Epic Games Store opens up to mobile self-publishing in August

• The Epic Games Store aims to be a multi-platform, games-focused marketplace.
• EGS GM Steve Allison says Epic has been in talks with major publishers to release on the store.

The Epic Games Store will allow mobile publishers on iOS and Android to start self-publishing their games from August.

Speaking to PocketGamer.biz at GDC, EGS GM Steve Allison said the focus is on making the marketplace a games-focused app. However, the store may still end up housing gaming-adjacent utility, development and creator apps.

The comments come after Epic’s court win against Apple and recent global settlement with Google to cut store fees to 20% (plus a 5% payment fee) while removing anti-steering - subject to judge approval in the US.

Major publishers on board?

“We totally believe there's a market for that,” Allison told us. “We've, we've tested it pretty extensively before we made the commitment to do it. We know that there's a cohort of players, it's not a small footprint of players, and they're super interested in that."

He added: “We have a ways to go to get there. The Google settlement helps us on Android. We have a lot of friction with iOS still, so we’ve got to get through all that before we really get to see the other side of it, but there's a lot of encouraging signs on Android.

“...I don’t expect to see iOS have a high take rate because of the friction like CTF fees, and the CTC fees in Japan. But on Android I expect we’ll start to see a lot of folks come in that we didn’t expect and we’re also going to see movement from the majors we’ve been talking to.”

In January, Epic started rolling out a social framework that aims to connect the PC, Android and iOS store apps. It plans to deliver social and cross-platform features, from text chat with avatars, player profiles and private messaging, which will be opened up to developers to include in their games later this year through Epic Online Services. In June, Epic also aims to add voice chat, Allison said.

Our full interview with Allison will be published soon.