There's been a lot of talk about the next Xbox console this week, and now Epic Games has something to say about it — Epic Games Store VP and GM Steve Allison has revealed that the company wants its store on the next-gen system.
Speaking to Windows Central in a new interview, Allison advised that Epic Games has been talking to Microsoft about future plans, and that if Xbox does follow through on the rumours of putting PC storefronts on its new console, Epic "will be there".
The article mentions how Steam has a Big Picture mode and Xbox has a Full-Screen Experience mode that can be used to make their storefronts more intuitive on Windows 11 devices, but Epic doesn't have anything comparable yet, and the company is "investigating these new opportunities as well".
"We've been talking about a bunch of these things," Allison tells me. "We've been talking to the folks at Microsoft. If they do follow through with allowing Steam and the Epic Games Store on the next generation of Xbox console hardware, we will be there. I'm fairly certain that'll require us to build an app that functions there."
It was back in October that Windows Central themselves outlined a next-gen Xbox console that will supposedly work similarly to the ROG Xbox Ally, adopting a console feel out of the box with the ability to exit out to Windows as well.
Interestingly, Allison mentions in this interview that Epic would like to build a fully-optimised version of the Epic Games Store for the Xbox Full-Screen Experience (which serves as the ROG Xbox Ally's user interface and is rumoured to be part of the next console as well), but it probably won't happen this year and might be next year.
There's no confirmation to take from this, of course, and it stands to reason that Epic Games would want to attract more sales by being part of the next Xbox console, but it's nice to know they're interested all the same. If Microsoft does follow through on these rumoured plans, it's going to change the world of console gaming as we know it!