Epic Games has managed to become Steam’s great competition in the digital PC market. Since its launch in late 2018, Epic Games Store It has not stopped gaining followers, both thanks to its exclusivities and the free games it gives away every week.
However, Steam users still miss some social features that are not present on Epic’s platform and are present on Valve’s. Well, everything seems to indicate that the creators of Fortnite will put the batteries with these themes in the remainder of 2021. In fact, today they have announced the next big update, which will add player cards and many other functionalities.
The news has come through an entry that Epic Games has published on its website. In this, they comment that “One of the top priorities continues to be to include more features that connect you with your friends and the games you love. That means improving existing features like wish lists, adding achievements, and remodeling the social dashboard!”.
Next we leave you with the complete list of changes that are coming in the system that they have titled as Party System. Of course, keep in mind that Epic has not given a date for its implementation.
- Introduction to the group system. Going forward, Epic Games Launcher will feature a new party system that will allow players to group together and communicate via voice, text, and more. You will enter or exit at any time in a group experience with controls shared among all teammates. Talk to your friends and teammates, whether they are playing or hanging out as they search for a new game to play together.
- Group window. The Party System that will be launched soon will have an “Active Group Window”, a window dedicated to the Group in which you are actively participating. In this window, you will have a large number of options with your friends and teammates to communicate and play. Share your highlights to convince your friends to play with you or start a game with just a few friends in the party while you can continue talking to your entire party.
- Entry / exit groups. There will not be a single owner of the group, so if a friend needs to disconnect, the rest of the group will continue. Within the window, each member of the group will have control of their own audio and video options. You can also invite other players and block the group.
- Continue the group in the game. The addition of the group window will also include the representation of the group in the game. A simplified view of the group can be toggled in-game, showing group members and their status.
Finally, some features that arrive this month of March have also been revealed (although we do not have a more specific date). Below we list them all:
- Player cards. Player Cards Arrive! Clicking on a friend in the social panel will open their player card and offer you multiple new options. Viewing the card will allow the player to take important actions to manage their friendship and see mutual friends. In the future, you will also be able to join their party, invite them to a new party, and even customize your player card.
- Improved search. The new Epic Games Store social panel comes equipped with a more efficient search tool. Search query has been improved and results will now include mutual friend count, ability to search across platforms, and overall better match. If you have a pending game invite, you can click “Join” and the game will start and automatically join your friend.
- View minimized. While browsing the Epic Games store, Epic wanted users to be able to interact with an accessible and minimized view of the social panel without having to open a completely separate window. Here you can see notifications like game invites and friend requests.
- Do not bother. With the addition of additional social features, you may not want to be interrupted while in the launcher or in a game. The “Do Not Disturb” button will ensure that you are not notified of game invites or friend requests while you play.
- Whispers Whispering hasn’t been used much, so this feature is going to be vaulted for now, but Epic hopes to bring it back later with improved functionality for messaging your friends.
