One example is the Giant Knight that protagonist Gwendolyn encountered in the first trailer. To help improve performance, Unreal Engine China technical director Wei Liu says they conducted tests for CPU/GPU bottlenecks. It has since reduced computational overhead and raised the average frame rate. Of course, the collaboration has also ensured that Nanite can be used in-game for “automated collision and shadow optimization.”

The overarching result is that even if a Giant Knight is in the background, it will retain the same high-quality textures and fluid motion without any performance hit. And while Eclipse Glow previously announced support for DLSS and Path Tracing, it’s also communicated with Nvidia for “detailed performance analysis.” The two will also work together on “joint optimizations at the driver level” in the future. And if that wasn’t enough, parent company Tencent also provided technical assistance, though further details weren’t shared.

For those itching to play the game, a hands-on event has been announced for this Summer with registration open to all players. You can expect more details through the developer’s socials, so stay tuned for updates.

A short trailer with real-time in-game footage, and from the outset, it sports extensive improvements to reflections, lighting quality, foliage and effects. Granted, it wasn’t an actual ongoing match, nor is there any indication of a release window, but it’s still a massive leap forward for Rocket League, which has used Unreal Engine 3 since release.

It’s pretty much a given that Epic’s other franchises, including Fortnite, LEGO Fortnite, and more, will shift to Unreal Engine 6 in due time. However, CEO Tim Sweeney believes it will be the “nexus point” for the studio’s work from Unreal Engine 5, combining the Unreal Editor for Fortnite with the main engine.

Whether that will influence Creator Made Experiences and how easy it is to make them remains to be seen. Sweeney did mention that preview versions of Unreal Engine 6 could arrive in 2027 or 2028 as the team makes “continuous progress.” Judging by this latest trailer, it may just be on track for next year. Time will tell, though, so stay tuned for further updates in the coming months.

Such conditions would have likely made the Souls-like exclusive to the Epic Games Store, especially if Epic was providing funding and support. With CI Games exiting the agreement, Lords of the Fallen 2 could now launch on multiple PC storefronts, including Steam.

Of course, the partnership between CI Games and Epic goes beyond the game, especially since it uses Unreal Engine 5. Those agreements are still very much in place, including in relation to “Epic online services, Epic account services, or the Company’s participation in the Fortnite ecosystem.” Hey, if it can have Mortal Kombat, then there’s always a chance.

Interestingly, the Separation Agreement actually occurred on April 14th. Why didn’t CI Games disclose this at the time? Apparently, because it could have “prejudiced the Company’s legitimate interests.” “The Agreement was conditional in nature. Furthermore, under the Agreement, the Company undertook not to disclose its execution prior to its entry into force.” The board also believed that not disclosing the same wouldn’t “mislead the public.”

Lords of the Fallen 2 is out later this year for Xbox Series X/S, PS5, and PC. It doesn’t have a release date, but a CI Games designer accidentally revealed in their portfolio that it may launch in August. Perhaps an announcement at the Summer Game Fest showcase on June 5th, alongside the reveal that it’s indeed coming to Steam? Stay tuned for updates.

“I think it was super optimism of the time during Covid-19,” he explained. “The industry grew so much because [people] had to stay at home, and video games were the easiest and cheaper way to be entertained. So they saw this huge increase in growth of the industry, and many investors poured money into the sector, so these publishers over-hired, over-invested. They hired too many people. They invested in projects that they shouldn’t have.”

“And when that additional demand subsided after Covid, the people running these companies saw the reality, that the industry went back to the original steady growth cog, that means that the growth became flat after a couple of years.”

He went on to note how the sheer number of people being laid off has been “really sad.” Despite this, however, Yoshida remains optimistic about the health of the industry in the future.

“People don’t talk about the number of people hired into the industry,” he said. “When you look at the number of people working at these companies even after layoffs, you might see the number of people is still growing. Meaning that these companies tend to hire when things are good.”

While it’s difficult to gauge whether Yoshida’s thoughts have much merit to them, many studios have announced new rounds of layoffs in the last month alone. Among these have been Dead by Daylight developer Behaviour Interactive, Iron Galaxy Studios, and Moss developer Polyarc Games. Epic Games also saw major layoffs affecting over 1,000 of its workers thanks to declining interest in Fortnite.

An industry veteran, Yoshida had worked for Sony since 1993, when he joined the initial PlayStation team under Ken Kutaragi. While he spent much of his time at the company working with first-party development teams, he would eventually move over to handling the company’s indie development support teams – a move which he noted was due to his disagreements with at-the-time Sony Interactive Entertainment CEO Jim Ryan. Yoshida ultimately left the company in January 2025.

It’s not just any extraction shooter, though – this is described as something “along the lines” of ARC Raiders, except with Disney characters. Sources claim that players will battle “enemies” and then extract, so best mentally prepare for teams of Mickey Mouse, Snow White, and Moana with guns in advance.

