Epic Games intends to bring the Epic Games Store to the next generation of Xbox hardware, according to a report by Stephen Totilo's Game File newsletter. The move would mark the first time a major third-party PC storefront operator has secured a foothold on console hardware, and it signals that Microsoft's next Xbox platform will be materially more open than the current generation.

For Epic, the expansion extends a multi-year campaign to challenge storefront consolidation. The company has positioned the Epic Games Store as a lower-commission alternative to Steam — taking 12% of revenue versus Valve's 30% baseline — and has pursued console-adjacent distribution through free weekly game giveaways and exclusivity deals. Bringing the storefront itself onto Xbox hardware would give publishers a direct route to players on the platform without routing transactions through Microsoft's Xbox store and its standard console royalty structure.

For studios and publishers, the practical question is what commission structure Epic would apply on console. On PC, Epic's 12% cut is the cornerstone of its pitch to developers, and extending that rate — or something close to it — to Xbox hardware would create pricing pressure on Microsoft's own store economics. Microsoft has already moved partway in this direction on PC, where it has said it will drop its PC games revenue cut to 12% starting in August for titles sold outside the Microsoft Store app, and it allows third-party storefronts such as the Epic Games Store and Amazon's app store to operate through its Xbox app framework.

The next Xbox generation, therefore, appears to be a continuation of that strategy rather than a reversal: Microsoft has signaled that its future hardware lineup will include multiple form factors, and executives including Gaming CEO Phil Spencer have repeatedly framed openness — including bringing first-party games to rival platforms — as core to the roadmap. Admitting the Epic Games Store at launch would be one of the most concrete expressions of that position to date.

What remains unclear from the report is timing. The phrase "next Xbox" points to Microsoft's upcoming hardware cycle rather than the current Series X and Series S family, and neither Epic nor Microsoft has publicly confirmed a launch window, an install mechanism, or whether cross-platform purchases through an Epic account would carry over to the console version of the store.

For developers already publishing on the Epic Games Store, the development burden could be modest. Epic has spent years building cross-platform account and payment infrastructure through Epic Online Services, which supports identity, friends, matchmaking and commerce across PC, console and mobile. A console storefront would likely reuse much of that stack, meaning studios could manage console SKU distribution through the same publisher dashboard they already use for PC.

The competitive backdrop matters here. Epic is also fighting to distribute Fortnite and, by extension, its payments system on mobile platforms through litigation and regulatory action in the US and EU, and it launched the Epic Games Store on iOS in the EU in 2024 under the Digital Markets Act. Xbox is now the second major closed platform where Epic is pushing its direct-to-player storefront model. If the Xbox launch proceeds, Sony and Nintendo become the remaining console holdouts — and both face increasing regulatory scrutiny of their store policies in the EU and UK.

Microsoft's own first-party publishing strategy has already reshaped its platform calculus: titles such as Grounded, Pentiment, Sea of Thieves and Hi-Fi Rush shipped on PlayStation 5 and Nintendo Switch, and Microsoft has committed to bringing the Call of Duty franchise back to Sony and Nintendo platforms following the Activision Blizzard acquisition. A more open hardware stance lowers the perceived risk of hosting a rival storefront on the next Xbox, since Microsoft's revenue increasingly depends on game sales and subscriptions across all platforms rather than hardware-locked purchases alone.

The watch item now is confirmation and terms. Expect Epic and Microsoft to face questions about revenue share, store feature parity and launch timing at upcoming industry events — and watch whether Sony responds by revisiting its own storefront policies for the PlayStation 6 cycle, where the first concrete hardware decisions are likely to be locked in over the next 12 to 24 months.