Epic Games’ Unreal Fest:

Plenty was shown at this years Unreal Fest, I thought I’d just format this together for Lemmy.

Unreal Fest Orlando ‘25 gave us an expanded look at Epic’s roadmap for the store in 2025 and what’s next. So, here’s a summary and a bunch of pictures to show what they’re up to:

From Epic Games Store 2024 Year in Review:

Next year we will continue to make significant investments in the Epic Games Store with the intention of improving both the player and partner experience. Some of the highlights include:

Epic Games Store Mobile App:

The Epic Games Store on Android and iOS will continue to be a focal point of our development roadmap throughout the next year. Initial work on the app will include building an enhanced App Library & Discover Experience to scale against an ever-increasing catalog size, and, for our developers, AAB file type Support. This is only the start; much more is still to be announced!

Non-Gaming Apps: The Epic Games Store aims to allow the publishing of all types of content a gamer might need across PC and mobile offerings. Within our Self Publishing Tools, we’ll be opening up the ability to self-publish non-gaming apps offering a wider variety of content to be listed on all Epic Games Store supported platforms.

Gifting: Sharing is caring, particularly when it comes to gaming, and so in 2025 we’ll be adding gifting to our list of purchase options!

New Download Manager (PC/MAC): Originally planned for release in Q4 2024, the wait is nearly over and our PC Launcher will have an entirely new Download Manager, now arriving in Q1 2025. The functionality will include the ability to control the timing of updates, schedule downloads, and reorder your queue; amongst other quality-of-life changes.

Pre-Loading (PC/MAC): Pre-Loading will allow players to download and install their pre-purchased content ahead of launch, ready to play from the moment a title is officially released.

Search & Browse Overhaul (PC/MAC): New features including predictive search and semantic search are in development along with several under the hood improvements.  Expanded Search will move into full release with improvements.

Multi-Platform Social:  We’re bringing new social features to all of our players with robust support for connecting with your friends. This comes via all new voice chat, text chat, game independent parties, invite/join/play and looking-for-group features across all Epic Games Store supported platforms.

Platform Store Switching: Users will be able to switch from their native platform store view to other supported platforms to browse and shop for apps.

Beyond these highlights, we’re also dedicated to improving your experience through continuous updates to the Launcher and Store, focusing on areas like performance, stability, and ease of use.

The full link is here, so you can see more!

Expanded 2025 Roadmap from Unreal Fest Orlando 2025:

PC:

  • Download Manager (March 2025)

  • Pre-loading

  • Gifting

  • Language Expansion

Mobile:

  • Search and Browse

  • Friends, Presence, Text and Voice Chat

  • Authenticator and QR Code Login

PC + Mobile:

  • Wallet Cards (POSA)

  • EGS Webshops

Ongoing Workstreams:

  • Product Page Improvements
  • Improved content discovery and surfaces
  • Search Improvements

Mobile SPT will come Q4 2025

Up Next Roadmap:

PC:

  • Dynamic Merchandising Surfaces

  • Regional Storefronts

  • Bundling

  • Friends Activity and Social Shopping

Mobile:

  • Library Management

  • Gifting

  • Clip Capture and Sharing

PC and Mobile

  • Remote Install

  • Multi-Platform Shopping

Ongoing Workstreams:

  • Launcher Performance

  • Improved Wishlist Communications

  • Social. Social. Social.

2025 Roadmap Concepts:

PC Concepts:

Gifting:

Pre-Loading:

Expanded Store Localization:

EGS Mobile Concepts:

EGS Mobile Improvements:

EGS Mobile Search:

EGS Mobile Browse:

EGS Mobile Social:

QR Code Login:

Authenticator:

PC + Mobile Concepts:

Wallet Cards: (Epic’s own V-Bucks will work to purchase games on the site, not just as Fortnite’s currency)

Webshops:

[The link to the livestream / video on YouTube (presented in 4K) is here, if you’d like to see it in video form](Livestream 2, Day 1 | Unreal Fest 2025 - YouTube)

Other News:

The Witcher 4:

The show kicked off with a technical demo we’ve been working on with CD PROJEKT RED — not The Witcher 4 itself, but a showcase of some of the cutting-edge tech powering the new Witcher saga. We also revealed the latest on Unreal Engine 5.6, including major performance upgrades to empower teams to build large-scale open worlds that, just like this tech demo, run smoothly on current-gen hardware.

