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It was preserved as a record on September 27; the timeline below shows how it unfolded, with sources. Get the briefing to follow the top situations still developing: three emails a week, sourced and in order.

[SITUATION] · [QUIET] · [TECHNOLOGY]

7 clusters · 14 sources · 57 days · First seen · Last updated

Steam free-game lineup expansion

Overview

Since early July 2026, Valve’s Steam platform has been steadily enlarging its permanent free‑to‑play catalogue. On July 1, the 2D action‑platformer Greenhouse: Schism was made free alongside WinBolo, Laira Cut Me Open, Captain Soda Prologue and CryptoGrid. A week later, Steam launched Dustpile, a web‑app for organizing pending games, and added four more titles: NTE: Neverness to Everness, the indie MMO Battle For Embolia, the incremental RPG Archmage Idle and the precision platformer Fleck & Grus. On July 23, a family‑focused game and four genre‑diverse offerings—Wild West Miner Simulator, War Commander, Razor Trail Survivors and Ashbound: Endless Hunt—joined the library.

The expansion continued on July 28 with a region‑specific quartet for Hungarian PC users: the dark metroidvania Rotten Bloom, the horror shooter Mandir: Gods Untouched, the co‑op mining‑survival game Dig For Your Lives, and the real‑time strategy Knights vs Aliens. On August 3, Steam added Tidal Nexus Online, an underwater retro MMO; Flats Full of Cats, a hidden‑object adventure; Orbital Crash, a gravity‑shifting arena shooter; and Avoidvania, a platform‑style cat‑hero game.

On August 12, four more free-to-play titles were added, spanning role-playing, action, and simulation genres. These include TASMON: Taskbar Monsters, an idle RPG that runs on the computer taskbar; Beach Knights, a cooperative action game; My City, a life simulation game; and an unnamed horror-themed adventure involving an abandoned hedge maze and survival elements.

On August 27, Steam released six additional free-to-play games. This group included the fish simulation ‘PC FISH: Taskbar Aquarium’, the satirical idle manager ‘Totally Normal Meat Co.’, and the first-person horror game ‘A Hole In My Room’. The release also featured a roguelite, two additional horror titles, and a point-and-click adventure.

Entities

Steam · Knights vs Aliens · Avoidvania · Tidal Nexus Online · Orbital Crash

Timeline

  1. about 1 month ago

    [CULTURE] 4 sources
    Steam releases six new free-to-play games

    Steam has launched six new free games, featuring genres such as horror, simulation, roguelite, and idle management.

  2. about 2 months ago

    [TECHNOLOGY] 6 sources
    Steam adds four new free-to-play games to its catalog

    Steam has expanded its free-to-play catalog with four new titles, including the idle RPG TASMON: Taskbar Monsters and the cooperative action game Beach Knights.

  3. about 2 months ago

    [TECHNOLOGY] 2 sources
    Steam adds four new free games to PC library

    Steam released four new free PC games—Tidal Nexus Online, Flats Full of Cats, Orbital Crash, and Avoidvania—expanding its free‑to‑play catalog.

  4. 2 months ago

    [CULTURE] 2 sources
    Steam adds four free games for Hungarian PC players

    Steam released four free indie games—Rotten Bloom, Mandir: Gods Untouched, Dig For Your Lives and Knights vs Aliens—for Hungarian PC users, covering metroidvania, horror shooter, co‑op survival and strategy.

  5. 2 months ago

    [TECHNOLOGY] 2 sources
    Steam adds four free games to its catalog

    Steam released a family-friendly free game and four additional free titles – Wild West Miner Simulator, War Commander, Razor Trail Survivors, and Ashbound: Endless Hunt – all at no cost.

  6. 3 months ago

    [TECHNOLOGY] 3 sources
    Steam adds free games and launches new library‑organising web app

    Steam introduces Dustpile, a free swipe‑based library organizer, and adds four permanent free games—NTE: Neverness to Everness, Battle For Embolia, Archmage Idle, and Fleck & Grus.

  7. 3 months ago

    [CULTURE] 2 sources
    Steam adds Greenhouse: Schism to permanent free game lineup

    Steam made Greenhouse: Schism free after poor sales and added four new free titles—WinBolo, Laira Cut Me Open, Captain Soda Prologue and CryptoGrid—to its permanent catalogue.

Sources

3djuegos.com · 4p.de · chip.com.tr · elle.de · es.ign.com · esport1.hu · fitforfun.de · gamesource.it · larazon.es · noticiasdemalaga.es · otakupt.com · pcguru.hu · twistedmalemag.com · vandal.net

This summary has been updated 3 times: see revision history