La malvada empresa monopolista Epic Games, ha anunciado que quiere hacer que todos sus servicios online estén disponibles para los devs de manera gratuita. Esto incluye el sistema cross-platform diseñado para Fortnite: Listas de amigos, matchmaking, inventario y administración de compras, chat de voz, tickets de soporte y más. El SDK (kit de desarrollo de software) esta disponible ya mismo, Epic lo anuncio durante su keynote en la Game Developers Conference de este 2019, ademas afirman que la integración de Unreal y Unity llegara este mismo año.
No hay ningún truco, dice Epic: Los desarrolladores pueden usar estos servicios para cualquier juego, usando su motor y venderlos en cualquier store, incluso en Steam o en cualquier otra. En principio, los servicios online de Epic funcionaran en Windows, Mac y Linux, pero tienen en camino el soporte para consolas y móviles.
"Features available now include game analytics and a ticketing system. It will store data about players and their gameplay to "understand and boost retention and engagement", but Epic says that data will be confidential.
"At Epic, we value the confidentiality of your data and believe that your player data is your own," reads the FAQ. "We understand how important it is for you to control how data is collected, used, and stored for your games. Epic will only access your player data for the purpose of improving or providing these services to you. We're committed to making Epic Online Services a powerful tool you can leverage to better remain in control of your data."
Why's Epic being so generous? It admits this isn't charity. The more games that use Epic Online Services, the larger its social network becomes—that is, the more friends Fortnite players will find using the same system. Epic's goal is to create a network that's independent of distributor or platform, so it won't matter if you're playing a game on Steam, on PS4, on the Epic Store, or wherever: your friends list will be the same. Another step towards global domination, clearly."
Me sorprende que esta noticia de hace 4 días no llegara por aquí.