Unreal Fest Seattle 2024: all the news from Epic’s big event – The Verge

Epic and Disney want to make ‘what every Disney fan has ever wanted’

2024-10-04T08:00:00-04:00

In February, Disney and Epic Games announced that they were collaborating on a "persistent universe" that would feature characters from Disney, Pixar, Marvel, Star Wars, and more. Disney franchises have been featured in Fortnite for years, but this new universe promises to be something grander - and will be interoperable with Fortnite.

Disney and Epic didn't share many details about how this would all work when it was announced. But after talking to Epic executives during Unreal Fest in Seattle this week, I've learned a bit more about what to expect.

A lot of it comes down to connecting into Epic's ecosystem. "Disney wants a persistent pla …

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Epic knows its game store social features ‘suck,’ but it wants to fix that

2024-10-03T08:00:00-04:00

Epic's game store is finally on mobile. Next up, the company plans to add features that make people want to use it - on both mobile and PC.

A key thing Epic Games wants to introduce is what store boss Steve Allison calls a "social framework" - think the types of social and chat features you see on consoles or Steam.

"Our social features on PC suck," Allison says in an interview with The Verge. "Let's call it what it is." Social features are the "battery that powers Fortnite," Allison says, and Epic wants to "take that battle-tested social framework and move it up from Fortnite up to the store level." The idea is that you'll be able to part …

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Epic is trying to sweeten the deal to use Unreal Engine and the Epic Games Store

2024-10-01T12:28:22-04:00

Epic is offering better terms for developers who build games with Unreal Engine and list them on the Epic Games Store.

As part of the new "Launch Everywhere with Epic" program, Epic is reducing the royalty rate for games built with Unreal Engine from 5 percent to 3.5 percent - however, those games will have to be available on the Epic Games Store on launch day. The program kicks in on January 1st, 2025 for eligible games published on the Epic Games Store beginning that year.

With this move, Epic seems to be trying yet another way to encourage developers to list games on its store, including its newly launched stores on Android and iOS. Epi …

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Fortnite creators can now make first-person shooters

2024-10-01T10:00:00-04:00

Developers that build Fortnite experiences can now try out a new first-person camera mode. The feature will first be available as an experimental release in the Unreal Editor for Fortnite. Later this year, the feature will launch in beta, and at that time, creators will be able to publish their experiences with first-person modes, Epic Games says.

The company first revealed the first-person perspective at its State of Unreal show in March, though it's not planned for Fortnite's Battle Royale mode, Epic confirmed to Rock Paper Shotgun. You can get a brief look at the mode in Epic's State of Unreal replay at 1:06:26 and in a post on X shared …

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