Video game developer Epic Games says it wants to incorporate Fortnite; Minecraft and Roblox into one interoperable metaverse. Epic aims for the Unreal 6 gaming engine to be the starting platform for future metaverse development in gaming.
Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney recently spoke on the plans in an interview with The Verge. He discussed the under-development Unreal 6 as the focal point for Unreal Games and Fortnite to create a game-agnostic digital assets marketplace. The Unreal engine is one of the strongest in the world, used by multiple major gaming companies in game development. It’s used for huge titles such as Epic’s Fortnite; Mass Effect, and other top AAA franchises.
“The whole thesis here is that players are gravitating towards games which they can play together with all their friends,” said Sweeney. in the interview. He added, “Players are spending more on digital items in games that they trust they’re going to play for a long time.” Titles such as Grand Theft Auto Online have already demonstrated that AAA games that operate on in-game purchases for revenue can turn digital assets into company profits.
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Epic Games Metaverse Still Has a Long Way to Go, Sweeney Says
On the other hand, in the same interview, Tim Sweeney also said that the ecosystem still needs to expand into an actual metaverse for gamers. “If you’re just dabbling in a game, why would you spend money to buy an item that you’re never going to use again? If we have an interoperable economy, then that will increase player trust that today’s spending on buying digital goods results in things that they’re going to own for a long period of time, and it will work in all the places they go.”
Back in 2022, Epic Games announced that it raised $2 billion to fund the company’s vision of building a metaverse. The developers also participated in Serie A’s funding for metaverse infrastructure developer Hadean, raising a total of $30 million.
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Epic Games’ executive vice president Saxs Persson also spoke to The Verge on the metaverse topic. Persson explained that the company’s vision for the future of gaming is one where interoperability keeps gamers engaged no matter what platform they choose. “There’s no reason why we couldn’t have a federated way to flow between Roblox, Minecraft, and Fortnite. From our perspective, that would be amazing, because it keeps people together and lets the best ecosystem win.”