To reach all audiences, developers need to port their titles across multiple stores and platforms by implementing different sets of services and account systems for each store. Because these services aren’t interoperable it means players cannot play with friends who have purchased from different stores, despite owning the exact same game.
Today, we are launching a new crossplay tool for game developers—starting with PC. This service is the first in a series of plug-and-play crossplay services that give developers everything they need to connect their game and community across platforms and stores.
Epic Online Services crossplay now works seamlessly on Steam and Epic Games Store, enabling Steam players to search from over half a billion friends, connect and play. Development to natively support more PC stores is underway, as well as macOS and Linux support for desktop, with support for crossplay on console and mobile platforms coming later.
To make it easy for players to connect with friends across PC stores, Epic Online Services includes an overlay that merges Steam and Epic Games friends into a single list, as well as an interface to search for friends, send and receive friend requests, and join multiplayer game sessions across stores.
Anyone that’s ever developed a crossplay game knows that there are a lot of elements that go into making it feel seamless. Here’s how the new features help facilitate that process.
Today, we are launching a new crossplay tool for game developers—starting with PC. This service is the first in a series of plug-and-play crossplay services that give developers everything they need to connect their game and community across platforms and stores.
Epic Online Services crossplay now works seamlessly on Steam and Epic Games Store, enabling Steam players to search from over half a billion friends, connect and play. Development to natively support more PC stores is underway, as well as macOS and Linux support for desktop, with support for crossplay on console and mobile platforms coming later.
To make it easy for players to connect with friends across PC stores, Epic Online Services includes an overlay that merges Steam and Epic Games friends into a single list, as well as an interface to search for friends, send and receive friend requests, and join multiplayer game sessions across stores.
Anyone that’s ever developed a crossplay game knows that there are a lot of elements that go into making it feel seamless. Here’s how the new features help facilitate that process.
- All friends, one place. Steam and Epic Games Store friends merge into one overlay allowing players to see all friends in a single list.
- Integrated game invites. In-game, players can search and send invites to friends across Steam and the Epic Games Store, making connecting and playing together easy.
- Account linking. Onboarding without emails or password prompts. With just a few clicks, Steam players can jump into a game while an Epic Games account is created under the hood for their Steam account.
- Update-free improvements. When games are installed, the crossplay features are distributed via a self-updating in-game overlay. Players can enjoy new features and improvements without needing to update anything themselves.
- Plug-and-play SDK. Each Epic Online Services toolset is self-contained, so developers can mix and match the services they want to implement, incorporate the things they want, and leave the rest. Crossplay tools are no different.