When we launched Unreal Engine 5 three years ago, CD PROJEKT RED announced they would collaborate with us to bring large open-world support to the engine. Together at the State of Unreal, we revealed what we’ve been working on.

The Witcher 4 Unreal Engine 5 Tech Demo follows witcher Ciri, a professional monster slayer, as she explores the never-before-seen region of Kovir in the midst of a monster contract.

The tech demo provides an early look at a number of 5.6’s powerful new open-world features in action — all running on PlayStation 5 at 60 frames per second with raytracing — including the new, faster way to load open worlds via the Fast Geometry Streaming Plugin.

As Ciri explores the bustling market of Valdrest, we see how 5.6 handles busy scenes full of high-fidelity characters and visual effects like ML Deformer. The tech demo also showcases Nanite Foliage — which provides a fast and memory efficient way to achieve gorgeous foliage density and fidelity, slated for release in UE 5.7.

  • one thing to note is that the videos other channels on YouTube have of the tech demo of Witcher 4 are limited to 1080p - not 4K. The only 4K video you can see at the moment is from the Epic presentation itself, but maybe that’ll change?!

Epic Itself:

The Epic Games Store has now paid developer and publisher partners over $2.1 billion since launch. On mobile, EGS now has a library of 70 awesome games and 40 million installs to date, and it’s on track to hit 70 million by the end of 2025. To give publishers an even better deal, we just changed our initial revenue share to 0% for the first $1 million then 12% thereafter.

The facts are just presented by a bunch of pictures, so I’ll share them here:

Obv lots more was announced and covered, including Unreal Engine 5.6, but this is all I can be bothered formatting!

  • Fizz@lemmy.nzEnglish
    3·
    1 day ago

    Those prices must be very enticing for devs. Hopefully we get competition in the space and devs can get a larger % of their game sales.

    Also these platforms are pissing me off when they say the games cross platform but they just mean steam and epic. Thats not cross platform you oafs!

  • PerfectDark@lemmy.worldOPEnglish
    367·
    2 days ago

    And FFS don’t send me weird rage-filled basement-dweller DM’s on all my platforms demanding to know why I’m friendly to Epic. The last time I posted something with Epic news in it, some of you really took it badly.

    It was weird.

    • bimbimboy@lemm.eeEnglish
      186·
      2 days ago

      “Omg how dare you write good news about another multibillionaire gaming platform that is not steam? I’m literally crying and shaking right now 😭”. It’s so sad that people go this low on the internet.

      Anyways, don’t pay attention to them, love your work on the fediverse!

      • PerfectDark@lemmy.worldOPEnglish
        147·
        2 days ago

        Hahahah thank you!!!

        Its…odd, I had a few send me messages on Matrix berating me and saying all kinds of silly crass nonsense that just made them look like children.

        I don’t know why, but people get such a dedicated brand-loyalty hatred against Epic that it turns them into cretins.

        Fingers crossed they stay quiet this time!!!

  • Krudler@lemmy.worldEnglish
    41·
    2 days ago

    The last feature Epic added that was meaningful was the ability to look at my own game library.

    They still have a storefront without reviews… They have ratings “captured from the ecosystem”.

    They remain a joke.

  • CosmoNova@lemmy.worldEnglish
    7·
    2 days ago

    What actually stuck out most to me besides Witcher 4 was their LLM based „Don‘t press the button“ game presentation at the very end of the show. No one is really talking about it because it was really lame but I think it‘s telling how they showed the AI driven stuff after everything else almost to kind of sweep it under the rug because they know most people are already sick of AI but they still had to include it for gullible shareholders or something.

  • B0NK3RS@lemmy.worldEnglish
    61·
    2 days ago

    Thanks for this.

    The biggest feature I’m waiting for is family sharing of some sort. That would get Epic a lot more use from us since whenever I think my wife/kids might like a game I use GOG or Steam.

    Regarding DMs, people need to stand up for the little guy… Steam won’t survive without complete devotion… I’m sorry to hear it happens because your post are great.

