Tim Sweeney, Epic's boss, says Unreal Engine 6 is a'metaverse.' It will join Fortnite and Unreal games such as a new 'persistent world' being developed with Disney.

In an interview with The Verge CEO Tim Sweeney explained his big plans for this decade and why Epic Games had to layoff 16% of their workforce last year in order to achieve them. Sweeney's top line is he still sees potential for a "metaverse", which would include interoperable assets and markets between Fortnite and Unreal Engine games/initiatives. This would be similar to a planned Unreal Engine "persistent world" owned by Disney.

Sweeney stated that "last year, before Unreal Fest we spent about a billion dollar more a year than we made." This has since dropped to "a little" more than Epic's revenue. Forbes estimated that the company's revenues would be north of $6 billion by 2022. The Epic Game Store reported $950 million sales for its 2023 year-end review. Epic, like Microsoft, The Embracer Group and many other publishers, blew its budget in the early years of the NFTs and pandemic before being forced to cut back during the current industry contraction.

But the lofty goals remain, with an emphasis on better connecting the Unreal Editor for Fortnite with the more approachable Fortnite Creative Tools, the evolved version of which mapmakers have been using to great effect when creating custom modes and maps. Sweeney said, "The real power comes when we combine these two worlds so that we can have the power of our high-end engine combined with the ease of usage we created in [Unreal editor for Fortnite]." "That will take several years." When that process is completed, it will be Unreal Engine 6.

Sweeney wants Unreal developers to be able "to build an app once, and then deploy it for any platform," as well as be able integrate their work into Fortnite and any other Unreal games. Epic is planning a "persistent world" that will be owned by Disney and compatible with Fortnite.

"Unreal Engine 6 will be the technology base to make this possible for everyone."

And I have to say, this vision doesn't appeal any more than it did during the peak of metaverse mania. While there are many serious obstacles to making this happen, it's not the bong-rip musings of EA CEO Andrew Wilson about 3 billion AI developers or Ubisoft flaccidly trying to sell Ghost Recon non-flash tokens. Epic has the resources and the industry ubiquity necessary to at least get the initiative off the ground.

Unreal Engine is everywhere. Unreal Engine 5 is becoming a popular tool in Hollywood for creating CGI. Unreal Engine 5 is also being adopted by indie and double A developers, while some major developers who were known for their own engines have switched to Epic's middleware. CD Projekt and Halo Studios (formerly 343 industries) are two of the most surprising.

You could drive a truck to bridge the figurative gap that exists between "I use Unreal Engine" versus "I am an enthusiastic partner in Unreal's metaverse." Valve is the elephant in the room. There are other competing visions of what gaming will look like in the next five to 10 years. According to Epic EVP Saxpersson, "people aren't dogmatic about where and how they play", based on Epics own surveys. But has he heard the way people discuss the Epic Store vs. Steam?

Even though I have my own opinions about the store and its usability, and how a third-party alternative launcher developed and maintained by a guy is better than Epic's multi-billion-dollar program, Epic's massive investment in the storefront hasn't changed the PC launcher power balance significantly. Fortnite aside, EGS-exclusive games always seem only to break out and sell very well once they arrive on Steam a year after release, and even the critically acclaimed, Epic-published Alan Wake 2 had not Steam continues to win. We don't say this as Valve fans, but rather as a sober observation.

Fraser Brown, online editor at PCG, agrees: Fortnite is not the future. It's an anomaly. We'll see how that future unfolds. If I'm cyber-Goku doing the Griddy in the greater Fortnite-Disney-Unreal metaverse come 2029, I'll eat a big helping of Unreal Engine 6-rendered crow before getting domed by a Mickey Mouse armed with a Barrett .50 cal.