Overview
- Martin Keely, who led Blizzard’s Battle.net for seven years, joined Epic as vice president and general manager of the Epic Games Store and Epic Online Services, a change announced on July 27.
- Keely said he will focus on delivering new capabilities that elevate experiences for players, creators and developers, and he framed his role as part of building an open, sustainable gaming ecosystem.
- Epic CEO Tim Sweeney welcomed the hire and framed it as a technical alignment with Unreal Engine 6 and Team Open to make stores, engines and online services work across platforms.
- The leadership change follows Steve Allison’s departure earlier this month to become chief business officer at Saber Interactive and comes during a broader reorganization that included roughly 1,000 job cuts months earlier.
- Analysts and reporters say the hire signals Epic’s intent to address long-standing store issues such as launcher performance, user interface and developer experience, and it could lead to visible product changes if Epic pairs Keely’s store role with concrete engineering work.