Unity and Epic Games have buried the hatchet to bring Unity games to market. Fortnite.
Unity CEO Matt Bromberg welcomed Epic Games boss and Unreal Engine progenitor Tim Sweeney to the Unite 2025 stage to confirm that the two longtime rivals have teamed up to give Unity developers the opportunity to bring their games to market. Fortnite ecosystem.
The battle royale shooter turned potential metaverse has grown into a colossal platform with over 500 million registered accounts worldwide. Epic is currently trying to continue this momentum by turning Fortnite to a paradise for user-generated content creators.
Starting next year, Unity developers will be able to ride this wave and participate in the Fortnite Creator economy. Sweeney notes that 40 percent of playing time is Fortnite is currently spent on third party apps created by independent developers.
Sweeney said it's critical that companies like Unity and Epic work together to create an “open metaverse” that's interoperable and fair. “By working together with Unity, we are helping developers create engaging games, reach wider audiences and achieve success,” he added.
In terms of how the partnership will impact developers, Sweeney said both companies hope to address the challenges of fragmentation in publishing tools and methods.
To get things moving, he confirmed that Unity will provide all Unreal Engine developers with an SDK for in-app purchases. “This means that Unreal Engine developers, like Unity developers, will be able to select Unity in-app purchase APIs to handle cross-platform purchases, entitlements, pricing logic, and everything else.” he continued during the keynote.
“It’s really valuable now. Mobile platforms are finally opening up to competing stores and payment methods. […] and we are grateful to Unity for its support.”
Regarding FortniteSweeney said he hopes to turn the hugely popular game into an “open metaverse economy that supports all users and all engines.”
Discussing the strategic implications of the partnership, Omdia chief analyst Liam Dean suggested that the move is a “strong signal that neither [company] is now prioritizing its game engine as a standalone product.”
“Each of them now views their game engine as a Trojan horse for a larger project: for Unity, its advertising and monetization business; for Epic – developing a user-generated content ecosystem (sorry, “metaverse”) – in Fortnite and in other places,” he added. “It is important to note that these businesses are very different and do not compete with each other. So to a large extent, Unity and Epic just don't see each other as competitors anymore.”
He also noted that developers should approach the partnership with some trepidation.
“This announcement is being touted as a step forward towards openness and interoperability, which sounds like a win for developers. However, in reality, developers have benefited enormously from the intense competition between Unity and Unreal Engine,” Dean continued. “As competition wanes, there is a risk that developers will find that both companies are more interested in pursuing grander ambitions than simply offering a better game engine.”
Game Developer and Omdia are subsidiaries of Informa.
