Epic Games reveals The State of Unreal for 2025

Epic Games unveiled its latest technology roadmap at the opening ceremony of Unreal Fest 2025 in Orlando on June 3rd, with CEO Tim Sweeney revealing it in a keynote speech.

The following is the analysis of the core highlights:
1. The Witcher 4’s UE5.6 Technical Demo Wows the Audience

• CD Projekt Red showcased the development achievements of its new Witcher game based on Unreal Engine 5.6 for the first time:
• Explore the new area of Kovir from the perspective of the protagonist Ciri, demonstrating the open-world dynamic loading technology (Fast Geometry Streaming Plugin)
• Achieve 60+ frames per second and ray tracing simultaneously on the PS5 platform
• The demo includes the Nanite vegetation system to be launched in UE5.7, enabling ultra-high-density natural scene rendering
• Hundreds of high-precision characters interact in the market scene using ML Deformer technology

Technical background: Three years ago, CDPR announced its collaboration with Epic to develop open-world support features. This demo validates the technological breakthrough.

2. Unreal Engine 5.6 has been officially released. Core upgrade directions:

• Open-world performance optimization: Supports smooth 60 FPS operation on contemporary consoles, PCs, and mobile devices.
• Revolution in animation workflow: Built-in binding system eliminates the need for multi-software round trips.
• Deep integration of MetaHuman: The digital human creation tool has ended its early access stage.
• Cross-engine licensing: The new EULA allows MetaHuman assets to be used in third-party engines such as Unity and Godot, as well as DCC software like Maya and Houdini

3. The Fortnite creative ecosystem continues to expand

• Latest data on Unreal Editor for Fortnite (UEFN):
• 260,000 creators have built islands that have been played for a total of 11.2 billion hours
• Divided revenue has reached 722 million US dollars
• The Lego brick editor was launched on June 17th
• IPs such as “Squid Game”, “Avatar”, and “Star Wars” are about to join
• AI tool innovations:
• The dialogue system technology based on the mid-season AI version of Darth Vader in “Star Wars” will be open to creators
• Persona Device: Supports developers in building conversational NPCs and influencing game logic
• Epic Developer Assistant: The AI programming assistant tool has entered public beta testing

4. Comprehensive Upgrade of the Epic Ecosystem

• RealityScan 2.0: Integration of desktop and mobile versions, with new support for AI masking and laser scanning (CDPR has used it for scene collection in The Witcher 4)
• Fab Asset Store: Launching on the Epic Launcher this summer, with future integration of AI tags and semantic search
• Epic Games Store:
• Third-party developers have earned a cumulative $2.1 billion in revenue
• 70 games and 40 million installations on mobile
• New revenue sharing model: 0% on the first $1 million, 12% thereafter
  

Industry Impact

• This release marks Epic’s deepening of its three major strategic directions:
• Consolidating its technological leadership through UE5.6
• Building a UGC ecosystem centered on UEFN for the Web3.0 era
• Lowering the threshold for 3D content creation with AI tools