Small correction - they said they *gained *15 million players, not that they *sold *15 million new copies - the Sims 4 base game is free to play. Also, there was some recent backlash around how Inzoi handles LGBTQ characters and EA seemingly capitalized on that by releasing a big LGBTQ update for free, months ahead of pride month. So, they might be sweating it a little. But, Sims is on a whole other level culturally than a lot of games, it’s got a lot of players that play only the Sims franchise, and it’s been doing well enough to keep a steady stream of DLC coming out for years now.

It will be funny if they make it free to play because they think maximizing player count will translate into more shark card money than box price + shark cards. Not that I think that is likely, just a funny possibility.

I use Appsales to catch sales on paid games: https://play.google.com/store/search?q=appsales&c=apps

Seconding this recommendation. You can find it on the Play store here: https://play.google.com/store/search?q=mini+review&c=apps&hl=en_US. And, you can find the website here: https://minireview.io/

If the list on PCGamingWiki is up to date, there aren’t many Epic exclusives anymore (only 26 currently): https://www.pcgamingwiki.com/wiki/List_of_games_exclusive_to_Epic_Games_Store

And, earlier this year, Tim Sweeney said that many of exclusivity deals weren’t a good investment while the free games have been “magical.”

So, it seems like a problem that is solving itself over time. Epic will probably still have exclusives going forward, but I would expect them to target a few high-value exclusives like they got with Alan Wake 2. Or, maybe they will just do more acquisitions of games to self-publish, like they did with Rocket League and Fall Guys.