Good news for smartphone gamers! Epic Games announced at the Unreal Fest event in Seattle that it plans to launch its already popular free games program on PC on its mobile Epic Games Store by the end of the year. Enough to compete with Apple Arcade and its subscription at €6.99/month.
Up to 50 third-party games available by the end of 2024
Steve Allison, general manager of the Epic Games Store, indicated that between 10 and 50 third-party games could be available on Epic’s mobile store by Q4 2024. One of the first titles will be Ark: Ultimate Mobile Edition, a version optimized for mobile devices of the popular dinosaur survival game.
At the same time, Epic will also deploy a self-publishing tool allowing developers to put their games on the mobile Epic Games Store independently, without intervention from the publisher. This tool is planned for the first half of 2025.
Games offered every week like on PC
But the most anticipated feature is undoubtedly the arrival of the free games program, which has largely contributed to the success of the Epic Games Store on PC. Every week, the store offers players the opportunity to collect quality games for free.
This program will be launched on mobile at the same time as the first third-party games, in the 4th quarter of 2024. Excellent news to quickly attract many players to the platform. Epic is also working on social features like voice chat or cross-platform gaming which will arrive a little later.
As on PC, Epic wants to make its store popular. For the company, the strategy behind the free game offers is to attract more and more users who log in regularly to claim the games. You will nevertheless have to deal with Apple’s taxes, in particular the Core Technology Fee which affects applications, including free ones, installed outside the App Store.
Apple and Google in Epic’s sights
Tim Sweeney, the CEO of Epic, took advantage of the event to once again criticize Apple and Google, accusing them of having “a completely biased vision” by imposing too many restrictions and taxes on developers.
The launch of the Epic Games Store on mobile is part of Epic’s fight to open up mobile platforms. But the game is far from won. Recently, Epic sued Google and Samsung over the blocking of sideloading (installation of apps outside the official store) on Samsung devices.
The Epic Games Store is currently available worldwide on Android, but only in the European Union on iOS, until Epic wins its case against Apple. Cupertino has some concerns with its Arcade subscription which, with the games offered by Epic, will undoubtedly lose interest. In any case, European mobile gamers have reason to rejoice, they will soon be able to enjoy free games every week thanks to Epic!
