A seven-step starter path
Free-to-play PC games: what to sort out before you sign up
Concept Base is an informational resource published for readers in Australia. It walks through the practical steps that come before a free-to-play PC game is installed — checking the machine, setting up an account sensibly, understanding how these games make money, and knowing which Australian service to contact if something goes wrong.
The path, in order
How this site is paid for
Concept Base carries paid links. When a reader follows our link to Crossout and goes on to create and confirm an account, the advertising network that represents the game pays us a commission. That payment comes from the advertiser, not from you, and following the link does not change anything about the terms you are offered.
Commission does not buy a verdict here. Every page states plainly which claims come from the vendor's own description and which do not, and no product-specific claim is made that we cannot point to a source for. The affiliate disclosure page sets out the arrangement in full, including what it does and does not influence.
Who this path is written for
Someone in Australia who has heard of a free game, has a Windows or Linux desktop machine, and would like to know what they are agreeing to before an account exists in their name. Nothing here needs prior knowledge of the genre. Each step is a separate page, each page answers one question, and the steps can be read out of order if only one of them matters to you.
The path is deliberately front-loaded. Most of the friction in free-to-play games arrives after sign-up — an account tied to an address you now regret using, a machine that runs the game badly, an in-game purchase you did not realise was randomised, a support request that goes nowhere. All of that is easier to handle beforehand, and most of it takes a few minutes.
Five things worth knowing before the first step
- "Free to play" describes the entry price, not the whole business. The money arrives later, through cosmetic items, progression shortcuts, season passes, or randomised containers, and the mix differs sharply between titles.
- Account creation is usually the point of no return for your data, not installation. The email address you choose is the one that will carry password resets, marketing and any future breach notification.
- Hardware requirements are published by the vendor and change between updates. A machine that ran a title two years ago is not guaranteed to run it now.
- Australian Consumer Law applies to digital products and to in-game purchases made from Australia; the ACCC explains consumer guarantees and how to act on them.
- Computer games distributed in Australia sit within the national classification scheme. The Australian Classification Board is the body to check for a specific title's classification, rather than a storefront's own age label.
What each step covers
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How free-to-play actually works
The common monetisation models in plain terms, what "activate your account" means in practice, and the questions worth asking about a title's economy before you invest hours in it.
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Checking your PC and operating system
Where to find your processor, memory, graphics card and free disk space on Windows and on Linux, why some titles support Windows and Linux but not macOS, and what connection quality means for a game with servers offshore.
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Setting up the account
Choosing an email address for gaming, using a password manager, turning on multi-factor authentication where it is offered, and recognising the phishing patterns that cluster around popular games.
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Understanding the vehicle-combat subgenre
How build-your-own-vehicle combat games differ from arena shooters and racing games, what a crafting economy does to the way you spend time, and the vocabulary that appears in their menus.
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The titles covered here
A profile of Crossout built only from the description supplied by the advertising network, with an explicit list of the things that description does not state, so you know what still has to be checked on the vendor's own site.
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Classification and in-game purchases
How Australian classification works, where to look a title up, the parental control tools the eSafety Commissioner points to, and how randomised in-game items differ from ordinary purchases.
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Your rights, and where to get help
Consumer guarantees on digital products, the order in which to escalate a complaint, and which Australian body handles scams, privacy, online harms and security incidents.
The title covered in detail
Coverage on this site is narrow by design, and it is honest about why: Crossout is the one title Concept Base has a commercial relationship with, and it is the one title profiled here. The description below comes from the material supplied by the advertising network that represents the game — it is the only source used for product-specific statements.
That material describes Crossout as a massively multiplayer game set in a post-apocalyptic setting, in which the central element is the vehicle each player builds. It says the game offers a large number of ways to modify a vehicle's appearance and its parameters, covering shape and armour, armament and support systems, and decorative accessories. It is presented as free to play. Access requires creating an account, confirming the email address, and signing in. The offer terms cover desktop Windows and Linux; macOS is outside them.
Things that material does not state include system requirements, the size of the download, whether any in-game items are sold through randomised containers, the Australian classification, and the price of anything sold inside the game. Those are questions for the vendor's own site, and step five lists them as a checklist rather than guessing at answers.
This is a paid link. Concept Base is paid a commission by the advertising network if you register and confirm an account after following it; the game's own terms and pricing are unaffected.
What this site is not
It is not the official site of any game, and it is not operated by, endorsed by or affiliated with any publisher. It is not a news publication and carries no reporting. It does not host downloads, installers or patches, and no page here will scan, check or diagnose your device. There is no account support here — a lost password or a banned account is a matter for the vendor, and no one at Concept Base can act on it.
Australian services worth having bookmarked
These are genuine government resources, listed because each one covers a situation that comes up in this category. They are not partners of this site and nothing here is endorsed by them.
- Australian Cyber Security Centre
- Federal guidance on securing accounts and devices, and the channel for reporting a cybercrime such as a compromised account.
- Scamwatch, run by the National Anti-Scam Centre
- Where to report a scam and to read about current ones, including fake giveaways and account-theft attempts aimed at players.
- eSafety Commissioner
- Australia's regulator for online safety, with material on gaming, parental controls and reporting online abuse.
- Australian Competition and Consumer Commission
- Consumer guarantees, misleading conduct, and what to do when a business does not honour them.
- Office of the Australian Information Commissioner
- The privacy regulator, for complaints about how an organisation has handled personal information.
How coverage here is decided
Concept Base covers one category and, at present, one title within it. Pages are written from the vendor description supplied through the advertising network, from published government sources, and from general knowledge of how PC games are distributed. Where a fact is not available from one of those, the page says so rather than filling the gap. The about page sets out the method and the publisher's details, and every claim we make about a product is meant to be one we could defend to a regulator.