Epic’s mobile games store: up to 50 titles by Q4, free games program, lower fees for Unreal developers, more

Epic has fleshed out its Games Store approach for mobile developers a bit, promising reduced commissions for Unreal developers, a free games program, self-publishing tools, social features and up to 50 live third-party games by the end of the year.

There was also the obligatory smack talk from Tim Sweeney at the Unreal Fest in Seattle, where the CEO of Epic continued his strong criticism of Apple and Google.

In a panel after the keynote, Steve Allison, general manager of the Epic Games Store, said that up to 50 third-party games could be available on the mobile games store by the fourth quarter. Epic’s Free Games program, a key user acquisition tool for the PC store, is also coming to mobile devices, he said, and self-publishing tools and social features are also on the way.

Ark: Ultimate Mobile Edition was also unveiled as one of the first third-party titles available on the mobile Epic Games Store. It will launch there later this year.

The Fortnite maker also announced a new “Launch Everywhere with Epic” program. Unreal Engine games released on the Epic Games Store before or at the same time as other stores and platforms will now be charged a reduced license fee of 3.5%.

Due to Apple, the requirement to ship on iOS is temporarily waived ““Commercially prohibitive” core technology fee, but if that changes, Epic says it will give developers at least four months’ notice.

Here’s what Steve Allison, General Manager of the Epic Games Store, said about the Mobile Games Store in a panel following yesterday’s Unreal Fest keynote:

“During the holiday season we will begin rolling out our first third-party applications,” he said. “We’re probably expecting between 10 and 50 of these to be ready, and the biggest one will just be implementing a payment solution, so some of those may be pushed back into the next few months.”

“The free games program will launch in the fourth quarter along with the third-party apps, and we’ll have some great stuff for players that will also be great for developers because it will help us scale really quickly.”

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

Epic is also working to enable social and party features through its store, such as in-game chat and cross-platform play, which could launch “a little later in the year,” Allison said. “When all three of these things come together, the racing begins.”

And of course Tim Sweeney took the opportunity during the event to criticize old adversaries Apple and Google. “Apple and Google have a completely fractured vision for the world, which is to limit what developers can do, to impose more and more restrictions, to prevent things like the metaverse, or to tax it to the point where they squeeze all the profit out of it,” he said during the keynote.

“And we’re now at a point where game development is expensive. The margin is low and game companies are suffering because of it. Apple and Google make far more profit on most games than the developers themselves, without paying anything back. That has to change.”

Sweeney later promised that Epic would continue to fight Apple and Google to open their platforms “until there is a final victory.”

Later, in a panel about mobile app stores, Sweeney continued his blistering criticism of the tech giants, including reference to Epic’s recent lawsuit. “Google nominally allows competing stores on Android, but Google is much more insidious than Apple,” he said. “At least that’s what Apple tells you – their rules say, ‘You’re not allowed to compete with us.’ Google says you are and then does all sorts of crooked things to block you.”

He later accused Apple and Google of “simply ignoring the law” and “interpreting the law in a completely disingenuous way.”

“Apple and Google’s fear-mongering and bad practices and attempts to put junk fees on things are really making competition very difficult,” he added. “But yes, that’s why we’re fighting, and that’s why we’re fighting, and we’ll keep fighting until the problem is solved.”