An offline event that introduces various information and usage examples regarding the game engine “Unreal Engine” developed by Epic Games.「Unreal Fest Tokyo 2026」was held for two days, November 3rd and 4th, at the TFT Building West Building in Ariake, Tokyo.
At this event, Epic Games CEOMr. Tim Sweeneygave the keynote speech.
In this lecture, he talked about how game development will change with Unreal Engine 6 as AI continues to evolve to the point of destruction. Also, how can Epic Games support developers?“Fortnite”He also touched on how Unreal Editor for Fortnite (UEFN), which allows content development within the company, supports the company’s strategy.
In this article, we will talk about Tim and the representative of Epic Games Japan.Mr. Takayuki KawasakiReport on the keynote speech on the first day. We will also introduce the content of the Q&A session for the media.
Interview and text by Sharekobe Murata
Edit/Zakiyama of the World
“Blueprints” have been abolished in “Unreal Engine 6.” Making the painful decision believing that it will greatly improve the efficiency of game production
A particularly hot topic was the transition from “Unreal Engine 5” to “Unreal Engine 6.” Tim developed a language for creating game content using Unreal Engine 6.Move to text-based “Verse” and abolish traditional visual programming language “Blueprint”announced.
The reason for this is that when developing using AI, text-based Verses are more compatible with AI than Blueprints, which are more visible to humans.
“This is an unacceptable decision. Our designers love Blueprint, and we know that many of you do, so please allow us to apologize for retiring Blueprint.”
Mr. Tim bowed his head on the podium. On the other hand, he said, “We believe this is a necessary decision for Unreal Engine 6,” and said that in the next generation scripting pipeline,Game production has become much more efficientHe also said that it should be done.
The company is also working on a migration strategy that uses AI to automate the migration from Unreal Engine 5. This strategy is currently being tested in Fortnite, with millions of Blueprints and remaining C++ code moved to Verse to maximize the acceleration of AI-powered development.
Epic Games’ goal is to create a foundation that will allow us to efficiently develop games that are bigger and more interconnected. We will allow developers to connect their games with other games if they wish, and allow developers to work together as colleagues under such a system. This is the future Epic Games is aiming for.
Tim stated that this future is inevitable, saying, “Japanese creators, who have demonstrated the greatest amount of creativity in the history of gaming, will play a leading role in that future as well.”
Open standards created by Unreal Engine 6
The next generation game engine, Unreal Engine 6, will combine the great features of Unreal Engine 5 with the open ecosystem created with Fortnite. Once you create a game, you can deploy it on all platforms,Can be brought into ecosystems such as FortniteThe goal is to make it into something.
Tim says this is a strategy to prevent a monopolistic situation by one company.“Roblox”No company can compete with its user base, but if companies can work together and link content, communities, and economies, they can create the largest ecosystem ever.
In order to achieve this, it will be important to utilize the numerous features that Unreal Engine 6 employs.open standardsis. Some open standards already exist, such as the glTF file format for importing and exporting 3D models, making it easier to move content between games, game engines, and tools.
For areas where industry standards do not yet exist, Epic Games will create new standards and make them widely available so that other companies can adopt them.
One of the things Epic Games has focused most on is the programming language Verse. In Unreal Engine 6, the engine code will still be written in C++, but the gameplay will be scripted in Verse.
Verse is said to be easy to use like C#, yet has the same power as C++. It is said that it should be easier to use than any other programming language to date when creating games that are accelerated using AI tools.
Verse has been in development and testing for five years for Fortnite, and will soon be available for use in all games created with Unreal Engine 6.
“Scene Graph” was also mentioned as one of the architectures introduced in “Unreal Engine 6.” This is an API that plays a central role when creating 3D scenes with “Unreal Engine 6.” It will be involved in every aspect, including gameplay, simulation, networking, and physics calculations.
Game development accelerates with the use of AI and “Unreal Engine 6.” Work efficiency is expected to increase 4 times by the end of this year and 10 times next year.
Tim also said that he hopes that game production using Unreal Engine 6 will be greatly accelerated by the use of AI. Development within Epic Games is already underway in areas such as level design, art, and programming.1.5x to 4x efficiency improvementHe says he is experiencing it.
It is revolutionary that work that previously took engineers four days can now be completed in one day. These improvements in efficiency will allow creators to focus on the core aspects of their work, rather than the repetitive work required for mass production.
Within Epic Games, improvements to the pipeline (work flow) to utilize AI are already underway. By the end of this year, programming and content creation will be at least four times faster, and by the middle of next year, work efficiency will be improved in many areas.Expected to reach 10 timesIt is said that
While 10x efficiency may seem impressive, Tim says, “It’s not a huge surprise to us.” A year ago, AI tools had no practical capabilities in coding or 3D art. However, over the past year, AI’s capabilities have evolved from bad to excellent, and it continues to grow at a tremendous pace.
Tim talked about Epic Games’ approach to AI as follows.
・Game production is all under the control of the developer, making it possible to connect any AI model and choose the model of your choice.
・Epic Games has no intention of using it as a mechanism to sell AI models.
・The purpose is to utilize AI to streamline game development
Epic Games currently has partnerships with four American model providers and five top Chinese model providers. The company is working to help each company create the best models by providing Unreal Engine sources, Epic Games’ custom data, and sample projects.
Japan still shines strongly in the chaotic game industry
As of 2026, the entire gaming industry is undergoing major changes due to the tremendous growth of AI. However, Tim says that despite this, Japanese developers have not slowed down and are creating successful AAA titles and original IP around the world.
One example was Sega’s game created using Unreal Engine 5.“Sonic Racing Cross World”is. Cumulative sales of this work exceeded 1 million copies worldwide within a month of its release. Season Pass 2 will also be released on November 4th, further expanding the world.
