EGS Shares a 12-Month Roadmap, but Fortnite’s Storefront Plans Still Need Delivery

On June 18, Epic revealed at Unreal Fest in Chicago a full 12-month roadmap for the Epic Games Store, laying out long-promised upgrades for the EGS client, storefront, and social features. The plan, later circulated through photographed PPT slides leaked by Reddit user ImAnthlon, quickly sparked debate among PC players worldwide. After 7 years in operation, EGS is finally preparing a UI overhaul, long-missing core features, and an Epic Client 2.0 revamp, split across short-term, mid-to-long-term, and long-term phases.

When that comparison slide between Epic and Steam appeared on screen, it summed up the problem neatly. One platform already feels like a complete ecosystem; the other still feels serviceable at best. That has been the standard verdict on EGS for years: it works, but only clears the bar for basic usability. You can get in, claim a game, and launch what you own. For many players, it still is not a place they actually want to stay.

To Epic's credit, this roadmap does target real pain points. The short-term priorities include patch notes for third-party game updates, Epic's multiplayer party system with built-in voice chat, library management tools, a reworked store homepage, cross-region gifting, segmented installation for Fortnite, pre-registration for free game offers, and a full rebuild of the store's underlying architecture. The notable part is not how impressive those items sound. It is that a PC platform already 7 years old is only now moving to add features that should have been standard long ago.

The mid-to-long-term slate goes further: written user reviews, independent player profile pages, recommendation algorithm improvements, publisher-specific coupons, upgraded search logic, and the formal rollout of Epic Client 2.0. The original report specifically notes that independent player profile pages still have not launched on EGS to this day. That detail matters, because it captures the broader issue with the platform: even when the roadmap looks brighter, some of the basics still are not in place.

Outside coverage has been blunt about the roadmap's value. The list is practical, but nearly every item already has a mature counterpart on Steam. That comparison is unavoidable. PC players do not treat library tools, community spaces, reviews, social systems, and search as extras; those are everyday functions. Epic has spent years pulling users in through limited-time free games, and that strategy clearly worked at the door. What it did not do was build out the experience beyond that, so many users came in, claimed the game, and left.

The long-term plans include third-party game community sections, open API development tools, universal controller support across all device types, improved push notifications, and a stronger social friend recommendation system. Epic also plans to embed AI tools into both the store and development workflow, though that part is harder to get excited about. Based on the reaction so far, players are still far more concerned with simpler questions: whether the library is easy to navigate, whether reviews are readable, whether grouping up with friends feels seamless, and whether the client can feel less sluggish.

That skepticism also sits in a larger business context. In 2021, Epic CEO Tim Sweeney publicly acknowledged that the store had lost more than $300 million, while arguing that the losses were part of a long-term strategic expansion plan. Five years later, this new roadmap reads less like a finished alternative to Steam and more like a belated attempt to cover the basics. It is useful, and in some places overdue, but it still shows how far Epic remains from building a complete, mature PC gaming ecosystem that can genuinely rival Valve's.

If you already use EGS mainly for free games, the next 12 months are worth watching, because several of these additions should improve the day-to-day experience in meaningful ways. But if what you want is a fully formed PC platform, this roadmap still looks more like a plan on paper than a fully formed platform. For Epic, the hard part is no longer putting feature names on a PPT. It is giving players a reason to open the client on a normal night for something beyond claiming one more free game, and actually want to stay there for a while.