Epic Games is one of the stalwarts of the gaming industry. The developer / publisher has done incredible things for the gaming industry. In its early days, they created Unreal Engine, which was used in the historic multiplayer first person shooter Unreal Tournament. Sequels of this game really showed the potential of its engine, and certainly paved the way for modern gaming.

Nowadays, Epic Games helps develop and publish thousands of games each year through their platform, and of course, their graphics engine, the Unreal Engine, which is in its 5th version. During the 2023 Game Developers Conference taking place in San Francisco, Epic games had their keynote presentation on full swing. In it, they let us know the present and future of the company, and some of the great things they have been working on.

Here are 5 things we learned from their presentation.

Unreal Engine 5.2 will change the way we develop games.

The engine is the staple of the company, it has helped develop thousands of games since its inception. At the end of last year, Epic Games released the long-awaited Unreal Engine 5. Ray-tracing capabilities and real time development are one of the main features of the update. Since its release we received version 5.1 which added some stability and performance patches.

Version 5.2 will have a unique feature when it comes to developing games, or more specifically, creating worlds through meshes. The engine will support procedural generation when making worlds. Instead of the developer and artists painstakingly placing every rock, tree, mountain or meshes around the map, an AI will be in-charge of handling placement, and will procedurally generate the area.

Of course, the engine allows for customization options like density and variety. It is up to developers and artists to find the amount that suits them best. This new implementation will help reduce time and resources when creating new worlds. Procedural generation tools open up a number of possibilities for developers and artists working in the game.

Unreal Editor is coming on Fortnite

The Unreal Editor for Fortnite (UEFN) will further expand the things creators can do with the game. We will not be limited to assets creations or simple game mechanics implementations. Creators will now be able to make virtually anything with Fortnite. Maybe you want to create a Capture the Flag mode with robots and mechs, or you want to add titanic beasts to your world. The possibilities are endless.

UEFN will work in tandem with the already established Fortnite Creation tools, and will allow real-time, live editing. Creators savvy in Unreal Engine can work with people already familiar with the Fortnite Creation tools. This is a huge deal because it marries the best of both worlds, and artists that have been creating for Fortnite can also dive into the world of Unreal Engine, and unleash even more their artistic and game developing capabilities.

Fortnite will feature Creator Economy 2.0

UEFN will be launched along with Creator Economy 2.0. This platform will feature a marketplace for everything related to Fortnite. It is available for individuals who are Island Creators, and also big companies. Basically, anyone can feature its content in Creator Economy 2.0, and will receive

Epic Games mentioned that: “Engagement payouts proportionally distribute 40% of the net revenue from Fortnite’s Item Shop and most real-money Fortnite purchases to the creators of eligible islands and experiences, both islands from independent creators and Epic's own such as Battle Royale.”

It is certainly a good thing that the 2.0 version will further benefit creators and incentivize engagement. Alongside UEFN this is for sure the best thing that has happened to Fortnite since its birth. The potential is limitless, let’s see how the game evolves into something bigger than itself in the next few years.

FAB will be the definitive Unreal Marketplace destination

Currently, all of the Epic Games assets are scattered across a handful of platforms like:

• Unreal Engine Marketplace

• Quixel Bridge

• Artstation Marketplace

• Sketchfab

What FAB intends to do is to merge everything into one platform, or marketplace, that will allow creators to easily find what they are looking for. Individually, each platform has its pros and cons, strengths and weaknesses. Not all creators are familiar with all of them, so having everything under one roof will definitely be convenient.

Creators will gain the standard 88% revenue that is available on the Unreal Engine Marketplace. It is a huge deal for creators, and will certainly encourage artists and developers to generate content for FAB. It will feature digital assets, like “3D models, materials, sound, VFX, digital humans, and more.”

The MetaHuman creation tools will be available for iPhone.

On 2021, Epic games launched the MetaHuman creation tools that enabled artist to create realistic human characters from the commodity of their browser.

During its keynote, Epic Games announced that people can create MetaHumans simply by recording a video. This will open up a large number of possibilities to artists. The company is seeking to expand its tools on many platforms and this will definitely be a tremendous convenience for creators.

Epic Games is taking point in directing the future of the gaming industry.