Epic Games Confirms Unreal Engine 6 Shipping In 2027, Speaks On Compatible Assets For Unreal-made Titles

The conversation behind Epic Games continues to lead the industry with the firm rooted in multiple industries. Previously, it was confirmed that Epic Games has encouraged consoles to introduce additional storefronts to its platform. This is most apparent with the next-generation XBOX. Additionally, CEO Tim Sweeney confirmed that Project Helix will feature Epic Games Store at some point.

As for Epic Games’ Unreal Engine, it feels Unreal Engine 5 is still ways off from being utilized to its full potential. From The Coalition’s Matrix demo to Halo adopting the engine fully, it has yet to reach the likes of its ‘Valley of the Ancient’ demonstration. And just this past May, Epic Games revealed Unreal Engine 6 with Rocket League showcased for the new version.

This week, Epic Games held its ‘State of Unreal’ keynote revealing that Unreal Engine 6 is preparing to release next year for Early Access. “We’re targeting a Unreal Engine 6 Early Access release at the end of 2027, with the full release of UE6 coming 12-18 months later. In the meantime, a new UE6 development stream is now on GitHub, publicly visible, just like the UE5 stream has always been.”

Epic Games continues: “Any remaining UE5 changes will merge to UE6 to not get lost, but not vice versa. In addition, Fortnite development will be attached to the UE6 stream so you can see all ongoing work live and cherry-pick changes as needed. However, this stream is not meant to be any kind of Alpha: it exists just to be transparent with where we’re going.” Epic Games goes on to elaborate that Unreal Engine 6 will be a bridge for content on the shared engine to be compatible across other titles.

Content and code should be portable across games and engines. Our goal is to give the games industry a whole new way to grow our ecosystems with cross-promotion, portable player value, and to really lean into all of the positive-sum dynamics that Metcalfe’s Law predicts for connecting experiences and social graphs together.

“Fortnite cosmetics will be our first real proof point of portability. We will start by moving the base system to an open UE6 module. This means you’ll have the option to use a player’s entitled Fortnite Outfits in your own games, and you’ll get the tools to build Outfits for your own games that work inside Fortnite. We’re tackling this problem first because we want to prove things out with a system that’s complex enough to be a meaningful existence proof of the idea, and one that inherently comes with a ton of player value by respecting their purchases across an interconnected ecosystem of games.

“We see this as the first step toward building a shared economy for smart assets: functional assets with logic and functionality that work across games, to recognize players’ time and spending in a better way. In the end, this isn’t really a Fortnite story. It’s about proving that such a mature, complex system can work at scale—and that every game that works with these systems will immediately benefit from them.”

Are you interested in what Unreal Engine 6 will deliver when it releases next year?

Source: Epic Games