Epic Games is going all out in the mobile sector: these are their plans for 2024

Epic Games is going to develop a specific store for mobile developers, promising a reduced commission for Unreal developers, a free games program, self-publishing tools, social features, and up to 50 third-party games by the end of the year.

In a roundtable, the general manager of Epic Games Store, Steve Allison, stated that up to 50 third-party games could arrive at their mobile game store in the fourth quarter.

Epic’s “free games” program, a major user acquisition tool for its PC store, will also be coming to mobile, it said, with self-publishing tools and social features also on the way.

The creator of Fortnite also announced a new “launch everywhere with Epic” program. From now on, it will charge 3.5% less for Unreal Engine games that launch on Epic Games Store before or at the same time as on other stores and platforms.

Release and Free Games Policy

This is what the general manager of Epic Games Store, Steve Allison, said about the mobile games store during a roundtable following yesterday’s presentation at the Unreal Fest:

“During the holiday season, we will open with our first third-party applications,” he said. “We probably expect between 10 and 50 to be ready, and the most important thing will be the implementation of a payment solution, so that might cause some of them to be released in the following months.”

“The free games program will launch in the fourth quarter, along with third-party applications, and we are going to have some amazing things for players that will also be incredible for developers, because they will help us scale very quickly.”

ARK: Ultimate Mobile Edition by Grove Street Games hits the Epic Games Store later this year!

Android worldwide, iOS for the EU. pic.twitter.com/XKdHCo9g5s

— ARK Ascended News (@ARKAscendedNews) October 2, 2024

“And then there are the self-publishing tools, which means that developers can get in without any interaction with us, as they do on PC today, probably in the first half of the year, hopefully as close to January as possible.”

Epic is also working on enabling social and party features through its store, such as in-game chat and cross-platform play, which could be rolled out “a little later in the year,” Allison said. “When these three things come together, we will be ready.”

And, of course, Tim Sweeney took the opportunity to criticize his old enemies, Apple and Google, during the event. “Apple and Google have a completely broken worldview, which consists of limiting what developers can do, imposing more and more restrictions, preventing things like the metaverse from happening, or taxing them to the point of extracting all their profit,” he said during the keynote.