Epic knows its game store social features ‘suck,’ but it wants to fix that

Epic's Game Store is finally available on mobile devices. Next, the company plans to add features that will make people want to use it – both on mobile and mobile And PC.

One key thing Epic Games wants to introduce is what store boss Steve Allison calls a “social framework” – think of the types of social and chat features you see on consoles or Steam.

“Our social features on PC suck,” says Allison in an interview with The edge. “Let’s call it what it is.” Social functions are the “battery that powers.” Fortnitesays Allison, and Epic wants to “take this battle-tested social framework and move it up.” Fortnite up to the store level.” The idea is that you can party and chat with your Epic Games friends across devices, which theoretically means friends on Android, iOS and PC could all hang out via the Epic Games platform (not only). Fortnite).

However, we may have to wait a while to try out the social features, as Allison says they won't be available until after summer 2025 at the earliest.

In the short term, Epic plans to bring its free games program to mobile devices sometime in the fourth quarter (which, if you're paying attention to the calendar, is this quarter!). Unlike on PC, free mobile games may not initially be offered weekly, although they will likely move to weekly Once Epic introduces self-publishing tools to its mobile store. (This feature will likely roll out in the first half of 2025, Allison said in a panel discussion at Unreal Fest on Tuesday.) Some free games may only be available on Android due to Apple's core technology fee, which could incur costs for developers may not have been able to pay.

Third-party games are also expected to appear on the mobile Epic Games Store in the fourth quarter (Allison previously scheduled the release for December). During the Unreal Fest panel, Allison said that Epic wants to have 10 to 50 games available at launch. Yes, it's a broad spectrum, and Allison tells it The edge that the big “gating factor” is the implementation of payments. Since most mobile developers rely on Google or Apple's payment processing platforms, they need to evaluate the use of Epic or others' payment processing platforms. However, during the Unreal Fest keynote, Epic shared a game that will be available on its mobile stores: ARK: Ultimate Mobile Edition.

Epic appears to be making headway with the store overall, announcing during the keynote that it had reached a record 70 million monthly active users in September. However, given the hurdles Apple and Android phone makers put in installing third-party stores on their mobile platforms, Epic isn't seeing the volume of mobile store installs it hoped for.

At the mobile store launch in August, Allison said Epic was targeting 100 million net new mobile installs on the Epic Games Store by the end of the year, but Sweeney recently said there had only been 10 million mobile installs. Allison believes the new features rolling out in the fourth quarter could encourage more users to overcome tensions. But he adds that it is “probably impossible” to reach 100 million installs by the end of the year given the tensions.

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