Epic’s Tim Sweeney reveals a more connected, ‘Fortnite’-driven, game-unified world

Fortnite boasts more than 350 million registered users and is reported to have brought in US$1.8bil (RM7.83bil) in 2019. Thus, the company states that its current goal is ‘wider adoption of all of Epic’s offerings’. — Dreamstime/TNS

Pandemic-era previews of next-generation home console games have been sporadic and short so far, but Fortnite creator Epic Games has offered a glimpse at what a game running on Sony’s PlayStation 5 could look like. Unveiling an update to the public for its game creation suite the Unreal Engine on Wednesday, the North Carolina company pulled back the curtain on the potential future of games, showcasing a tech demo of a fictional Tomb Raider-esque game.

Epic’s key promise is that its Unreal Engine 5, due in early 2021, will essentially render cinematic-quality, CGI-like effects in real time, complete with realistic lighting that had previously been more hardware-driven. Even in the current generation of high-tech games there's a difference between strictly narrative scenes and game-play moments. But eventually, promises Epic, those barriers will be blurred to the point of non-existence.