Fortnite Embraces Unity: A Metaverse Power Play

Epic Games is set to dramatically expand Fortnite’s creative ecosystem by integrating games built with Unity’s engine. This groundbreaking partnership, announced with Unity’s CEO Matt Bromberg and Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney, signifies a major step towards Epic’s vision of an open, interoperable metaverse.

Key Takeaways

• Fortnite will soon host games developed using the Unity engine, not just Epic’s Unreal Engine.
• This move aims to significantly increase the volume and variety of experiences available within Fortnite.
• Epic CEO Tim Sweeney emphasizes this as a crucial step towards an open, decentralized metaverse, akin to the early web.
• The integration is expected to provide a new monetization and audience reach avenue for Unity developers, especially smaller studios.

Epic’s Open Metaverse Ambitions

Tim Sweeney has long championed the idea of Fortnite evolving into a vast, social 3D space filled with diverse user-generated content. The platform has already seen success with its creator economy, encouraging developers to build “islands” using Unreal Editor for Fortnite. However, this new collaboration with Unity, a rival engine with over 1.2 million monthly active users, dramatically broadens the potential creator pool.

Currently, Fortnite operates as a more closed ecosystem. Creators are limited to using Epic’s tools, and cross-engine compatibility for experiences is nascent. This partnership directly addresses that limitation, allowing experiences built on one of the world’s most popular game engines to enter Fortnite.

A Boon for Developers

The integration is particularly significant for game developers, especially smaller studios grappling with industry-wide struggles and layoffs. By opening Fortnite to Unity games, Epic offers a powerful new avenue for audience discovery and monetization. This move aligns with Sweeney’s vision of a decentralized future where creators have more control over their work and reach.

Matt Bromberg, President and CEO of Unity, highlighted the importance of choice for developers. “Ultimately, I think the thing that Tim and I couldn’t agree any more strongly on is that having more choice and more places where developers can build things and giving them more control over their destinies is the most important thing we can do to help the gaming ecosystem,” he stated.

Future of Fortnite Experiences

While all new experiences will undergo a review process for compliance and functionality, Sweeney envisions a future where Fortnite becomes even more decentralized. He suggests that eventually, users might navigate to experiences hosted by entirely separate companies directly from the Fortnite client, mirroring the open nature of the web.

Ironically, Sweeney noted that publishing Unity games into Fortnite is expected to happen before standalone Unreal Engine games can be deployed within the platform, a testament to the immediate impact of this Unity collaboration. Epic is still working on full Unreal Engine integration, a project anticipated with Unreal Engine 6.

Unity’s Commerce Platform Expansion

Beyond bringing games to Fortnite, Unity will also integrate support for Unreal Engine into its recently launched commerce management platform. This platform allows developers to manage digital storefronts and payments across various platforms from within the Unity Engine, simplifying a traditionally complex process.

Editor’s Take

This strategic alliance between Epic Games and Unity is more than just an expansion of Fortnite’s content library; it’s a bold declaration of intent for the future of gaming platforms. By embracing a rival engine, Epic is demonstrating a commitment to an open metaverse that prioritizes interoperability and developer freedom over platform exclusivity. This move could fundamentally alter the landscape of user-generated content platforms, potentially challenging giants like Roblox by offering a more diverse and accessible creation environment. For players, it promises an unprecedented influx of games and experiences within a single, massive ecosystem. The long-term implications for how games are developed, distributed, and consumed are immense.

This article was based on reporting from The Verge. A huge shoutout to their team for the original coverage.

Read the full story at The Verge