PC gamers have been enjoying Epic Games" free games program via its storefront for years now, with weekly drops appearing right on schedule from the Fortnite and Unreal Engine maker. Now, with mobile gamers on its sights, Epic has revealed that the freebie promotions will soon be starting up on Android and iOS platforms too.
Announced as a part of the Unreal Fest event, Epic Games Store general manager Steve Allison had gone on to speak about the future plans of the mobile store after the keynote (via mobilegamer.biz). He had revealed that the company plans to bring third-party titles to the mobile store plus a freebie program in the fourth quarter of 2024.
Epic Games Store"s mobile version landed on Android phones worldwide and iOS devices in the EU recently as Epic Games" battles with Apple and Google in courts continue to make the third-party store easier to install and use. It even filed a lawsuit against Samsung and Google just a few days ago, stating that the two juggernaut companies are working to stifle competition in the Android ecosystem.
"In the holiday season we’ll open up with our first third party applications,” Steve Allison had said. "We probably expect somewhere between 10 and 50 of them to be ready, and the biggest thing is just going to be implementing a payment solution, so that may push some of these out into the subsequent months."
The freebie program on mobile will reportedly land during the same timeframe, enticing mobile gamers to install and use the third-party store, followed by self-publishing tools:
"The free games program will launch in Q4 along with the third party apps showing up, and we’re gonna have some awesome stuff for players that will also be awesome for developers, because it’ll help us scale really quickly. And then there’s self-publishing tools, which means developers can come in without any interactions with us, like they do on PC today, probably in the first half of the year, hopefully as close to January as possible."
While details about this free games program on mobile has not been revealed yet, it may follow the same weekly pattern of the PC promotion. Even now, a copy of The Spirit and the Mouse is free to claim on the store for PC gamers.