Just over a year ago, Epic Games laid off about 16% of its employees. The problem, Epic says, is its own grand visions for the future and how expensive it will be to build them. “For some time now, we have spent far more than we have made,” Epic CEO Tim Sweeney wrote in an email to employees.
On stage at the Unreal Fest conference in Seattle on Tuesday, Sweeney declared that the company is now “financially in good shape.” The announcement kicked off a two-hour keynote that included updates to Unreal Engine, Unreal Engine’s Unreal Editor. fort nightEpic Games Store and more.
during an interview edgeSweeney said reining in Epic’s spending is part of the reason the company has gotten to this point. “Last year, before Unreal Fest, we were spending about $1 billion more annually than we were taking in,” Sweeney said. “Right now, we’re spending a little more than we’re taking in.”
“The real power comes when we bring these two worlds together”
Sweeney said the company is also well-prepared for the future and has the ability to make the kind of long-term bets he described at the conference. “We have a very, very long runway to compare what we have in the bank versus what we spend,” Sweeney said. “We have a very strong amount of capital compared to almost everyone in the industry and are investing forward very wisely so that we can invest more or less as our fortunes change. We think we’re perfectly positioned , all plans of our scale can be executed and realized during the remainder of this decade.
Epic has ambitious plans. Currently, Epic offers Unreal Engine, its high-end game development tool, and the Unreal Editor fort nightwhich is designed to be easier to use. It’s building a new version of Unreal Engine that can bring them together.
“The real power comes when we bring these two worlds together, so that we can combine the full power of a high-end game engine with the ease of use we have in our games. [Unreal Editor for Fortnite],” Sweeney said. “This will take a few years. When this process is completed, it will be Unreal Engine 6.
Sweeney said Unreal Engine 6 is designed to allow developers to “build an application once and then deploy it as a standalone game to any platform.” Developers will be able to deploy their work to fort night or other games that “choose to use this technology base”, which will allow for interoperable content.
Epic’s upcoming “Persistent Universe” in partnership with Disney is an example of this vision. “We announced that we are working with Disney to build a Disney ecosystem that is their own, but fully interoperable with Disney fort night Ecosystem,” Sweeney said. “What we’re talking about with Unreal Engine 6 is the technology foundation that allows everyone to make this happen. From AAA game developers to independent game developers fort night The creators achieved the same goal.
If you read my colleague Andrew Webster’s March 2023 interview with Sweeney, the idea of interoperability making metaverses work seems familiar. At Unreal Fest this week, I learned more about how the mechanics work with technology like Unreal Engine 6 and the company’s soon-to-be-opened Fab Marketplace for purchasing digital assets.
Fab will be able to host assets that can operate within minecraft or RobloxSweeney said. But the larger goal is to allow Fab creators to provide “one logical asset with different file formats that work in different contexts.” He gave an example of how users can purchase tools for Unreal Engine, Unity, Robloxand minecraft. “Having content move seamlessly from one place to another will be one of the key factors in making Metaverse work without duplication.”
But to make interoperable virtual worlds truly possible, companies like Epic, Roblox, and Microsoft need to find ways to move players between these worlds rather than keeping them siled—and in most cases, that’s not even possible. possible.
Sweeney said Epic has not had “such discussions” with anyone other than Disney. “But over time, we will,” he said. He described an ideal scenario where companies work together as peers, using revenue sharing as a way to create merchandise stores and “sources of engagement” for people who want to buy digital goods (e.g. fort night Experience) people want to spend time with.
“The whole argument here is that players are increasingly gravitating towards games that they can play with all their friends, and players are spending more on digital items in games that they believe they will play for a long time,” Sweeney said. “If you’re just dabbling in gaming, why spend money on an item you’ll never use again? If we have an interoperable economy, then that will increase players’ trust that the money they spend on digital goods today will Bring something they will have for a long time and it will work everywhere they go.
“People are not dogmatic about where they play”
“There’s no reason why we can’t take a joint approach to Roblox, minecraftand fort night“, said Saxs Persson, executive vice president at Epic. “From our perspective, this is going to be amazing because it brings people together and allows the best ecosystem to win. ” Epic found in its survey that “people are not dogmatic about where they play,” Persson said.
Of course, there’s a lot of opportunity for Epic, which has made a widely used game and a widely used game engine and is building fort night Become a game creation tool. (I haven’t even mentioned how Unreal Engine is increasingly used in film production and other industries.) The end state sounds great to Epic, but Epic also has to make the math make sense to others.
it must do this No There is a large presence on mobile devices. The company has been locked in legal battles with Apple and Google over mobile app store practices for years, and it recently sued Samsung. The Epic Games Store recently launched on Android globally and on iOS in the EU, but due to restrictions on third-party app stores, the company’s game store boss Steve Allison told us edge Meeting the end-of-year installation target “may be impossible.” Sweeney said any major changes would likely take quite some time. “This is going to be a long battle and will likely result in a long series of battles, each pushing a range of freedoms forward rather than a single victory across the globe,” Sweeney said.
Epic is fighting another battle: fort night Still hugely popular, interest in Metaverse — or at least the hype — is waning. However, Sweeney and Persson don’t entirely agree that the term seems to be falling out of fashion.
“It’s like weather in a virtual world,” Sweeney said. “Sometimes it’s good, sometimes it’s bad. It depends on who’s talking about it.
