LogInThe company is finally "financially sound" and ready to create ecosystems.
Epic Games, Disney
Epic Games has been financially struggling for a while and even had to lay off about 16% of its workforce a year ago, saying it was due to the company spending "way more money" than it earned.
Now, the spell has been broken as Epic's CEO Tim Sweeney announced the company is "financially sound."
“Last year, before Unreal Fest, we were spending about a billion dollars a year more than we were making,” he told The Verge. “Now, we’re spending a bit more than we’re making.”
This means Epic Games is ready to fully work on its grand plans – the metaverse made possible by Unreal Engine 6. Sweeney mentioned his vision before, saying UE6 would feature all Unreal Engine 5 tools as well as Verse, a new programming language that offers powerful customization capabilities, including manipulating or chaining together devices and creating new game logic.
Sweeney has more to say about it now. He wants to bring Unreal Engine and Unreal Editor for Fortnite together, which will take several years. When it's done, Unreal Engine 6 will let developers “build an app once and then deploy it as a standalone game for any platform.” So developers will be able to deploy the projects they make into Fortnite or other games that “choose to use this technology base,” creating interoperable content.
An example of this system is the “persistent universe” Epic is building with Disney, which will be connected to Fortnite and provide players with various opportunities to play, watch, shop, and engage with content from Disney, Pixar, Marvel, Star Wars, Avatar, and others. Fans will be able to make their own stories and share content with each other within this new universe.
“We announced that we’re working with Disney to build a Disney ecosystem that’s theirs, but it fully interoperates with the Fortnite ecosystem,” Sweeney said. “And what we’re talking about with Unreal Engine 6 is the technology base that’s going to make that possible for everybody. Triple-A game developers to indie game developers to Fortnite creators achieving that same sort of thing.”
Fab should help with the process, combining Unreal Engine Marketplace, Sketchfab, ArtStation Marketplace, and Quixel. “Having seamless movement of content from place to place is going to be one of the critical things that makes the metaverse work without duplication.”
In time, Epic says it will find a way to let players move between worlds. The idea is for companies to work together and share revenue to create incentives for item shops.
“The whole thesis here is that players are gravitating towards games which they can play together with all their friends, and players are spending more on digital items in games that they trust they’re going to play for a long time,” Sweeney said. “If you’re just dabbling in a game, why would you spend money to buy an item that you’re never going to use again? If we have an interoperable economy, then that will increase player trust that today’s spending on buying digital goods results in things that they’re going to own for a long period of time, and it will work in all the places they go.”
Epic Games
Epic thinks moving between Roblox, Minecraft, and Fortnite would be “amazing, because it keeps people together and lets the best ecosystem win,” shared Epic EVP Saxs Persson.
One problem is people are not very fond of the word metaverse itself, but Epic isn't too worried: “It’s like there’s metaverse weather,” Sweeney said. “Some days it’s good, some days it’s bad. Depends on who’s doing the talking about it.”
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