Epic Games, off the back of Fortnite's unprecedented success, is continuing to branch out in inspired ways. Today the company revealed a 2019 roadmap to launch Epic's Online Services, a set of cross-platform game services designed for Fortnite but which will soon be available to all developers for their own games for free. Epic's Online Services will be supported on all engines, all platforms, and all stores - no regulated limitations.
In building Fortnite, Epic found itself establishing a rare and robust platform. After all, Fortnite is available across seven different platforms, has multi-platform login for Facebook, Google, Xbox Live, PSN, and Nintendo accounts on top of Epic's own account system, bringing together a cited 200,000,000 players worldwide. The ability for studios to utilize Epic's Online Services rather than build their own, but still develop and release their game as they like is potentially a game changer.
These are the specific services that Epic plans to roll out through 2019, though Epic notes that these are just the core set of features planned and that they'll expand over time:
- Cross-Platform Login, Friends, Presence, Profile, and Entitlements - Q2-Q3 2019 on PC, Other Platforms to Follow
- PC/Mac Overlay API - Q3 2019
- Cross-Platform Voice Comms - Q3 2019
- Cross-Platform Parties and Matchmaking - Q3-Q4 2019
- Cross-Platform Data Storage - Q2 2019
- Cross-Platform Achievements and Trophies - Q3 2019
Future additions to the service may include support for user-generated content and anti-cheat.
One note of warning is worth mentioning, however. Epic acknowledges that while it's going to work to implement all core services across all platforms, not all platforms will allow such services to be implemented in their entirety. Case in point: the struggle to get Fortnite cross-play on PS4. Fortnite, being the wild success that it is, tends to be given a free pass to implement these features as needed. Game agnostic services may not be supported in the same way.
The ways in which Epic's Online Services will affect the industry or the inherent value in what Epic is offering up will only be proven in time. Obviously, the more games that take advantage of what Epic is creating, the greater benefit to Epic. Especially so due to Epic's newly launched Epic Games Store, which will be ingrained in the overall Epic platform even if it isn't directly accessible from any given game that uses these online services. Nevertheless, Epic's impressive goals continue to expand. What will come next is anyone's guess.