What you need to know
- Today, Epic Games revealed Unreal Engine 5.
- Fortnite will release on next-generation consoles at launch, and will migrate to UE5 in mid-2021.
- Epic has revealed that developers can begin projects in Unreal Engine 4 and carry them forward to Unreal Engine 5.
Today, Epic Games unveiled Unreal Engine 5, the next major evolution in the ongoing Unreal Engine.
After the announcement, Epic Games also provided more information on the worldwide phenomenon known as Fortnite, confirming that the battle royale would be available on the Xbox Series X and PlayStation 5 at launch later this year. According to the company, Fortnite will arrive on next-generation consoles built with Unreal Engine 4, but thanks to Unreal Engine 4 being forward compatible with Unreal Engine 5, Fortnite will be migrated to the company's newest engine in mid-2021.
In a blog post detailing the announcement of Unreal Engine 5, Epic Games confirmed the news, and also confirmed that progress and purchases will carry over when the game migrates to Unreal Engine 5 in mid-2021. Epic Games also confirmed that they intend to continue supporting cross-play across all platforms, including both current and next-generation consoles.
We will release Fortnite, built with UE4, on next-gen consoles at launch and, in keeping with our commitment to prove out industry-leading features through internal production, migrate the game to UE5 in mid-2021.
It's not too shocking that Fortnite will be making its way to next-gen hardware, but the fact that it will be migrating to Unreal Engine 5 in the future is interesting. According to Epic Games, the boost in hardware will allow the company to "improve performance and visuals" in their games, including Fortnite.
Unreal Engine 5 is going to release in preview form in early 2021, with a full release coming sometime in late 2021. The engine supports the Xbox Series X, PlayStation 5, current-generation consoles, PC, Mac, iOS, and Android.
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Anthony Nash has been writing about games and the gaming industry for nearly a decade. When he’s not writing about games, he’s usually playing them. You can find him on Twitter talking about games or sports at @_anthonynash.
