The digital version of the popular board game, Terraforming Mars, is free on Epic Games until early Thursday (May 12).
If you act quickly, PC players can nab the base game off the Epic Games store (opens in new tab) until Thursday at 11 a.m. EDT (1500 GMT). If you still want the physical board game, the base version of Terraforming Mars is still 22% off at Amazon (opens in new tab), saving you just over $15 off its $69.95 price.
The popular space board game sets up players for long-term settlement of the Red Planet. The game is set in the 2400s and envisions an era where humans are remaking (or terraforming) their surroundings to improve oxygen levels, raise the temperature and increase ocean coverage to improve habitability.
If you want to try the board game and other space games like it, be sure to check out our best space board games (opens in new tab) and space board games deals (opens in new tab) guides. If you like space games but this isn't quite the deal for you, then you can also check out our Lego space deals (opens in new tab) and best VR space games (opens in new tab) pages.
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(opens in new tab)The Terraforming Mars sale comes during a large push to reach the Red Planet in real life. While we're not quite at the moment where we plan to alter the planet right now, we have numerous Mars missions in orbit and on the surface searching for ancient signs of habitability.
For example, NASA's Perseverance Mars rover mission is seeking out signs of ancient microbes that the agency and its partner, the European Space Agency, will ship back to Earth via sample return no earlier than 2033.
The digital version of Terraforming Mars was first released in 2018 with assistance from Jacob Fryxelius, the original board game author. It comes with add-ons that you'll have to pay for at this time. One expansion includes extra Hellas and Elysium maps and another expansion, Prelude, focuses on more game mechanics and expansion.
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