Many have been asking where I'm getting all the games for free. Others have noticed I sometimes have game reviews on the day of a launch as if I had weeks of playing a game ahead of time. It's time to spill the beans.

First, I thought I'd start with the easy stuff. Even non-content creators can be getting a pile of free games. It’s quite crazy just how many games you can get over a year.

Epic Games

The easiest place has always just been Epic Games. Every Thursday they have one or two games that are free to claim for the week. During special occasions like holidays, they will sometimes be giving away a free game daily.

I used to share on X (Twitter ) and even in Discords the current weekly games that were given away. I kind of stopped doing that once the game selection became less interesting than what I'd create content on. They also tend to be repeated, especially during holiday free giveaways.

This is however a great place to create a massive backlog. You could be busy for quite some time.

Disclosure. I am a part of the Epic Games content curator program.

Other Sites

Epic Games is not the only site giving away free games. Other sites tend to be not as often. Those sites can be places like GoG and Humble Bundle. Sometimes even a large publisher will give out free games if a sequel is coming out to drum up some hype for a new game right on their own websites.

While there are a bunch of others out there as well. These are no longer places I check on. I just have so many other ways of getting games I want to create content on these days.

Itch.io

If you are someone who loves indie games and is looking for that next diamond in the rough. Well, there are a few there among the almost 1 million free games on Itch. It could take a lifetime to play that many games.

I have a different strategy for using Itch when it comes to finding gems. Rather not using Itch to find those gems in the first place.

You see when people create video games that end up bringing in quite a bit of attention. They then decided to sell their game on Steam. Many don’t start however on Steam but elsewhere for free on places like Itch. Many of them after a while might stop updating the Itch branch of the game. Sometimes they keep it both updated and still free.

That is why if my budget is a bit tight for a month. I might take games I'm looking to get on Steam and see if there is a legit page on Itch by the same developer with the same game for free.

Steam Demos

Speaking of Steam. They have been pushing demos quite hard. Not only do a few games now have a demo during special promotional events as a form of promotion. They usually keep the demo up even after the event as well.

While a demo tends to not be the same as the full game release (sometimes it can be.) I find these as a great way to try new games. Even more so if I just don’t know if I'll like it.

These can also be a great way to just showcase some up-and-coming games. This tends to be something hard to do for smaller content creators who are not getting keys to every game on the planet spammed to them daily.

I have even lucked out and have had game developers send me a key for release when their game reaches that stage. While that should not be something that is expected common occurrence. Many indie games are just looking for people to talk about their game.

Steam Curator

One place I've been rather disappointed by is that I wish Steam would have given some love to our Steam Curators. Unless you are some mega game press corporation. It’s like you invisible.

The only time I'm not invisible there is when someone is releasing some anime XXX game. I don’t know what is worse checking to see I have no pending games or seeing a list of those and quickly rejecting them. Then needing to bleach my eyeballs.

Friends

Quite an easy place to overlook are friends who end up having way too many extra copies of a game. Sometimes people get duplicate keys for whatever reason from a bundle or winning them. Instead of letting them rot away, they can be sent to someone who will have a use for them.

Sending Emails To Game Developers

With all the easy ones out of the way, it’s time for a hard one. The part of getting review keys for making a review. It’s going to require some work and for many going outside of their comfort zone.

The first thing you need to do is look on the game developer's website, forums, and possibly search their social media accounts. Hopefully, you will see something like a “content creators' program” that you can directly apply though where the entire process has already been streamlined.

If not, you are looking for an email that tends to have “marketing” or “press” in the name. You then need to create a tailored email in hopes that it makes it to someone or auto added to the review key list.

Keep in mind a lot of companies are getting 10k+ “plz fr key I needz” kind of emails. So, they tend to have some heavy filters trying to weed out the spam from actual content creators reaching out to them.

An easy way of avoiding getting marked as spam is simply inquiring if they have a content creator program that you can join. You also don’t want to leave the poor person having to weed through emails with a wall of endless text. That is just an easy skip for them.

Instead, you want to express how excited you would be to create a review or other kinds of content for the game.

If you have created content on other games that game developers have made in the past. Now is the time to bring it up.

