Epic Games announces Fortnite rewards program for Epic Games Store third-party game purchases

Epic Games has revealed plans to allow developers to offer Fortnite cosmetics to players who purchase third-party games on the Epic Games Store, marking a new strategy to drive sales on the platform.

The details:

• Epic is launching an official program that will allow developers to include Fortnite cosmetics as an incentive for game purchases. The company stated that "players who purchase participating games will get a Fortnite cosmetic along with a matching character avatar for their Epic account profile," with the program expected to roll out during the first half of 2026.
• The publisher confirmed that a number of companies have already signed up to participate in the program, including Capcom, miHoYo, Pearl Abyss, S-Game, Kakao Games, and MintRocket, with more to be announced soon. Capcom has notably partnered with Epic in the past, bringing several Street Fighter and Resident Evil characters to Fortnite, while miHoYo’s Honkai Star Rail is reportedly set to come to the multiplayer shooter in a future season.
• The program is a part of the company’s ongoing plan to bring more users to the Epic Games Store as it struggles to differentiate itself from competitors like Steam. Currently, many PC players even go as far as to pass up on the platform’s regular free game offerings due to its reputation of being sluggish compared to Steam, so Epic is now searching for other ways to draw attention.