Like this every week since December 2018 Epic Games Store It's offering another free game next week. But the Epic Games Store's December 11 free game is more special than most.
For the past six years, like clockwork, the Epic Games Store has announced its free game(s) for the following week the moment the current week's offers go live. That's not the case for the December 11 free game. Visiting the free games page of the Epic Games Store will currently provide users with free games The Darkside Detective and The Jackbox Party Pack 4But next week's freebie is simply titled “Mystery Game” and features a placeholder image that suggests fans should tune in to The Game Awards on Dec. 11 at 8 p.m. ET. It's rare for the Epic Game Store to offer a mystery freebie, and even rarer for that mystery game to be tied to an event like The Game Awards. Naturally, the Epic Game Store free game for December 11 has already set a high bar for itself.
The Epic Game Store free game for December 11 needs to live up to the Game Awards hype
The Game Awards has become one of the biggest annual events for the gaming industry. Along with celebrating the best video games of the year, the Game Awards ceremony is full of new announcements, long-awaited updates, and shocking surprises, all of which have gotten better year after year. As such, the hype and expectations surrounding The Game Awards have also grown with each passing year.
Tying directly into The Game Awards 2025, the Epic Games Store free December 11 game is also building on the general hype surrounding the event, and as a result, it sets a high bar on what players can expect from this mystery-free game. Ever since Epic Games announced its Game Awards-related giveaway last Thursday, fans have been trying to guess what it might be. Some have theorized that the December 11th EGS Free Games game could be a Game Award nominee, and there are plenty of PC games to choose from:
- Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 (Nominated in 12 categories)
- Hades 2 (Nominated in 6 categories)
- Hollow Knight: Silksong (Nominated in 5 categories)
- Split Fiction (Nominated in 4 categories)
- Silent Hill f (Nominated in 3 categories)
- Kingdom Come: Redemption 2 (Nominated in 3 categories)
- Battlefield 6 (Nominated in 3 categories)
- Indiana Jones and the Great Circle (Nominated in 2 categories)
Alternatively, some fans are theorizing that Epic Games Store's December 11 free game could be a title that will be shown at The Game Awards 2025 and shadow-dropped on the same night. For example, some have theorized the recent ESRB ratings leak Death Stranding 2: On the Beach This could be related to the EGS giveaway, suggesting that a PC port could be released soon. Although, of course, this is purely speculation at this point.
The Epic Game Store free game for December 11th should live up to the EGS Mystery Giveaways
But another Epic Game Store free game need to survive isn't just the usual Game Awards hype; This is EGS's own track record. Launched in December 2019, the Epic Games Store has an annual tradition of offering around 12 free mystery games daily leading up to the New Year.
While December 11 is too early to start these annual Epic Game Store holiday festivities (free daily mystery games usually start rolling out from December 19/20), the December 11 free game is still a mystery title offered in December, and thus fans will expect the title to match the EGS offerings prior to December. While the annual lineup of free mystery games is often a mixed bag, there are several heavy hitters included in the bunch each year, such as the following:
- Wolfenstein: The New Order — December 20, 2022
- Metro: Ultimate Light Redux — December 24, 2022
- Death Stranding — December 25, 2022
- Outer Worlds: Spacer's Choice Edition — December 25, 2023
- ghost runner — December 31, 2023
- Control — December 25, 2024
- Ghost Runner 2 — December 26, 2024
- Sifu — December 31, 2024
Being both a mysterious Epic Games Store December gift and a game rewards-related freebie, the Epic Games Store free games for December 11 set some pretty high expectations that won't be easy to meet.
