Back in the early 2000's I used to head out to Eastern Plaza in Dhaka with my pocket full of hard earned savings to buy games to play. Cracked games mostly and the occasional originals for consoles shared by friends. Wow, those were expensive. And when all else failed, it was time to head out to the shady, makeshift, sweat smelling street corner shops with arcade machines. That still cost money. Two taka per game would add up to many, many 'monies'. 

Free for mobile

Fast forward to 2020 being a terrible year so far, but gamers rejoice. Some of the best games are free. Massive new Call of Duty is a battle royale game competing with similar Valorant, PUBG Mobile (banned in India), Fortnite and Apex Legends. It saw 72 million downloads in the first two months. So many options and they are all free to play on your phone. You don't even need an expensive high end device as long as you are okay with some lag and low graphics. Don't want to shoot people? Grab cutesy creatures in 2016's Pokemon GO which is still going strong at more than 570 million downloads. It earned $445.3 million in the first half of 2020.

Many developers are giving away free titles to play. As Trump would say looking fondly at his Atari console, "Great titles, very big titles. So big, they are very big titles." 

PC games galore

Developers like Epic and Ubisoft are giving away PC games for taking part in social media promos like watching a video stream of playing a demo. Assassin's Creed Odyssey and Watch Dogs 2 were handed out just like that.

Game stores like Epic and Steam are doing giveaways every month. You just have to keep track of their release dates. I got hold of GTA V this May when they gave it away with a whole lot of add-ons. It was free for seven days as is the norm for most of the free offerings. With a job and a kid growing up, I never got to play Rockstar's 2013 mega hit. Seven years old and it is still an immersive and beautifully rendered game today.

Console wars

Now if you want the newest game titles, get a subscription services serving next gen consoles. Microsoft's Xbox Game Pass and Sony's PlayStation Plus Collection. You can log in and use the monthly Game Pass or PlayStation Plus accounts that cost just under $10. Tons of games to pick from. And we can pay just like we avail Netflix here.

Heads-up: Superb single player/multiplayer strategy game Dungeons 3 will be available on Epic from November 6. Features comprehensive campaign and humour.

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