Geoff Keighley’s Summer Game Fest just had its biggest reveal yet courtest of Epic Games – Unreal Engine 5. While many of the benefits of the new engine are tailed for next-generation systems, namely the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X, the official website has confirmed that developers will be able to scale the new engine to work with “current-generation consoles, PC, Mac, iOS, and Android.”
The main benefits of the Engine upgrade include “Lumen”, a dynamic lighting system, and “Nanite” geometry, which allows film CG-quality models to be imported directly into games. It’s unlikely the Switch will be able to enjoy the full breadth of these systems, however.
Various Unreal Engine 4 games have been released on Switch so far, such as Mortal Kombat 11, Octopath Traveler, and even Yoshi’s Crafted World, and Epic have confirmed that developers will be able to “move” UE4 projects to UE5 “when ready”.
Unreal Engine 5 will be available for preview in early 2021 and release fully later that year.
Written by Tom Brown
Whether it’s an exciting new entry in a series long established or a weird experiment meant only for the dedicated, Tom is eager to report on it. Rest assured, if Nintendo ever announces Elite Beat Agents 2, he’ll be there.