And Sega is“Sonic”He also brought this to Fortnite. In Chapter 7 Season 4 of the same work, which ran from August 20th to October 31st,“Rockman”or“Tetris”A collection of various games. “Sonic” is one of them.
Tim says that this initiative has shown the potential of how IP can be delivered to users around the world, transcending the boundaries of works and platforms. An open ecosystem like Fortnite allows IP to be delivered wherever players are, allowing for a wide range of experiences. That’s the future Epic Games is trying to create.
The next topic that became a hot topic was the one that immediately took social media by storm after it was released on Steam in June.“Very chameleon”is. Tim called this work “one of the most inspiring things of the year,” and said that the blockbuster, which sold 20 million copies in just two months,Mr. LemorionandMr. HaganeiroHe was surprised that it was made by only two people.
Both men originally created UGC (User Generated Content) within Fortnite, and after researching player preferences, they developed a standalone game.
“Meccha Chameleon” achieved an astonishing number of over 340,000 simultaneous users, and the online system was supported by “Epic Online Services (EOS),” a free backend service provided by Epic Games.
There is no need to run your own server or use a data center, and there is no need to run an API.【※】It was sufficient to use the .
※API：
Application Programming Interface. A mechanism that connects software, programs, etc.
As the precedent of Mecha Chameleon shows, with the tools available at the production level, even a small team can create the biggest, most innovative games and deliver them to people around the world overnight, Tim said.
“Sonic” and “Meccha Chameleon” each illustrate different ways in which ecosystems operate.
By jumping into the new field of “Fortnite”, “Sonic” developed a completely different user base than before. On the other hand, “Meccha Chameleon” began making games on “UEFN,” and from there it became a hit that was released on Steam and home game consoles.
Incorporating historical IP and allowing developers to share their works with the world. Although these two developments may seem diametrically opposed, the open ecosystem of Unreal Engine can be said to be an example of achieving both.
Development, operation, and distribution system provided by Epic Games
Tim provided a diagram of the services provided by Epic Games and reiterated how Epic Games can help game developers.
There is a particularly rich range of software and platforms to support game development, including Unreal Engine, RealityScan, which allows you to create 3D models from photos, MetaHuman, which allows you to create photorealistic human models, and Fab, a comprehensive platform that allows you to share and sell digital materials such as 3D models and sounds.
And as mentioned in the example of “Meccha Chameleon”, Epic Games also provides online services that support the operation of the game. You can also sell games on the Epic Games Store, and even “Fortnite”, which has grown into an ecosystem, allows you to distribute your own content.
Tim says that the creation of a gaming ecosystem is currently a big trend in the gaming industry. Fortnite has 76 million monthly players, and Roblox has more than 400 million monthly active users. With the advent of AI, the amount of time players spend within the gaming ecosystem will only increase.
A feature of ecosystem-based games is that players stay connected to each other as they move from game to game, and the costumes and emotes they purchase can be used wherever they go.
While Roblox has successfully created a closed ecosystem where everything is controlled, Fortnite started out as a closed ecosystem under the control of Epic Games and has now grown to be completely open. “All the developers here work as colleagues,” he said.
And this evolution will continue in the future. Tim said that Unreal Engine 6 provides an open ecosystem for developers around the world, which he hopes will transform the gaming experience itself.
If you create a game with UEFN, it will automatically run on all platforms.
UEFN is at the heart of Epic Games’ future strategy. As mentioned at the beginning, this is a free game creation tool that allows you to develop games and content within Fortnite. It seems that new features for Unreal Engine 6 are already being developed on a trial basis using this tool.
『We’re Cooked!』and “PARANORMAL” [HORROR]In addition to introducing games created within Fortnite, such as “Fortnite”, Tim says, “Once they create a game, their work automatically works on all platforms.”
Once you submit your game to the ecosystem, the system will automatically convert it for you. From mobile to PC, PlayStation 5, Nintendo Switch 2, and Xbox Series X|S, it’s quite surprising that you don’t have to create your own build for each platform.
At the same time, Epic Games will also take care of all operational procedures such as payment processing and server management. This is a great news for small game development teams.
The example given here is『Steal the Brainrot』is. This game was the most buzzed-about UGC trend in 2026, and developer FeRinS said he operated the game like a AAA title within Fortnite.
We host daily mini-events and weekly live events, and regularly supply new content. The team that created this work is small, with only seven people, but the number of monthly active users is 4.5 million, and the number of simultaneous connections during live events was 1.1 million at its peak. Even the baseline number of simultaneous connections remains at 30,000.
And just like in the case of Meccha Chameleon, there was no need for the developers to do anything if the game had over 1 million users. The ecosystem took care of all the chores.
Since the release of “UEFN,” Epic Games has paid developers more than $1 billion. The way developers develop games and create new businesses with the passion of entrepreneurs is reminiscent of the early days of gaming in the 1980s and 1990s.
In addition to the Item Shop, which shares revenue with Epic Games, Fortnite allows players to make profits through In-Island Transactions, where players use V-Bucks (Fortnite’s in-game currency) to purchase content on islands created by creators.
Epic Games is also working with partner companies to make their IP freely available within the ecosystem. Until now, when creating a game based on existing IP, companies had to negotiate with the IP holder and purchase the rights themselves. But if you sign up for Fortnite and agree to pay 20% of your revenue to the IP holder, you’ll instantly have access to all of that IP’s content.“Star Wars”This means that even huge IPs like this can be easily handled.
With this in mind, Tim said, “In order to prepare for the opportunities that Unreal Engine 6 brings,Check out the development environment for Fortnite nowI strongly recommend that you try it out and learn from it.”
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