Epic Games Launching Online Services for Cross-Platform Play
With Fortnite being a breakaway success, Epic Games announced that they’ll be releasing a series of cross-platform services for free to developers in conjunction with Unreal Engine and Unity. While these services were built for and tested within Fortnite, Epic will be offering them to all developers across all engines, platforms and stores.
While no hard dates are set for any features, Epic has provided rough quarterly estimates for the features they plan on rolling out as a part of this package. The Core features currently planned include:
- Cross-Platform Login and Presence – “Throughout 2019” – This will allow for players to be recognized across multiple game sessions and devices across all 7 major platforms.(PC,Mac, Android, iOS, PlayStation, Switch and Xbox)
- PC/Mac Overlay – Q3 2019 – This will allow for user interfaces that don’t interrupt the flow of games.
- Cross-Platform Voice Comms – Q3 2019 – The team at Epic is currently building an entirely new in-game voice communication service for all platforms.
- Cross-Platform Parties and Match Making – Q3-Q4 2019 –Â Just as it says on the box – party up with your team across different platforms.
- Cross-Platform Data Storage and Cloud Saves – Q2 2019 – Cloud save and access data, anywhere, anytime
- Cross-Platform Achievements and Trophies – Q3 2019 – Earn on one platform, carry it over to another.
These are the outlined first steps that Epic is bringing to the developers table – as they continue to build Fortnite, more features such as support for user-generated content and new social features are being developed.
The ultimate goal behind Epic’s launching this tool set for developers is connecting people – allowing a seamless gaming experience by connecting already existing social and gaming accounts. More information will be released in the coming months.
With some of the key features already unveiled – what sort additional features do you think Epic could reveal? Let us know in the comments below!