Frequently Asked Questions

Epic Online Services are multi-platform social and game services that are free and available for developers to use on any storefront, platform, and with any game engine. The services connect players with friends across platforms and include many features for game development, from cloud saves to an entire account login system. Each service operates independently of one another, meaning developers can freely pick and choose services that may benefit their game experience and players.

Epic Online Services powers experiences that enable players to connect, play, and socialize together in an endless number of games. Developers can use Epic Online Services to sustain the friendships and game progression that their communities build between platforms and devices.

An Epic Games Account unifies the player profile and friends list across multiple storefronts, platforms, and games. When developers choose to provide “Sign in with Epic” in their game, the account services enable features such as cross-platform login, game invites and friend requests.

Epic Online Services is integrated into games with an SDK, which is installed as part of the game. On the Windows PC platform the game installer will also install an Epic Online Services system service which helps keep the components updated.

Epic Online Services processes, hosts, and collects several types of data in different scenarios.

For game services such as Player Data Storage, Leaderboards, and Voice Chat, Epic will process and host player data as a service provider to the game developer or publisher. A complete list of the game services can be found on our website and further information can be found in the Developer Agreements.

Basic telemetry, such as error codes, are collected by all services for the purpose of helping Epic identify and fix problems.

Epic Account data is handled differently. When a player chooses to sign in with an Epic Account to a game, Epic will store and process the account data for the primary purpose of identification and authentication. More information about how such data is processed can be found in the Privacy Policy.

An overview of the general security principles for Epic Online Services can be found in the Trust Statement.

Epic uses several third-party providers to process Epic Online Services partner data. A list of these third-party providers so-called “subprocessors” can be found at https://dev.epicgames.com/services/terms/subprocessors, which includes a description of why we use them.

No, we do not use partner data collected through Epic Online Services to inform our own game design decisions. You can find more information on Epic Games’ practices to safeguard partner data in our Trust Statement.

Our partners do not receive any Epic Online Services data by virtue of being investors, but they are free to sign up and use Epic Online Services just like any other third party.

Epic Online Services maintains a public roadmap that can be found here: https://trello.com/b/rLvzFJfE/eos-public-roadmap

We actively monitor and participate in our Developer Support forums, and are happy to help you with all of your Epic Online Services-related questions there.

A variety of games on the Epic Games store rely on Epic Online Services to connect their experiences and communities, and by decoupling Epic Online Services into its own installation, we are able to keep cross-platform and social features up-to-date for these games, reducing the number of Epic Games Launcher updates needed.

Skipping this installation will prevent access to Epic Games Launcher updates, however you will continue to be able to access your library, Unreal Engine, and all other content via the Epic Games Launcher for the foreseeable future.