Epic Games shutting down Houseparty, its video chat app for gamers
Fortnite players and other gamers who use Houseparty to chat while they play will need to find another platform by October.
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Epic Games is shutting down its video chat service, Houseparty, the company said Thursday. Epic acquired the app back in 2019.
"Since joining Epic, the Houseparty team's social vision and core technology have already contributed to new features used by hundreds of millions of people in Fortnite and by developers around the world," reads the announcement from Housparty's developers. "As a result, we can't give the app or our community the attention that it deserves. While Houseparty may be going away, we hope that the memories you've made will last a lifetime."
The app itself will be removed from app stores immediately and shuttered in October. Existing users will still be able to log in and use the service before then, including Fortnite gamers who use Houseparty in Fortnite mode, which was unveiled less than a year ago. That mode is set to vanish from Fortnite altogether once Houseparty is shut down in October.
Houseparty's team says that since the app's inception in 2016, tens of millions of people have used it to stream video. Additional updates about the shutdown will come via in-app notification, its creators said.