Epic Games Store launches self-publishing tools for devs, but will still reject porn, illegal and hateful content

rockpapershotgun.com:

After more than 18 months of closed beta testing, Epic's self-publishing tools for developers are now available for all to use on the Epic Games Store. Previously, Epic had their own internal curation process for publishing to the store, but this changes from today, with developers now having much more control over getting their games onto the EGS. Well, almost.

There are still a couple of "notable requirements" devs will need to follow in order to qualify for self-publishing, which Epic say are "designed to provide a best-in-class player experience that doesn't lock players into a single store".

These include making sure your game has cheevos and PC crossplay for multiplayer games, for example, as well as ensuring age ratings are correct for regional distribution. Your game must also download, install, launch and function properly, natch. In other words, the game people end up playing is consistent with the assets and descriptions on the game's store page, with Epic reserving the right to reject games that don't meet these levels of quality and functionality.

The final requirement is perhaps the most interesting, though, and most importantly, the one that stands in stark contrast to how Valve currently deal with self-publishing over on Steam. It's to do with "prohibited content", with Epic stating the following:

There are more detailed guidelines on their definitions of prohibited content over on their developer resource site, where Epic also state that if complaints are received about prohibited content on live store pages, they'll re-review those pages and potentially remove them altogether. Epic's own self-service publishing flow infographic also includes two review phases before devs can actually launch their