Unreal Engine 6: A New Era in Game Development

Epic Games’ Vision for Unreal Engine 6

Tim Sweeney, the President and largest shareholder of Epic Games, has officially shed light on the future of the company’s game engine with the announcement of Unreal Engine 6 (UE6). During his appearance on the Lex Fridman podcast, Sweeney unveiled essential insights into the upcoming generation of game development technology. He highlighted that UE6 will unify the currently parallel development paths pursued by Epic Games. According to Sweeney, developers may expect preview versions to be accessible within the next 2 to 3 years.

The Roadmap to Release

Unreal Engine 6 is anticipated to be publicly available by 2028. Currently, there are two distinct developmental trajectories: Unreal Engine 5 catering to traditional game developers and a specialised version tailored for the Fortnite ecosystem. These development paths are evolving independently, with unique features exclusive to each. Sweeney envisions Unreal Engine 6 as the convergence point where these disparate development paths unite.

Technical Advancements

Another critical aspect discussed during the podcast was Epic’s historical reliance on a single-threaded game simulation. Sweeney acknowledged that while this approach had previously simplified processes for both the company and the developer community, it has now become obsolete given the capabilities of modern hardware. Unreal Engine 6 is being architected to leverage the full potential of contemporary processors, such as a 16-core CPU, which will significantly address the CPU-related limitations observed in games using Unreal Engine 4 and 5. This evolution is crucial for both developers and gamers, ensuring enhanced performance.

Anticipated Timeline

The journey to this transformation will take time. For context, the first preview of Unreal Engine 5 arrived in early 2022, with the initial games developed using this engine launching by mid-2023. Following this timeline, the market may see the debut of the first games created with Unreal Engine 6 around 2028 or 2029.