(2020-05-13) Epics Tim Sweeney Reveals A More Connected, Fortnite-driven Game-unified World

Epic Games' Tim Sweeney reveals a more connected, 'Fortnite’-driven, game-unified world. Epic’s key promise is that its Unreal Engine 5, due in early 2021, will essentially render cinematic-quality, CGI-like effects in real time, complete with realistic lighting that had previously been more hardware-driven.

Epic also announced Wednesday that it is making its set of online tools for cross-platform play — the back-end tech that allows “Fortnite” players of various game platforms to compete against one another — available for free to all developers. It’s worth noting that Epic’s mission of of making it easy to connect online is intertwined with its desire to advance 3D creation tools.

Television and film productions increasingly use game engines — “The Mandalorian” on Disney+ is heavily reliant on Epic’s Unreal while competing game engine Unity was instrumental in the production of last year’s “The Lion King”

“Fortnite” has become a testing ground of sorts, where limited-time digital events that showcase Disney universes such as Marvel and “Star Wars"can coexist inside an in-game landscape with those promoting everything from Batman to the NFL.

I think we are at the very beginning of a collision that’s going to occur between all the different parts of the world,” Epic CEO Tim Sweeney

“Ford has nothing to do with ‘The Mandalorian,’ which has nothing to do with with ‘Fortnite,’ but as ‘Fortnite’ has demonstrated, there are huge opportunities to bring real-world brands into real time 3D in awesome engaging ways for consumers. You saw Marvel content in ‘Fortnite.’ You’ve seen concerts in ‘Fortnite.’ You’ve seen Star Wars characters in ‘Fortnite.’

“Just as every company a few decades ago created a webpage, and then at some point every company created a Facebook page, I think we’re approaching the point where every company will have a real-time live 3D presence, through partnerships with game companies or through games like ‘Fortnite’ and ‘Minecraft’ and ‘Roblox,’” says Sweeney

Sweeney envisions a future when gamers can not only play together irregardless of platform but also more seamlessly move among types of games, services and entertainment. Long seen as a barrier to game adoption has been multiple competing and closed platforms.

Consoles and gaming hardware are expensive, and gamers who commit to one product don’t always have the means to experience works on a competing system... today’s gaming platforms aren’t exactly unified...