Epic’s Unreal Fest
Plus a new documentary on making a video game in the midst of war
Epic held their Unreal Fest this past week. What were the biggest announcements? Also, what is it like to make a video game while your country is being invaded? All this and more. Let’s go!
Epic’s Unreal Fest is an information feast
Epic held its Unreal Fest last week in Seattle. The maker of Fortnite and the Unreal game engine offered multiple updates about the company plans. Here are a few of the highlights:
- Fortnite is getting parental controls, allowing adults to set time limits for their children.
- Fortnite creators can now create first-person shooter games.
- Epic lowered Unreal Engine royalty fees for games released simultaneously on Epic Games Store from 5 - 3.5%.
- Epic is working to bring the social features of Fortnite to the Epic Game Store.
- Board game maker Hasbro is bringing classic games to Fortnite, starting with Clue.
The Verge has an interview with Epic CEO Tim Sweeney. In it, Sweeny says he has a plan for the rest of the decade. It involves merging Unreal Engine with their much simpler Unreal Editor for Fortnite. From the article:
“The real power will come when we bring these two worlds together so we have the entire power of our high-end game engine merged with the ease of use that we put together in [Unreal Editor for Fortnite],” Sweeney says. “That’s going to take several years. And when that process is complete, that will be Unreal Engine 6.”
Financially, Epic is in a good place to make their plan a reality. Although at least one publication says Sweeney is wrong in predicting the death of big single player games. Research suggests the same (see Side Quests below for more).
War Games
Creating a game is hard enough. Creating a game while your country is being invaded is an unheard of level of difficulty.
Stalker 2’s development was hindered when Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022, the home of developer GSC Game World. A new documentary called War Game released online last week details the trials and tribulations the studio faced not just making a game, but dealing with an invasion.
“Subconsciously, we were all ready to die,” says a developer named Alina.
The documentary details how the threat of a Russian invasion impacted the studio even before 2022. From a PC Gamer article:
As early as December 2021, certain company execs were thinking about plans for evacuation, mapping out routes into the west of the country and out of Kyiv in the event that Russia actually followed through on its apparent ambition to conquer Ukraine.
The studio eventually moved to Prague, in the Czech Republic. After multiple delays, Stalker 2 releases Nov. 20, 2024. You can watch the documentary in its entirety below.
Side Quests (more stories worth reading)
🎃 Are horror games your thing? Check out our piece on 13 Spooky games to play for Halloween.
🫰 Tencent and the Guillemot family - the largest shareholders in Ubisoft - are considering taking the company private.
😠 Star Citizen’s developer has mandated 7-day work weeks leading up to their CitizenCon event, with no promise of overtime pay.
👎🏽 Switch emulator Ryujinx shuts down development after “contact by Nintendo.” Related read: We can’t trust Nintendo to be reasonable.
🍃 Saber Interactive and Paramount Game Studios are working on a AAA game based on Avatar: The Last Airbender.
🎲 Board game publisher Czech Games Edition unveils a new logo, calling the old design “a little too serious.”
🎮 53% of gamers prefer single-player games, although younger players prefer online PVP games.
💻 Future Halo games will be made using Unreal Engine 5, and there are multiple games in development.
😞 Game companies laid off over 1,000 industry professionals in September.
💪🏿 The specialists who authenticate trading cards for eBay are rallying for a union contract.
📺 PlayStation 5 users were confronted with full-screen ads when they logged in this week. Sony says it was a “tech error.”
💌 Microsoft is seeking feedback from studios which aren’t on Xbox to “help address pain points.”
🦖 The PC version of Horizon Zero Dawn was pulled from digital storefronts to make way for the remastered version - which requires a PlayStation Network account to play. Also, the next Horizon title might be a live service game.
🎲 WizKids is making Baldur’s Gate 3 miniatures for your next D&D campaign.
🐔 The development chief for Tekken tried to get Colonel Sanders as a guest character in the game, but Kentucky Fried Chicken turned him down.
📱 Palworld is coming to mobile, despite Nintendo’s lawsuit.
📰 Best headline of the week: Bethesda honcho says Starfield is “the best game we've ever made” in massive bout of amnesia.
📽️ Director Steven Spielberg enjoys gaming and “loves Call Of Duty,” but will only play with a keyboard and mouse.
Join The Games Letter
Subscribe to our email newsletter and receive the latest gaming news in your inbox every Monday morning! It also helps support our website. We will never spam you. Join today!
New Releases this week:
Check out our article on 13 New Games to Play in October.
10/7: Kind Words 2 (PC)
10/7: Phoenix Springs (PC)
10/8: Diablo IV: Vessel of Hatred (PlayStation, Xbox and PC)
10/8: Silent Hill 2 (PlayStation and PC)
10/11: DRAGON BALL: Sparking! ZERO (PlayStation, Xbox and PC)
10/11: Europa (Switch and PC)
10/11: Metaphor: ReFantazio (PlayStation, Xbox and PC)
10/11: Undisputed (PlayStation, Xbox and PC)
Thanks for reading. If you enjoy our newsletter, tell a friend to subscribe!
