Tim Sweeney Comments On Unity-Fortnite Collaboration
"It's in development but isn't nearing release yet."
Almost six months have passed since Epic Games and Unity surprised everyone with news of a partnership aimed at bringing Unity-made games into Fortnite. Since then, however, there have been no public updates on the collaboration.
Recently, UEFN Developer Tom Jank addressed Tim Sweeney, CEO of Epic Games, on X/Twitter, asking for even a small update to share with the community, particularly on how the integration will work from a technical perspective. Here's his message:
"As a creator in UEFN, I am not against having Unity games in discovery, but I would love to have literally any context so I can attempt to make plans this year. I do this as a living, and I want to know if I will be competing (or learning) against a full engine with tons of past support versus UEFN, where I can't even put text in-world without creating an insane non-localizable material or using a heavy device because we are waiting on metaversal approval on the API?
Will it be a cloud streaming wrapper? Will it be a button press? Will it be a unique version of Unity that has similar limitations to UEFN? Will it be a Unity device that can be dropped into an island in FNC?"
Sweeney responded, stating that "it's in development but isn't nearing release yet."
"It's not pixel streaming. Rather, it's a gameplay networking protocol designed by Unity (resembling the ones existing in engines already) that downloads some content prior to starting, then runs most gameplay logic on the server, and then simulates and predicts frames on the player's machine to compensate for latency and run at full frame rate.
The initial version will be aimed at running compatible, reasonably small, self-contained Unity games, then will scale up from there. It will go through a similar moderation pipeline. We expect localization to be by the developer (rather than automated), an option we hope to support in UEFN by the time of launch.
UEFN features are expanding over time, too. I recommend building today with the tools available today, and evaluating as the new options and features come online."
Responding to another developer's question about whether Unity projects would support Fortnite cosmetics as part of the engagement payout model, Sweeney said: "We aim for this to be an option (not all Unity games would make sense with interoperable cosmetics), but we aren't sure about timing."
For those who haven't been following recent Unity updates, the engine has gained official Steam support as part of a broader set of improvements, including IAP, which allows developers to monetize games through premium content and virtual goods sold directly in-game.
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