sign up for Fanatical’s newsletter and claim the Steam code for the game through their site.

The PC version of Breathedge on Metacritic is rated 71/100, and it’s also earned itself a “Very Positive” rating over on Steam with 83% of it’s 12,000+ reviews being positive.

In Andrew Farrel's 7/10 review on PC Invasion, he noted that "Breathedge has a lot going for it in its well-loved Early Access sandbox portion,” although warned that latter sections of the game came up short.

“But when it becomes more of a walking simulator,” Farrel stated in his conclusion, things take a turn. Regardless, it's a funny game that's still worth playing for anyone who enjoys the concept and the humor. But I can't help but think that many will be disappointed by the later parts of the game."

As to why the game is free… I have a theory that it might have something to do with Breathedge’s upcoming sequel, Breathedge 2.

Although Breathedge’s sequel currently doesn’t have a release date, back in an interview last year (thanks to PC Gamer's Phil Iwaniuk for the source), Redruins “Aleksandr Chicken Director” implied that it will directly follow on from the events of the first game, so giving it away for free is a clever move ahead of time.