You also want to share relatable content you have created in the past as a sample of something you could do for that game. If the game is an ARPG. A review you have recently done about an ARPG is a great starting point.

Once you have sent that email now comes the hard part of waiting. Unless there is some kind of auto rejection or other kind of email system in place. It could be a while if never. Most places if they are not interested just won’t send any reply back.

You also have many game developers who are not so great at communicating things and/or are overwhelmed. You might go into the yes pile. Getting put on an auto send a review key out 72 hours before launch. Yet they don’t send any kind of email letting you know beforehand.

They might continue to send you emails after the game launch with updates about the game, when game sales are going on, and other stuff. Which is great if you are into playing that game over the long run.

You might also get sent back an email asking for further details of followers and such. Some places might just flat-out say they only deal with Twitch or YouTube content creators.

I’ve even had a developer send me a review key 2 weeks after a game launched. Thankfully I was not in any hurry to get the game. Many developers have lots of hats to wear, and sending out review keys can be easy to forget about. Along with no longer being a priority if everything is on fire on their end.

Keymailer Game Press

While all of these methods are great. I’ve been using a much better one for a little while now. Makes it easy for me to request review keys to games I want to create content on. The best part is I only thought they dealt with Twitch and YouTube content creators. It turns out that is no longer the case but there is a catch.

I’m not sure when Game Press for them became a thing. All I do know is when I went to click on it to see what it was about. They had requirements of having your own domain for written content. Thankfully I do have my own Hive frontend of a website so I applied. (Easy to set one up using somthing like @Engrave Dblog)

I was even shocked after a couple of days they considered me accredited raising my stance on the site. They have some kind of internal scoring system.

I did have to set up a page with different kinds of content examples for game developers to review when they take into consideration who to send keys to.

There are then three ways to get a key for games that are using them. You can either request to join a campaign. This requires you to say what level of commitment you are willing to make for a review. From “play then decide” to “100% will make content on.”

The second is game developers can also just send out keys. I’ve noticed these kinds of offerings tend to be “play then decide.” So, in other words, if I accept a key to a game and decide I don’t like it. I don’t need to make any content on it.

Finally, there are games I’m pre-approved for. Those I just need to hit claim on and I'm taken to the next stage of the process.

The best part so far is no one has told me how I can or cannot write any content on the games I've gotten keys to. There is no agreement for a positive review that I've seen. I’m just agreeing to make some kind of content. What kind is up to me.

While not every game on Steam is running a campaign on this website. Quite a few are. Even if a game is not currently you can request to be notified if the game ever is.

Once you can get a key, they go over any requirements of accepting it in a short contract-style way. For the most part, they all say not for resale. A few keys I've gotten also had an embargo date since they are giving you early 1.0.0 access to the game. Where you just can’t release any content/talk about it till that day and time has passed.

There then tends to be a content deadline. The standard time is 21 days which is more than enough. Quite a lot of keys I've gotten will give me 50 days or even longer to publish one piece of content.

After I've published some content, I just go back into their system and put in some basic details. Like a link to it, upload the cover image, and a small writeup about the content.

They even have another content section for content published not on my main website. I tend to use that section to showcase my content shows up on a few different websites within the Hive ecosystem.

I have then had several games share my content on their social media or quote something I've stated in my posts.

There are also some other nice perks. Since these are game developers working with content creators things like the actual release date tend to be on here once they have locked something in. After all content creators need to know when that is. Even sometimes when that date has not officially been announced yet.

There is also sometimes extra information included that a game developer might want a content creator to know. There is also standard stuff like what platforms a game is released on, system requirements, and on so.

Final Thoughts

So far, I've rather enjoyed my experience with Game Press. While I don’t expect to be selected any time soon for triple-A games everyone is applying for review keys. I have been shocked more than once when a company has sent me keys to some amazing games, I thought I had no chance at.

It has even been cool as a content creator to finally be on the other side of things. Where I'm playing a game that is not out yet. Where I get to have content ready to go if I have the time for a game launch. Instead of staying up all night on launch and having content out a couple of days later.

I hope the above list and sites help those out who feel a little financially squeezed these days. I know being a game content creator is not cheap. For so many they always feel like everyone else is getting a game for free to review and they are not.

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Screenshots were taken and content was written by @Enjar.