Epic Games Reveals Unreal Engine 6, With Rocket League as the First Confirmed Title

Epic Games has announced Unreal Engine 6, the next major update to its game development platform. The reveal was held during the Paris Major of the Rocket League Championship Series rather than at a large industry event. Rocket League will be the first game announced to run on Unreal Engine 6.

The trailer featured in-engine Rocket League gameplay with enhanced vehicle detail and cinematic camera work, followed by the Unreal Engine 6 logo. Epic described the announcement as marking "a new era" and introducing "a new engine" for the vehicular soccer game.

Why Rocket League Is the First Unreal Engine 6 Title and What It Means for the Industry

Rocket League currently runs on Unreal Engine 3, the same generation of engine that powered many Xbox 360 games. Most major Epic games have already been updated to newer engines, but Rocket League has continued to use its original tech. Moving Rocket League from Unreal Engine 3 to Unreal Engine 6 would be one of the largest engine upgrades for any live service game.

Fortnite, Epic's flagship live service, transitioned from Unreal Engine 4 to Unreal Engine 5 without disrupting its in-game economy or ongoing operations. A similar upgrade process is expected for Rocket League, though Epic has not provided a timeline.

Unreal Engine is among the most widely used game engines in the industry. Some studios, such as CD Projekt, which previously built proprietary engines, have shifted to Unreal in recent years. The engine is also used in film and visual effects, with Disney among the studios utilizing it for CGI production.

Unreal Engine 5 launched in 2021 with a real-time Matrix demo that attracted attention for its visual quality. It has been used in titles like Star Wars Jedi Survivor and Avowed, but has also faced criticism over performance and optimization issues. Whether these issues originate from the engine itself or how developers implement it is debated, but they have influenced the public perception of Unreal Engine 5.

Comments on the potential Unreal Engine 6 release include calls for Epic to address Unreal Engine 5 performance problems before progressing further.

What Unreal Engine 6 Reveals About Epic’s Strategy

The Unreal Engine 6 reveal trailer showcased Rocket League alongside other Epic-owned games such as Fortnite and Lego Fortnite. Epic CEO Tim Sweeney has previously described Fortnite as a model for a broader platform vision, where independent developers and multiple interoperable games can coexist within a single ecosystem. Unreal Engine 6 is positioned as a foundation for expanding this model beyond Fortnite itself.

Compared to the Unreal Engine 5 reveal in 2021, which included a free open-world demo of Matrix Awakens for consoles, the announcement of Unreal Engine 6 is a more modest teaser. Epic has not yet released a public technical demo, performance benchmarks, or a list of supported platforms for the new engine.

The timeline for Unreal Engine 6’s release, including when developers will be able to start using it and when Rocket League will transition to the new engine, has not been announced.

Thank you for being a Ghacks reader. The post Epic Games Reveals Unreal Engine 6, With Rocket League as the First Confirmed Title appeared first on gHacks.