/dev/null: EPIC GAMES ANNOUNCES STAGGERING UNREAL ENGINE 4 GROWTH

Thursday, 7 July 2016

EPIC GAMES ANNOUNCES STAGGERING UNREAL ENGINE 4 GROWTH

Last year Epic Games broke down the barriers of game development and stunned the industry at the 2015 Games Developer Conference by releasing Unreal Engine 4 to the public for free, making the world’s most powerful engine even more accessible for developers building content for PC, console, mobile and virtual reality platforms. Today Epic Games has confirmed that since going free, the Unreal community has seen massive growth, with more than 2 million developers using the studio’s real-time 3D engine. The news comes on the heels of Epic confirming 1.5 million developers in the UE4 community in March at GDC, speaking directly to the rapid growth the engine has seen in recent months.

The engine’s momentum was on full display last month as more than 80 Unreal Engine games were present at this year’s E3. The week kicked off with Xbox and PlayStation’s press conferences, highlighting a variety of Unreal-powered titles, including Gears of War 4, Batman: Arkham VR, TEKKEN 7, Sea of Thieves, Day’s Gone, We Happy Few, Scalebound, EVE: Valkyrie and more! On the showfloor, Unreal games ran the gamut from triple-A to up-and-coming indie projects; included were Absolver, ABZU, Injustice 2, LawBreakers, Ghostbusters, ARK: Primal Survival, Killing Floor 2 and Vampyr – collectively they represent a stellar cross-section of the industry, with many racking up numerous Game Critic Award nominations.

In addition, the engine had a strong presence at the E3 College Game Competition, with four out of the five finalist teams developing on UE4. Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD) took home the win for their Unreal-powered VR game, Brobot Beat Down. Following the show, the Epic team released more than a dozen interviews with developers, as well as the results of its Unreal E3 Awards, which can be found on Epic’s E3 2016 YouTube playlist.