Epic Games' Death Stranding freebie shows why we can't have nice stuff

Sometimes a nice giveaway is too nice. See any number of Black Fridays in the past.

In this case, it was a Christmas Day giveaway that, for a while, wreaked havoc. Epic Games, which had been giving away free games during its holiday sale which began December 15, caused a bit of a stir.

Epic Games' annual sale has included daily giveaways for years. This year's included add-ons to Fortnite and PUBG: Battlegrounds, along with daily full-game freebies like the original Fallout and Fallout 2, Them's Fightin' Herds and Metro: Last Light Redux.

Epic announced it was giving away Death Stranding, the company’s very well received and popular game from 2020, on December 25. But users got wind that Epic had released the game’s Director’s Cut, according to GameRant.

Epic Games' servers decided that, nope, it's not good

In turn, that caused Epic’s servers to...not behave well.

This Tweet is currently unavailable. It might be loading or has been removed.

Epic Games’ servers eventually did get back to normal, but instead of the director’s cut, Epic Games decided to give away the Death Stranding base game instead. 

Still a good game, to be sure. Not the chef’s kiss the Director’s Cut is, but… 

(And if you do get the base game, it’s not like you can’t get the upgrade to Director’s Cut for $6, according to PC Gamer. Also, the Death Stranding base game was available on Epic Games' site for free until the morning of December 26. Currently available: FIST: Forged in Shadow Torch)