As other as mentioned they have their cash cow and their side business of Unreal engine. Games is also a weird stuff when it comes to supply and demand especially in the modern era where it is full digital, most of the game that epic gives away does so only for the base version, thus trying to get you to buy the dlc, or are mediocre titles that thus have outlived their profit (well major profit which means that the license to give them away is probably not as expensive as you think).
Now a question for you do you think the modern audience will start going back and try the older titles? where there are no battle passes or constant events? were there are none of the friends to play with?
As other as mentioned they have their cash cow and their side business of Unreal engine. Games is also a weird stuff when it comes to supply and demand especially in the modern era where it is full digital, most of the game that epic gives away does so only for the base version, thus trying to get you to buy the dlc, or are mediocre titles that thus have outlived their profit (well major profit which means that the license to give them away is probably not as expensive as you think). Now a question for you do you think the modern audience will start going back and try the older titles? where there are no battle passes or constant events? were there are none of the friends to play with?