Theme Hospital is Origin's latest "On the House" freebie

Theme Hospital

The late-90s Bullfrog hit Theme Hospital is a "business simulation game," according to its surprisingly lengthy Wikipedia entry, but it's substantially less serious than that sounds. To wit: "The Grim Reaper stalks the corridors, the ill have some very odd ailments, and the staff want to play doctors and nurses together. No matter how you look at it, you're in control of a very sick hospital."

More to point, it's now available "on the house," which is to say that it's free, without restriction or condition other than the usual (and, as far as I can tell, unspecified) limited window of opportunity to actually lay claim to the thing. Just fire up Origin, go to the Theme Hospital page, and click the "gimme" button. Once the game is added to your account, it's yours forever. Enjoy, it's quite the classic. Now, is anyone free to look at this rash?

Andy Chalk
US News Lead

Andy has been gaming on PCs from the very beginning, starting as a youngster with text adventures and primitive action games on a cassette-based TRS80. From there he graduated to the glory days of Sierra Online adventures and Microprose sims, ran a local BBS, learned how to build PCs, and developed a longstanding love of RPGs, immersive sims, and shooters. He began writing videogame news in 2007 for The Escapist and somehow managed to avoid getting fired until 2014, when he joined the storied ranks of PC Gamer. He covers all aspects of the industry, from new game announcements and patch notes to legal disputes, Twitch beefs, esports, and Henry Cavill. Lots of Henry Cavill.

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