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“Fortnite” players anticipated the start of Chapter 3 to be a major event, mostly for the new updates and content coming to the game. But Epic Games had one more surprise after announcing that the start of a new chapter also marks the game’s transition to Unreal Engine 5.
The start of every season in “Fortnite” is marked with a massive event on the island. But the end of Season 2 has led to another level of a phenomenon in the map as the island has turned upside down, which also explains that Chapter 3, Season 1 battle pass title “Flipped.”
Flipping the game also means something else for the developer, as Chapter 3 is the beginning of “Fortnite’s” Unreal Engine 5 migration. Epic Games made the announcement through the official Unreal Engine Twitter page on Tuesday. “With the arrival of Chapter 3, [‘Fortnite’] development has flipped to Unreal Engine 5,” the company wrote.
This fulfills Epic Games’ promise last year after the company released the official Unreal Engine 5 demo titled “Lumen in the Land of Nanite.” At the time, CEO Todd Sweeney said the plan was to make the transition around mid-2021. But delays in video game developments have become very common throughout the year due to the COVID-19 pandemic. On the bright side, Epic Games still managed to make it happen before 2021 ended.
There are already a number of video games confirmed to be in development using Unreal Engine 5. But none of them will be available in the immediate future. Earlier this year, The Coalition announced it is moving forward to developing the next all-new “Gears of War” game using Unreal Engine 5. But it is not expected to launch anytime soon.
That means “Fortnite” Chapter 3 is the closest chance video game fans have to experience the improvements made possible with Unreal Engine 5. But those who are not playing the battle royale game and own a PS5 or Xbox Series X/S will also have a chance to see another Unreal Engine 5 demo later this week. Epic Games announced earlier this week the release of “The Matrix Awakens” on Thursday, Dec. 9. The demo is a film tie-in for the upcoming “The Matrix Resurrections,” which premieres on Wednesday, Dec. 22.
