Found a trick to get free DLC for old EA games on Steam

So I bought Command & Conquer Red Alert 3 on sale for $2.50 last week and noticed the DLC was still listed at $10 each. I remembered someone mentioning that sometimes the free trial versions on Steam actually include the full game files including DLC. Sure enough I downloaded the trial version of Red Alert 3 and it had all the expansion content unlocked. The trick is you have to launch the trial version first then switch to your purchased copy and the DLC carries over. Has anyone else found old games where the free trial gives you extras like this?

2 comments

2 Comments

kevin_hernandez831mo ago

@reese_singh87 nailed it with the EA trial trick. I did the same thing with the original Dragon Age Origins on Steam a couple years back. The trial version had all the big story DLC like Awakening and Witch Hunt bundled in, even though I had only bought the base game. I thought I had discovered some glitch in the matrix but it's just EA being sloppy with their old game files. The expansions worked perfectly after I launched the trial first then switched to my own copy.

reese_singh871mo ago

Three years ago I actually did this exact same thing with the original Mass Effect game on Steam. The free trial had all the Bring Down the Sky and Pinnacle Station DLC built into it even though I never bought them. I felt like some kind of hacker genius for about ten minutes until I realized EA probably just forgot to strip the files out. The funniest part is that I still paid full price for the base game back then and saved maybe $10 total. Now I just assume every EA trial version is secretly the deluxe edition with the switch flipped off.