Feedback from internal reviewers claims it’s not “very original,” but it’s reportedly slated to launch by this November. That’s not all, though. Two more games are allegedly in development, with one facing “middling internal reviews.” The other has seemingly been put on hold to prioritize the others (with Disney allegedly “disappointed by Epic’s release timeline”).

Whether this will contribute to any meaningful turnaround for Epic Games, which has seen lagging interest in Fortnite over the years, remains to be seen. With Disney investing $1.5 billion into the company, you’d better believe these titles, good or bad, are making it to market.

Stay tuned for updates, and in the meantime, check out one analyst’s take on the situation with Epic Games and Fortnite.

The embattled studio probably caught his eye when it laid off more than a thousand of its employees and had to work quickly to turn public sentiment around when it discovered that one of them was terminally ill. CEO Tim Sweeney’s assertion about layoffs having nothing to do with AI has been called into question in Dreunen’s analysis of why Epic and Fortnite are at the beginning of their end. He argues that gaming companies outside the US are looking into generative AI and creative ways to use it, which has yet to be done satisfactorily.

He also points to factors outside the purview of any gaming studio, such as an increased cost of living and one that Epic is already familiar with: an imbalance in platform holder rights that has been eating the studio’s profits while increasing its spending through legal costs.

“Empires don’t collapse all at once…They hollow out, slowly, until one day the walls come down and everyone acts surprised. We are currently somewhere in the middle of that process.”

Dreuner’s words may be a bitter pill to swallow for Epic, a studio that seemed like it would live forever. However, we’re hoping that it can confront its own mortality and find a suitable middle ground, keeping Fortnite and all the fun it brings alive in the process.

“I know for a fact there are senior executives in Disney who want them to buy Epic, and are just waiting for that moment,” said Heath. “And then there’s others who think it’s a bad idea. So, I think if Epic ever sold, if it ever decided to call it quits on being an independent company, Disney would be the most natural home for it for a lot of reasons, for the park integration. Can you imagine a Fortnite park?”

Heath went on to discuss Epic Games’ recent legal battles against major tech industry companies like Apple and Google, and how this might also play a pivotal role in keeping Disney from buying the company outright, at least for now. In the long term, however, both companies might want to team up to a greater degree to take on the ever-popular Roblox.

“And, I can see that, but at the same time you have to understand Epic is a founder-controlled company, so Tim Sweeney has full voting stock control and can make unilateral decisions, and it’s really up to him. And he is, as we saw, he was the guy who went to battle against the app stores, against Apple and Google, to open those up. And it’s almost an illogical crusade when you’re running a company like Epic to do something like that.”

“But that kind of thinking is something that’s going to keep Disney a little bit at arm’s length.”

Belloni brings up the fact that the recent financial hardships faced by Epic Games, which led to the company laying off over 1,000 of its employees, could also play a role in Disney’s potential acquisition plans. “If this is the beginning of a long, slow decline for Fortnite, which I’m not sure it is, it’s not great if Disney’s putting all their chips into a declining business.”

“Gaming in general is having a hard time,” responded Heath. “But if you look at Roblox‘s growth, which is where Epic has been trying to take Fortnite into more of an open-world creator-first ecosystem where creators can build businesses, building on top of Fortnite, Roblox is just killing it with that. And I think these experiences are probably still the future of not only gaming, but social media for young people, right? They’re hanging out in these worlds. So Fortnite‘s not dead.”

Belloni responded by saying that his 10-year-old “would be stoked if Tony Stark showed up and Yoda and a bunch of Jedi, and they could play with those.”

“It’s the best combination to potentially actually challenge Roblox‘s dominance here,” noted Heath. “You can call it gaming, but it’s really entertainment, and it’s also social media. I mean Disney’s on the cap table. They’re supposed to be doing this integration.”

It is worth noting that, for now, neither Epic Games nor Disney have made any announcements or statements that indicate that there might be discussions about an acquisition in the works. As Heath and Belloni noted, however, it could potentially be a beneficial partnership, especially in the wake of Disney’s deal with OpenAI falling through in light of the latter bringing an end to its video generation technology Sora.

In her post, Griffin noted that Prinke is “currently fighting terminal brain cancer,” and said that, “because of the layoff, we didn’t just lose income—we lost his life insurance.” In response, Sweeney took to social media platform X to reveal that Epic Games has been communicating with the family, hoping to solve their issues with insurance.

“Epic is in contact with the family and will solve the insurance for them,” he wrote. “There is high confidentiality around medical information, and it was not a factor in this layoff decision. Sorry to everyone for not recognizing this terribly painful situation and handling it in advance.”

Shortly after this, Griffin had updated her Facebook post, noting that “WE ARE IN TALKS WITH THE APPROPRIATE PEOPLE! WILL UPDATE SOON, LIKELY BY TUESDAY. THANK YOU.”

The announcement for the lay-offs was made last week, with Sweeney blaming the “downturn in Fortnite engagement,” which led to Epic Games “spending significantly more than we’re making, and we have to make major cuts to keep the company funded. This layoff, together with over $500 million of identified cost savings in contracting, marketing, and closing some open roles, puts us in a more stable place.”

