Epic Games has recently opened its own digital distribution platform in hopes that its industry-leading revenue share split will attract developers. Inaugurating the new Epic Games Store, the company is giving away underwater survival game Subnautica (2018) for free. As in, download it now for free and keep it forever.

Update (December 14th, 2018): Subnautica is now free on Epic Games Store, and will remain free to anyone who downloads it between now and December 27th. As far as we can tell, the version available through Epic appears to be the same a the one on Steam, replete with native support for HTC Vive and Oculus Rift.

Original Article (December 7th, 2018): Subnautica was first developed for PCs, although during its lengthy stint in Early Access on Steam its developer Unknown Worlds Entertainment added preliminary support in 2015 for the Oculus Rift DK2. Now the game boasts support for both the consumer Rift and HTC Vive, although users are still confined to using a mouse and keyboard setup.

Subnautica will be permanently free to users who download the title from December 14th to December 27th. The game normally retails for $25.

Epic Games says they’ll be giving away a free game every two weeks; you can keep an eye on which free games are coming to Epic Games Store here.

Lets just hope there’s some more VR games in there.

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Scott Hayden
Well before the first modern XR products hit the market, Scott recognized the potential of the technology and set out to understand and document its growth. He has been professionally reporting on the space for nearly a decade as Editor at Road to VR, authoring more than 4,000 articles on the topic. Scott brings that seasoned insight to his reporting from major industry events across the globe.
  • Engineer_92

    Heck yes

  • NooYawker

    Ok, I can get on board with this. Incentives to use your platform, free games.
    But I’m still not a fan of all these installs. Some games purchased on steam still require the company install like Assassins Creed Odyssey installs uplay and starts with the game.

  • HomeAudio

    In top 10 of my VR games. Last time I am playing only this game.

  • Jonathan

    No gamepad support?

    • Juan Ritz

      I’m not sure why that’s written here, I most certainly used a gamepad the entire time I played.

      • Gonzalo Novoa

        Yeah, what’s more I used the touch controllers from start to finish and it was a fantastic experience. You need to customize all of the controls, though, if you want to use Touch but it’s perfectly playable that way too and certainly with an xbox pad.

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    • JesuSaveSouls

      Only gamepad,no motion control.You my have to go into options.

      • I Am The Boxlord

        I cannot use the cursor in the game settings when I try to change the controls.

  • antonio mora

    Sounds like a good deal to me.

  • kuhpunkt

    Nope.

    • Andrew Jakobs

      What nope?

      • kuhpunkt

        Nope to the store. They won’t get me with these tricks!

        • Baba Nam Kevalam

          What’s wrong with you? Free to keep (or not) but will be always available to you/for you to download when ever you please!? Specially if they give away games every month or so. See it like a “free” library for now, and then we will see what they have to offer, and if they are competence for steam.

          • kuhpunkt

            I got Subnautica almost 2 years ago for less than 1$.

          • Alexisms

            You should have said that first and avoided looking like a fool.

          • kuhpunkt

            Why do I look like a fool? Gaming has become so cheap… free games just won’t do it.

          • PinkishRaptor

            alrighty then if “gaming is so cheap” then go ahead and buy an rtx 2080 and an oculus rift and then you can tell everyone it’s cheap

          • kuhpunkt

            Gaming as in getting games and playing them. The hardware is another issue and that you even brought it up in this context… really? It’s about another store where they want to push it with free games. That’s what the argument was about. It’s become incredibly cheap.

          • KaguraDragunov

            no idea what’s your problem u rich fuck

          • kuhpunkt

            I’m not rich.

  • Andrew Jakobs

    Remind us on the 14th again ;)

  • JesuSaveSouls

    Well I wouldnt get it without motion control support but for free I will.Its a very beautiful game and I believe gamepads work too.

  • impurekind

    Looking forward to giving this a go.

  • PJ

    Very meh

  • JOCR

    It’s still not available… Even though it says it would be today. Not exactly a strong start (on top of the privacy policy) for Epic’s attempt to compete with Steam…

  • Dylan Paesani

    WHY TF ISN’T IT FREE YET

    • Mitsuko

      no idea, we are all still waiting

  • alexa B

    Still waiting…It keeps stating Coming Soon

  • Derik Lopes

    its working i got mine

  • impurekind

    K, I’ll give this a wee go now.

  • Orion Star

    It’s free now people, and on the day they said it would be, so quit your whining. Geez, they never said it would be free “At precisely X time in your X specific time zone”. Way to look a gift horse in the mouth…

  • DJHeroMasta

    I’m Locked At 45fps With A Ryzen R5 1600, 16GB RAM @3200MHz and a GTX 1080 Ti. Why? :(

    • Kevin Fitzpatrick

      dont feel bad man… I have a gtx 1080 16 GB of ram 2100 Mhz and it runs choppy on my vive as well…. 4960k CPU Processor 4.4 ghz… not sure what the fix is…

      • DJHeroMasta

        Shame for shame….guess we have to sit back and wait for them to patch it. I was so looking forward to playing it. People have been talking about the 2D version long before I got my Rift so I just knew I was going to enjoy it…not!

  • JesuSaveSouls

    Out now and with no catches or strings.Its free and works great.Beautiful in vr or play it without.I never wanted to purchase it because of lacking motion control support.You dont need it and since you have so much ocean to explore under it,above and the interior of subs and islands is nice.

  • JesuSaveSouls

    Think elite or one of those big space sims minus space and add the frontier of endless oceans.This would be good for the devs to get with dc and do a aquaman dlc.

  • Tom Szaw

    Difficult to figure out what to do in this game. I swim, collected some blueprint, then nothing. capsule is damaged, spaceship is wrecked. Weird controls too in WMR.

  • Eric Schwartz

    replete!?!?!?! what is that?

  • Epic is really betting hard on its new store

  • JesuSaveSouls

    Get it free on epic games.If you feel it’s to challenging then use the f3 to f8 cheat and acquire everything early on.

  • Patrick McKee

    This game last time I checked is stuff not that great performance wise in VR.
    Sure I’m a VR snob, it must not drop frames.
    For me it is also scary af in VR with all those creatures.
    I blame shark week on the Discovery channel(Great White sharks attaching that fake rub seal) as a kid and seeing Jaws as a kid.
    Thanks Speilberg jk lol.

  • Patrick McKee

    Unrelated, Looking at Epics tiny store. I hope they add a VR category as it grows.

  • HybridEnergy

    You guys think they will ever add motion controls for this? Even if basic like the Forest.

  • Firas

    can i download it later if i have in in the library

  • Chris Wernick

    It’s free because it’s broken. Same error pops up immediately on start up, can’t get past it, no wonder it costs $0.

  • borysmil10

    Will it ever be free again if someone missed it?

  • gijohu

    i love you

  • yousf

    is it for free Subnautica