Every Thursday, the Epic Games Store does the same reliable thing. It hands out free PC games, no strings, yours to keep forever. This week’s pairing is an odd couple, and I mean that as a compliment. One’s a comedy survival game set in the wreckage of space. The other’s a cozy horse-racing sim. Nothing connects them tonally, and that’s kind of the fun of it. Grab both before September 3 and you’ve got two wildly different games for the low price of nothing.
Here’s the rundown on what’s free, what each game actually offers, and how to claim them.
Breathedge
Space survival games usually take themselves pretty seriously. Breathedge doesn’t. Developed by RedRuins Softworks and originally released in 2021, it drops you into the wreckage of a massive space hearse, tasks you with delivering your grandfather’s ashes, and then buries the whole thing in dark humor and absurd situations. You play as the Man. Your companion? An immortal chicken that doubles as a multipurpose tool. Yes, really.
Underneath the jokes sits a genuinely solid survival loop. You’ll scavenge debris floating through the void, craft tools and equipment, and keep a nervous eye on your oxygen supply while a strange interstellar conspiracy slowly unravels around you. One moment you’re managing your air. The next you’re knee-deep in coffins and corpses, laughing at a game that refuses to play it straight. It’s not flawless, but the tone sets it apart from every grim, self-serious survival title out there.
The timing here isn’t an accident, either. Breathedge 2 hit Early Access on August 31, just days after this giveaway went live, so Epic and the developer are clearly using the freebie as a funnel toward the sequel. Cynical? Maybe a little. But a free, complete game is a free game, and this one’s worth your time regardless of the motive behind the offer.
Rival Stars Horse Racing: Desktop Edition
If dodging death in a vacuum sounds exhausting, here’s the antidote. Rival Stars Horse Racing: Desktop Edition, made by New Zealand studio PikPok and released in 2020, trades cosmic dread for the gentle rhythm of building a horse-racing empire. You inherit a run-down family ranch. From there, you rebuild it into a thriving operation, one race and one horse at a time.
The game splits its attention between two sides. On the track, you’ll race across a variety of courses with motion-captured animations and live commentary bringing the events to life. Off the track, you’ll breed and train horses, upgrade your ranch facilities, hire staff, and manage a genetics system deep enough to let you build custom bloodlines from the ground up. There’s even a Horse Creator for designing your own mounts.
It’s mostly a single-player experience, though it supports online multiplayer for up to eight players across PvP races and co-op free roam. Modes range from story-driven races to a Cross Country format that leans on jumping, plus a laid-back Quick Ride option for wandering a meadow with your horse when you just want to unwind. There’s a photo mode too, for anyone who wants to frame the perfect scenic shot. Relaxing, surprisingly deep, and a total tonal 180 from Breathedge.
How to Claim This Week’s Free Epic Games
Claiming these is quick and completely free, but there’s a small setup step if you’re new to it. Here’s the process.
First, create a free Epic Games account if you don’t already have one, then enable two-factor authentication, which Epic requires before you can claim giveaways. Head to the Epic Games Store free games page, find Breathedge and Rival Stars Horse Racing: Desktop Edition, and click “Get” on each. Run through the checkout, and just double-check the total reads $0 before confirming. Once claimed, both games stay in your library permanently, even after the giveaway window closes.
You’ve got until 11 a.m. ET on Thursday, September 3, 2026, to lock them in. Miss that deadline and they’re gone, replaced by next week’s batch. Speaking of which.
What’s Free Next Week?
Epic has already revealed the next giveaway. Alone With You, a sci-fi romance adventure, goes free from September 3 to September 10. It’s a narrative-driven title where you play the sole survivor of a failed terraforming colony, so expect a much more emotional, story-heavy experience than either of this week’s picks. We’ll have the full breakdown once it goes live.
Quick reminder worth repeating: you don’t need to make Epic your main launcher to benefit from any of this. Even if you live on Steam, there’s zero downside to logging in each Thursday and claiming whatever’s on offer. Over a year, that adds up to a genuinely huge free library. This week, that’s a comedic space survival romp and a chilled-out horse-racing sim. Go grab them.
