Epic Games Store appoints former Blizzard Battle.net head Martin Keely to lead storefront

Rituraj Halder Published July 29, 2026

In a move to put up a better fight to its dominant opponent, Valve’s Steam, Epic Games has officially hired industry veteran Martin Keely as vice president and general manager of both the Epic Games Store and Epic Online Services.

Keely joins the company following a seven-year tenure at Blizzard Entertainment, where he most recently served as Senior Vice President of Battle.net and Technology Services. During his time leading Battle.net, Keely oversaw platform infrastructure, e-commerce, and live operations for major Activision Blizzard intellectual properties, including World of Warcraft, Diablo, and Overwatch.

The change was made after longtime Epic executive Steve Allison stepped down after eight years leading the storefront to become Chief Business Officer at Saber Interactive. 

During Allison’s tenure, Epic heavily used high-profile developer exclusivity deals, competitive revenue splits, and weekly free game promotions in hopes of snatching a bigger piece of the pie from Steam. However, his strategies weren’t able to loosen Steam’s grip on the market. 

Will the Epic Games Store under new supervision finally be able to compete with Steam?

Keely’s resume extends beyond Blizzard Entertainment. His career includes high-level operational roles at major entertainment and media tech organizations, including Executive Vice President of Product and Technology at The Walt Disney Company, Head of Operations for Major League Gaming (MLG), and General Manager at Fullscreen Media.

Industry analysts view Keely’s hiring as a highly necessary move for Epic Games as it plans to refine the user experience, polish platform stability, and expand backend capabilities for third-party developers with this move. 

With his deep technical and operational expertise in running Battle.net, one of the PC market’s longest-standing proprietary digital hubs, he can finally make Epic stand up to the giant which is Steam. 

However, if Epic truly wants to compete with Steam, it will need much more than a structural change. Epic may need to revamp its whole storefront to make it more user-friendly with better spotlight for lesser-known titles and competitive pricing.  

We will eagerly keep an eye on every change that Keely brings to take the Epic Store to the top of online PC gaming platforms.