Epic Games Launches Tools to Help Other Developors Incorporate Cross-Play and Cross-Saves

Cross-play is a huge thing for me these days. I don’t have, nor can I afford all the consoles. My friends and I like playing the same games, but we have different preferences in consoles/platforms. Cross-play allows me to play the same game with my friends with different platforms. Well, it looks like Epic Games wants to help more developers implement cross-play and cross-saves (the ability to access your save data for a game across various platforms) into their games with the launch of Epic Online Services.

Epic Online Services uses the same framework that is used by Epic Games’ biggest game Fortnite to unite players across seven platforms! Now, all developers can access the tools for absolutely free. There are two suites included: Game Services and Epic Account Services.

Game Services is all about helping a developer’s game run on various platforms and incorporates tools for player data, leaderboards, achievements, matchmaking, and much more. Meanwhile, Epic Account Services is all about allowing players to log in with their Epic Games account and access their friends.

Right now, Epic Online Services is only supporting Linux, Mac, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation, Windows, and Xbox, but support for Android and iOS are on their way. You can read the full press release on Business Wire or take a deeper dive on Epic Games’ site. Chris Dyl of Epic Games released the following statement:

At Epic, we believe in open, integrated platforms and in the future of gaming being a highly social and connected experience. Through Epic Online Services, we strive to help build a user-friendly ecosystem for both developers and players, where creators can benefit regardless of how they choose to build and publish their games, and where players can play games with their friends and enjoy the same quality experience regardless of the hardware they own.

I for one am extremely excited for this. I think all multi-player games should support cross-play (assuming the game is available on multiple platforms), so it warms my heart to see a company trying to make it easier to do.