Epic Games is updating its PC storefront eight years after its launch, bringing the app experience closer to what one might expect from Steam. At Unreal Fest last week, the company shared a year-long roadmap focused on making the Epic Games Store faster and easier to navigate. These changes follow years of criticism over what users say is a clunky launcher experience and a lack of basic features.
According to a photo taken at Unreal Fest and shared on Reddit, Epic will soon introduce user reviews, player profiles, and community tools to its store, mimicking Steam’s user-driven discovery model. Game pages will feature full-text reviews, and profiles and avatars will help players stand out in their library and friends list. Epic also plans to improve search, offer more personalized recommendations, incorporate publisher-funded coupons, and enhance the overall user experience, per the presentation slide shown in the photograph.
On the technical side, Epic is building a “V2” version of its launcher (which won’t be built on Unreal Engine) and hopes to reduce the client’s load time by 5x. The company will improve the storefront’s design to make navigation easier and more reliable for PC players. Universal controller support labels and hardware checks that tell users how a game will perform on their PC will come later.
Near-term changes include in-client third-party patch notes, improved library management, cross-region gifting, and chunked installation for easier Fortnite downloads. The store will also bring pre-registration for free-to-play games.
