Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney affirmed that the Unreal Engine 5 would look impressive on both the PS5 and the Xbox Series X.
Last week, Epic Games unveiled its new Unreal Engine 5, which would launch alongside the next-generation consoles. Unfortunately, Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney drew in some flak after people noticed his preference for the PS5 and reluctance to even mention the Xbox Series X during the event.
The event itself was meant to hype up next-gen consoles. But the PS5 definitely took home most of the attention leading many to question Epic’s intentions.
Supporting both PS5 and the Xbox Series X
Sweeney provided a bit more context in a Tweet concerning the Unreal Engine 5 and the platforms it would support. According to him, the next-gen game engine will work impressively on both the PS5 and the Xbox Series X.
However, he also explained that Unreal Engine 5 had been a product of Epic and Sony discussions. This explains why Epic chose the PS5 to showcase the new game development technology.
The Unreal Engine 5 demo on PlayStation 5 was the culmination of years of discussions between Sony and Epic on future graphics and storage architectures.
The Nanite and Lumen tech powering it will be fully supported on both PS5 and Xbox Series X and will be awesome on both.
— Tim Sweeney (@TimSweeneyEpic) May 15, 2020
Sweeney also replied to a Twitter user that claimed Epic had a marketing deal with Sony, which made them unable to mention the Xbox Series X. He says that there is no secret deal between Sony and Epic. The UE5 demo on the PS5 had been publicly announced.
Epic Games praises the PS5
During the even, Sweeney didn’t hold back in praising the PS5 describing its design architecture as world-class. The Xbox Series X trumps the Playstation 5 in most technical aspects but the SSD, as most analysts say.
Unsurprisingly, the PS5’s storage architecture is what Epic is singing praises about.
“The hardware that Sony is launching is absolutely phenomenal,” Sweeney says. “Not only [is there] an unprecedented amount of graphics power, but also a completely new storage architecture that blows past architectures out of the water, and it’s so far ahead of even the state-of-the-art [solutions] in the highest-end PCs you can buy.”
According to him, the next-gen console will provide them the opportunity to create the kind of games they could only dream of in the past.
Supporting the current generation platforms
Tim Sweeney has confirmed that the Unreal Engine 5 will support high-end PCs as well as the current generation of consoles. This would also include the Nintendo Switch.
However, the current generation of consoles won’t be able to experience the fullness of what the UE5 can bring. Only the more advanced next-gen consoles are able to maximize the UE5’s potential.
The Unreal Engine 5
The UE5 is said to be the next generation of game development. Most games today already use the UE5’s predecessor, the Unreal Engine 4. Because of this, it is highly likely game developers would move to the UE5 for their future projects.
Epic Games’ tech showcase of the UE5 saw just how stunning games could be, especially when used with next-gen consoles like the PS5. Two of the most important aspects of the UE5 are the Lumen and Nanite.
Lumen allows developers to use stunning natural lighting. This feature allows games to react and adapt to light changes. This will allow developers to make more dynamic scenes. Nanite, on the other hand, eliminates polygon limits. This means developers would be able to add as much geometric detail as they want or need.
Epic Games will launch the Unreal Engine 5 in full sometime in 2021.
Image courtesy of Epic Games (1)