Epic Games has added its Voice and Easy Anti-Cheat technology – the same ing Fortnite and Rocket League – to the free services it offers developers as part of its Epic Online Services toolkit. In an announcement, the company says it's hoping to encourage more cross-platform development.
Epic is deeply entrenched in the game development world. The Unreal Engine, named after its classic first-person shooter from 1998, is used in an extremely diverse range of products from Ace Combat 7 through to Valorant, The Outer Worlds, and even Tekken 7. Developers who add Epic Online Services into the mix get access to features like matchmaking, lobbies, and leaderboards. Beyond this, the company also runs the Epic Games Store, which regularly pays developers to offer exclusives, or includes older games in weekly giveaways. The former has created some frustration with PC gamers given that most use Valve's Steam platform.
"Operating voice communications and anti-cheat in a popular online game can cost millions of dollars," claims Epic in a news release. The company adds that its Voice technology is "battle-tested in Fortnite" up to as many as 15.3 million people and that Easy Anti-Cheat can "handle millions of s at peak times," while evolving to use new defenses as they become available. Player s found to be cheating are identified in the Epic Online Services Developer Portal, at which point game makers can choose to punish offenders however they see fit.
Simplifying cross-platform development is in Epic's own interests. Aside from wanting its games on as many platforms as possible, the Unreal Engine works on everything from PCs, Macs, and consoles through to smartphones and VR headsets. Offering default voice chat and anti-cheat systems increase the appeal of partnering with Epic since studios don't have to hunt for separate platforms or build their own. The Unreal Engine is free to use up to a certain revenue threshold.
One of the bigger obstacles to Epic's plans, however, may be Sony. The company is notoriously resistant to allowing crossplay with PS4 and PS5 – as gamers quickly learned during the Epic Games vs Apple lawsuit that Epic has had to pay Sony royalties to enable the technology in Fortnite. Publishers unwilling to meet Sony's demands may be excluding PlayStation from their crossplay plans, which at least helps to explain 2K Games' decision on Borderlands 3.
Source: Epic Games