A Free to Keep promotion is a time-limited promotion that allows a player to permanently acquire a license for a game for free.

Unlike a Free to Play game, which is permanently free for customers to acquire, or a Free Weekend which grants a temporary license, a Free to Keep promotion is similar to a time-limited giveaway or a 100% discount.

A Free to Keep promotion might not make sense for your game. Read on for more details.

Overview

A Free to Keep promotion can be an effective tool in a few limited situations, such as:

• You have a new game in the franchise releasing, and you'd like to get new users into the franchise ahead of that launch by giving away a previous game in that franchise.
  
• You are celebrating a milestone as a developer, and you'd like to give away one of your earlier titles in order to introduce players to your work.

If you have a multiplayer game with low player counts, and you're seeking a way to get additional players into your game, a Free to Keep is generally not a good solution.

We have found that it's not generally an effective way to boost player counts, nor increase visibility for that game. The majority of customers who grab a free license during a Free to Keep will never play the game, and it also eliminates those customers from being able to purchase the game in the future. Remember that these customers' reviews will not count towards your review score, and these customers are also not eligible to receive Trading Cards for your game.

By default, Free to Keeps are not promoted anywhere on the Store, aside from your game’s own store page. Customers that have your game on their Wishlist are not notified, nor is there a dedicated place on Steam where customers can browse these offers. Additionally, giveaways like a Free to Keep promotion can be damaging long-term to the perception of your product, and can signal to customers that it has little value.

There’s no shortage of free content on Steam and elsewhere. As a result, being ‘free’ doesn’t necessarily generate demand. In our experience, a better alternative might be to run a discount, possibly a very deep discount. Some benefits of this approach are:

• Automatic notifications to everyone that has wishlisted your game on Steam.
  
• Potential placement on various Specials and Top Sellers lists on Steam.
  
• Preserving the long-term value of your game for future customers.

If you're still interested in running a Free to Keep, please contact us with the details and your desired timing at least one month in advance.

How It Works

During a Free to Keep, a free package will temporarily appear on your base game's store page. This will replace the standard paid package that's normally visible.

This free package uses the same AppID and Depots as your base game, and includes a callout to show players how much time remains in claim period.

Once the Free to Keep period ends, the free package is automatically removed from your store page.

Timing

Steam is a global platform, so all Free to Keep promotions are required to run for at least 24 hours to allow customers in all time zones an equal chance to acquire the game. Beyond that, we generally recommend keeping the free to keep period to under two weeks - any more than that, and you should consider whether your game is better suited as a Free to Play title.

Setup

This feature is not self-service. You'll have to reach out to the Steam Team for next steps.

Steam Team Setup:

• The Steam Team will create a special Free to Keep package that grants players a permanent license to your game. From your app's main landing page, you can find this package by navigating to: All Associated Packages > Promotional or special-use packages > Type: Free-to-keep promotion.
  
• Steam will automatically handle activation and deactivation of this Free to Keep package. You do not need to take any action.

Your Setup:

• After the Free to Keep package is staged, you'll need to republish your store page at any time before the event begins. This won’t make the Free to Keep visible to customers ahead of time, but it will enable the package to display on your Store Page when the event starts.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q. Can I gate access or limit content for Free to Keep players?

A: No. The point of a Free to Keep promotion is to give away the entire game in its standard format. If you are looking to give customers a bite-sized experience with your game, consider creating a Demo instead.

Q. Can Free to Keep players leave a review on my game?

A: Yes, but those reviews are categorized as a free license. While the reviews will be readable by other players, it will not factor into your game's review score.

Q. Do Free to Keep players get trading card drops?

A: No. Trading cards will not drop for customers who own the game through a Free to Keep package.

Q. I have a multiplayer game with lower player counts, and I want to get more users in my game!

A: In our experience, a Free to Keep promotion generally doesn't give you the results you're looking for. In the best case scenario, some percentage of the users who grab the free license will load up the game. Some of them will stay - many of them will not.

Questions?

If you have any additional questions, please contact us.