Sweeney also made note of “industry-wide challenges,” “tougher cost economics,” and the gaming industry’s spending having gone down in recent years. Looking to the future, he has noted that the company plans to continue supporting Fortnite with “awesome” experiences and more seasonal content, including gameplay, story, and live events. Epic Games also plans to continue the evolution of Unreal Engine 5 and UEFN, which will eventually lead to the development of Unreal Engine 6.

“What we now need to do is clear: build awesome Fortnite experiences with fresh seasonal content, gameplay, story, and live events; accelerate developer tools with greater stability and capability as we evolve from Unreal Engine 5 and UEFN to Unreal Engine 6. And we’ll be kicking off the next generation of Epic with huge launch plans towards the end of the year,” said Sweeney.

Sweeney has also made a note of the fact that employees affected by the lay-offs will get a severance package that includes four months’ of their salaries, with extras on top “based on tenure,” as well as six months of health care coverage. “We’ll also accelerate their stock options vesting through January 2027 and extend equity exercise options for up to two years,” he said.

In the meantime, developers still at Epic Games have spoken about needing to continue working, while also writing a sympathetic message for those affected by the lay-offs. “Our teams will have to pick up the pieces and try to keep moving forward,” wrote gameplay producer Robby Williams on social media, “but we cannot even fully understand what kind of impacts this will have on the game for the rest of the year and likely beyond.”

Gameplay producer Robby Williams described the event as “a brutal day at Epic,” noting that “what comes next is very hard and painful” for those affected by the lay-offs. On the subject of now having to make do with a team that is now smaller by around 1,000 developers, he said that the crew will have to “pick up the pieces and try to keep moving forward.

“Our teams will have to pick up the pieces and try to keep moving forward,” wrote Williams on social media, “but we cannot even fully understand what kind of impacts this will have on the game for the rest of the year and likely beyond.”

“I’ll continue to do my best to keep making the best game for you,” he continued, “and I’m confident that my peers feel the same, but please be patient with us as we navigate this tough time and do our best in spite of these truly gut-wrenching losses.”

In announcing the lay-offs, Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeny said that the company was “spending significantly more than we’re making, and we have to make major cuts to keep the company funded. This layoff, together with over $500 million of identified cost savings in contracting, marketing, and closing some open roles, puts us in a more stable place.”

As for the future of Fortnite, Sweeny said that the company will have to focus on offering players “awesome Fortnite experiences with fresh seasonal content, gameplay, story, and live events.” He also said that Epic Games has to work on its developer tools “with greater stability and capability as we evolve from Unreal Engine 5 and UEFN to Unreal Engine 6. And we’ll be kicking off the next generation of Epic with huge launch plans towards the end of the year.”

The lay-offs were far from the only things coming about at Epic Games in light of Fortnite seeing a downturn. The company is also shutting down three popular game modes available in Fortnite: Rocket Racing, Ballistic, and Festival Battle Stage. The modes will be shut down in a staggered manner, with Ballistic and Festival Battle Stage being on their way out in April, and Rocket Racing remaining live until October 2026.

“We’ve built a lot of Fortnite modes, and in some cases, we failed to build something awesome enough to attract and retain a large player base,” said Epic Games when it announced these shut downs. “We are going to shut these modes down on the schedules outlined below – we’re grateful for everyone who played.”

What the future holds for Fortnite might seem murky for now. However, Epic Games likely has plans already in place. The company’s partnerships with others might also play a role, like the deal it had signed with Unity to bring in the latter’s game engine capabilities into Fortnite.

The first among them is Rocket Racing, a Mario Kart-like addition from developer Psyonix (Rocket League) that brought quite an entertaining arcade racing gameplay loop that’s sure to be missed when it goes offline in October 2026. That includes all raving islands created with UEFN, along with racing templates for new ones. There will be no more Rocket Racing Quests and Ranked Rewards starting next week, although the fact that you can still use your custom cars in other game modes is a small consolation.

While Rocket Racing’s exit is still a while away, Ballistic fans aren’t going to be so lucky as the mode is on its way out next month, leaving you with precious little time to enjoy it. While FPS island support will continue to be provided on UEFN, Epic Games asserts that the platform will need more functionality before a similar mode is possible (and there’s no timeline for the same).

Last but not least is the Festival Battle Stage, which will continue to operate normally in Harmonix’s Fortnite Festival until it shuts down on April 16, presumably to enable a more robust approach to content creation for other music modes such as Main Stage and Jam Stage. Epic Games had this to say about the removal of the three modes:

“We’ve built a lot of Fortnite modes, and in some cases, we failed to build something awesome enough to attract and retain a large player base. We are going to shut these modes down on the schedules outlined below – we’re grateful for everyone who played.”

The path forward remains murky for Fortnite, but perhaps its partnership with the Unity Engine could help turn its fortunes around. Either way, the tweet below is now the latest blow to the title, and all we can do is commiserate and share fond memories of these modes before they disappear.

https://x.com/FortniteStatus/status/2036451164347109440