    • PerfectDark@lemmy.worldOPEnglish
      42·
      2 days ago

      They’ve a lot of work to do, but it is nice to see a roadmap of what’s ahead for them!

  • Rose@lemmy.zipEnglish
    117·
    2 days ago

    People love to bash Epic and list all the (often redundant) things Steam is ahead in, but nobody mentions the ways in which Epic is ahead. Something as simple as being able to chat with your friends is no longer a feature of the mobile Steam client, but if Epic sticks to the roadmap, their app will allow that. It also makes me think of how despite so many years of existence, Steam still doesn’t allow to add game editions to your wishlist, while Epic has allowed that from the start. It was also the first to introduce a custom value field for downloads throttling, before Steam followed suit.

    • Poopfeast420@discuss.tchncs.deEnglish
      4·
      2 days ago

      Wishlisting specific Game Editions would be nice, but how are you comparing nice-to-have features like that or custom download limits to stuff like Pre-Loading, Gifting, Bundles, etc.

      For me, a separate Chat app for Steam is also a complete non-issue. I can’t really think of anything, that would improve, if it was integrated in the normal Steam app. Separate download and one initial login less? You can launch the Chat app from the Steam app itself, so you don’t even save that single extra tap to launch it, and for the user it’s basically the same as an integrated chat.

      • Rose@lemmy.zipEnglish
        31·
        2 days ago

        The OP says global preloading and gifting are going live soon. Bundles are also on the roadmap. At the end of the day though, what’s the main benefit of a bundle? It’s the discount, right? I’m not sure the discounts offered via bundles on Steam are an overall better deal compared to Epic offering cashback of 5% on everything, sometimes increased to 20% (like now). For some countries, Epic also offers significantly better base prices compared to Steam. It still supports the Turkish and Argentinian currencies and presumably has specific price guidelines for those as well, compared to Steam having removed those options. I also remember Epic talking about supporting more regional currencies compared to Steam. From looking at the documentation now, it’s 37 on Steam and 43 on Epic.

        Regarding the app, I disagree. It was very convenient to have everything in one place (which Steam fans should understand, given their reluctance to use a different launcher) and I used the chat feature all the time, but after Valve separated them, I just got tired of switching and ended up not installing the chat app after resetting my phone OS. Sometimes I need to message a friend, but I feel like the effort of installing it and logging in is not worth it for those occasions.

        • Poopfeast420@discuss.tchncs.deEnglish
          22·
          2 days ago

          Finally, some real examples, where EGS is better than Steam, that actually impact people and might make them use EGS. Price is probably the most important one. If someone from Argentina pays like half as much on EGS as they would on Steam (don’t know how much it actually is), because EGS actually accepts their local currency and they don’t have to pay in USD or something, then it makes sense to switch to EGS

          Also, EGS is better for devs than Steam, with revenue share, now even more so, as mentioned in the post. I don’t think a lot of people will buy on EGS solely for that reason, but it is something.

          The OP says global preloading and gifting are going live soon

          That’s why I mentioned them. You basically said, people (maybe unjustly) talk shit about EGS because of missing features like that, when they also have some advantages over Steam, and then talk about the most mundane stuff. “I might not be able to pre-load this game, but at least I can cap my download at 13468kb/s.” Those two are not the same.

          It was very convenient to have everything in one place

          As I said, with the button to switch to the Chat inside the Steam app, it’s basically the same. What is the real difference of clicking that button and switching to a different app, compared to clicking that button and switching to a new screen inside the same app? I genuinely can’t think of one. You could argue a separate app is better, because now you can open both apps at the same time in split screen, so you can browse the store or community pages, while chatting (I wouldn’t do that, but it’s possible).

          I’m not sure the discounts offered via bundles on Steam are an overall better deal compared to Epic offering cashback of 5% on everything, sometimes increased to 20% (like now)

          Probably not, most of the time, and this post doesn’t detail what bundling for EGS means. Steam has normal game bundles and the Complete-your-Collection bundles, which is dynamic and can give some extra discounts.

          However, with Steam keys from legit third-party sites, you might get an even better deal at times, maybe better than on EGS, so I don’t really know where it’s the cheapest.