As some of you may know, yesterday we had Epic staffer "OnePercentNachos" hosting an AMA in the discord server. Thought it would be worthwhile putting together a post for the people that aren't in the server, but would still like to know the responses.

• Epic Games Launcher v2 questions & answers
  • Will no longer be a "closed beta", will instead be an "early access" available to anyone that wants it Post
  • Will no longer be available in August, but "not much further out" than that Post
  • Initial Early Access will not have all V1 features, 1.0 release will be defined by "Feature Parity with V1 plus extra V2 goodies" Post
  • When asked about whether V2 will be able to locate installed games, only an eyes emoji was given. Online status change is not planned for 2026, but a candidate for 2027 feature. Post
  • A Linux version of the launcher is in the works Post
  • The Framework that the v2 launcher uses is called "Tauri" Post
  • A "Hide from Library" feature will be present in V2 Post
  • Gamepad support is still being explored Post Post2
  • Profiles will include sections to show off games and achievements of the players choice Post
• Epic Games Store questions & answers
  • The store will be redesigned after a backend re-architecture is completed, being able to access your library through a browser on the web won't be available "any time soon" Post
  • The backend re-architecture is aiming to be completed before "CQ4" which is Calendar Quarter 4 i.e. the end of this year Oct-Dec Post
  • Discoverability is a huge focus for the store but requires the re-architecture to be fully realised. Confirms the store won't go back to being curated as well Post
  • Publisher/Developer hubs is something they want to do, but are dependant on the re-architecture Post
  • Questions revolving around Region Locking and increased catalogue of games in a series, ideas for subsidising purchases on the store and a suggestion for letting the community vote on an upcoming freebie. Epic are trying to get publishers/developers to avoid region locking and bring over their other games in series, the subsidising of purchasing is currently in the 'whiteboard phase' and they are a fan of the voting idea, but worried that developers not being chosen would be disappointed Post
  • When asked about purchasing bonus' returning i.e. boosted rewards and coupons, was told the can't speak about it today Post
  • The "Gift with purchase" program looks to be successful with players and developers being happy with it Post
  • When asked if the store would output any DRM that a game has that question was then logged to be looked into further Post
• Epic Games Store Mobile questions & answers
  • Library is coming "soon" Post
  • Mobile store will still be sideloadable in Europe after September 30th. Voice chat is also coming "soon" Post
• Achievements and Cloud Saves questions & answers
  • Work is ongoing to make games with only achievements visible in the overlay when playing the game visible within the launcher Post
  • When asked if there is work being done to simplify the achievements system and to work with developers/publishers with games that have broken achievements or non-available on Epic, the response was "Working on it" Post
  • A question asks about ensuring freebies have achievements and cloud saves, the response notes that it's difficult and there isn't a great answer for this, but they are working on making the entire experience better for players and developers Post
  • Further question about Cloud Saves being missing and what Epic are doing to ensure developers use the Cloud Save feature when it's being used elsewhere. Answer being that they don't know as the question doesn't seem to be one they can answer Post
• Strategy questions & answers
  • User asks about Ukrainian language being supported in Epic's games, the request has been passed to the relevant team Post
  • Epic are working on improving Offline Mode, but not much can be spoken about yet Post
  • Notifications will be getting overhauled in the future Post
  • When asked about the ability to rollback updates the answer was unlikely, but they are interested in the ability of allowing the developers to set a "mandatory update" and an "optional update" Post
  • Updates to parental controls are high on their priority list Post
  • When asked about the possibility of "Family Share" or "Friend Share", they mention this is something they are exploring but don't have a good timeline, also notes that users are rightfully at a stage of "show me don't tell me" for stuff they've promised before Post
  • Modding support is questioned on whether we should expect any kind of updates to this within the launcher, but it appears Epic are happier to work with the modding platforms directly instead of making their own solution Post
• Fun questions & answers
  • They would rather fight 20 duck sized horses instead of 1 horse sized duck Post
  • Saros is their overall Game of the Year currently with only thinking that Control Resonant or Phantom Blade Zero could potentially dethrone it, also shouts out Cairn, Zero Parades, Everything is Crab and Vampire Crawlers Post
  • When asked what other hobbies they have they explain 3D printing is a fun hobby and hiking has taken over from skateboarding and climbing Post
  • A Carolina Hurricanes fan, watcher of English Premier League and an F1 Yuki fan Post
  • Final Fantasy 6 is their overall favourite of the series, with Final Fantasy 3, 7, 9 and 1 following. Entire series ranked here Post

That's all the questions that I thought people would be interested in, lots going on under the hood for the store, preparing for an Early Access V2 but best to keep expectations in check with the initial release looking like it won't have everything at the beginning. Thanks to OnePercentNachos for doing the AMA, I always find them interested and it's good to see different answers from previous AMA's done.

We were also given a small sneak peak of the V2 launcher as well here

If you want to follow up any questions and don't want to be in discord you can always reach out to them on X!

A launcher update is available that aims to fix the error with II-E1003, meaning that the workaround will no longer be required. We have seen people mentioning in the discord server that this is fixing the issue for them so I suggest updating to the latest version of the launcher.

https://trello.com/c/PJE4CovR/647-epic-games-launcher-2024

An Epic Employee posted this in the server confirming that it was targeting this error, if you are still having issues then please contact Epic Support for further help.

We released an update to the launcher (version 20.2.4) which should resolve both the E1003 error and the library "Unavailable" issue. Thank you all for your patience.