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

Epic’s crippled store is finally connected mobile. Next up, the institution plans to adhd features that marque radical privation to usage it — connected some mobile and PC.

A cardinal happening Epic Games wants to present is what store brag Steve Allison calls a “social framework” — deliberation the types of societal and chat features you spot connected consoles oregon Steam.

“Our societal features connected PC suck,” Allison says successful an interrogation with The Verge. “Let’s telephone it what it is.” Social features are the “battery that powers Fortnite,” Allison says, and Epic wants to “take that battle-tested societal model and determination it up from Fortnite up to the store level.” The thought is that you’ll beryllium capable to enactment up and chat with your Epic Games friends crossed devices, theoretically meaning that friends connected Android, iOS, and PC could each bent retired done the Epic Games level (not conscionable Fortnite).

We mightiness beryllium waiting a portion to effort the societal features out, though, arsenic Allison says they won’t get until astatine slightest aft summertime 2025.

More immediately, Epic is readying to bring its escaped games programme to mobile sometime successful the 4th fourth (which, if you’re watching the calendar, is this quarter!). Unlike connected PC, escaped mobile games whitethorn not beryllium offered play to start, though they’ll astir apt determination to weekly once Epic launches tools to self-publish connected its mobile store. (That diagnostic volition astir apt motorboat successful the archetypal fractional of 2025, Allison said successful a Tuesday sheet astatine Unreal Fest.) Some escaped games mightiness lone beryllium disposable connected Android due to the fact that of Apple’s halfway exertion fee, which could sting developers with costs they whitethorn not beryllium capable to pay. 

Third-party games are acceptable to look successful the mobile Epic Games Store successful the 4th fourth arsenic good (Allison has antecedently pegged the motorboat for December). During the Unreal Fest panel, Allison said that Epic aims to person 10 to 50 games disposable astatine launch. Yes, that’s a wide range, and Allison tells The Verge that the large “gating factor” is implementing payments. Since astir mobile developers trust connected Google oregon Apple’s outgo processing platforms, they person to measure utilizing Epic’s outgo processing platforms oregon others. During the Unreal Fest keynote, though, Epic shared 1 crippled coming to its mobile stores: ARK: Ultimate Mobile Edition.

Epic seems to beryllium seeing guardant momentum with the store overall, announcing during the keynote that it deed a grounds 70 cardinal monthly progressive users successful September. However, fixed the roadblocks Apple and Android telephone makers enactment up to installing third-party stores connected their mobile platforms, Epic isn’t seeing the measurement of mobile store installs it had hoped.

At the motorboat of the mobile stores in August, Allison said that Epic was aiming for 100 cardinal nett caller Epic Games Store mobile installations by the extremity of the year, but Sweeney said recently that determination person lone been 10 cardinal mobile installs. Allison believes that the caller features coming successful the 4th fourth could promote much users to propulsion done the friction. But helium adds that, with the friction, getting to that 100 cardinal installs by the extremity of the twelvemonth “is apt impossible.”