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Fortnite to be PS5 & XSX launch title, will migrate to Unreal Engine 5 in 2021. Epic Online Services launches as well

EDIT: Meant XsX AND PS5 launch title, if someone could fix title I would be very grateful thank you

Some Fortnite news today, and EG news




Fortnite launches on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X when the consoles come out later in 2020, Epic has confirmed.

That's the Unreal Engine 4 version of the enormously popular free-to-play battle royale. Epic added it will migrate Fortnite to the just-announced Unreal Engine 5 in mid-2021.

More specifically, Fortnite launches on PS5 and Xbox Series 5 in Unreal Engine 4.25 form, Epic boss Tim Sweeney told Digital Foundry's Richard Leadbetter in a recent interview.

"We're gonna be launching Fortnite on next-generation consoles using Unreal Engine 4.25, which is going to be updated, which lots of partners are launching next-generation games on, and we'll transition Fortnite to Unreal Engine 5 next year and start to incorporate cool new features based on it," Sweeney said.





Epic Online Services is now available, giving developers free access to the same kinds of tools used to support Epic Games’ massive Fortnite player base. The new suite, which went live on Wednesday, enables a unified gameplay experience across multiple platforms, including Nintendo Switch, PlayStation, PC platforms (Windows, Mac, and Linux), and Xbox. It gives developers and their communities ready access to features like cross-play, cross-progression, unified matchmaking, lobbies, and more. Support for Android and iOS platforms will be added soon.

“At Epic, we believe in open, integrated platforms and in the future of gaming being a highly social and connected experience,” said Chris Dyl, general manager of online services at Epic Games, in a news release. “Through Epic Online Services, we strive to help build a user-friendly ecosystem for both developers and players, where creators can benefit regardless of how they choose to build and publish their games, and where players can play games with their friends and enjoy the same quality experience regardless of the hardware they own.”
 
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Casanova

Member
So, does this mean games like Cyberpunk and the newly announced GTA V on Epic Games store will be crossplay compatible? If so, I feel like this is actually super exciting news for those of us who like a really social and connected gaming experience.
 

-Arcadia-

Banned
Couldn't you just load the existing Fortnite on the systems as they're BC?

They are shooting for visual improvements, according to the blog, but yeah. Couldn’t it just be ‘enhanced for Series X’, or whatever the label is, as we saw with the recent Xbox showcase? Maybe Sony is doing things different, or Epic just wants the hype headline.

When it "migrates to UE5" will that be like a giant patch, a new game download for existing owners, or will it be released as a new edition entirely, I wonder?

It should basically ‘just work’. The game already updates weekly, and seasons, roughly ever few months, bring in massive changes. When the Chaos physics system in the demo today was added, the process was essentially invisible for players. It’s been that way for every major visual feature, revamp, etc.
 

-Arcadia-

Banned
A game that looks like it belongs on the PS3 is going to be a PS5 launch title? Why?

eqR5yoC.jpg


Your PS3 must have been pretty awesome. All that at 60 FPS, open world, and with a 100 player count too.
 
Super stoked to read this news.

Assuming things go smoothly, it should mean no more soupy textures on buildings (rare nowadays but it does happen sometimes) and that we can actually hear where the enemies are instead of relying on sound visualisation.

Also, Fortnite is simultaneously used by Epic to beta test new UE features before rolling it out, it's a win-win situation all round.
 

-Arcadia-

Banned
Super stoked to read this news.

Assuming things go smoothly, it should mean no more soupy textures on buildings (rare nowadays but it does happen sometimes) and that we can actually hear where the enemies are instead of relying on sound visualisation.

Also, Fortnite is simultaneously used by Epic to beta test new UE features before rolling it out, it's a win-win situation all round.

At the least, I’m hoping for PC max settings and a 120 FPS option (which may cut down the settings). I don’t have a 120 FPS TV, but it would be an amazing option for those who do.

I’d love to see them make some changes to the game to truly take advantage of the next-gen consoles, though.

Oh Jesus, the cancer spreads to next gen.

NqWNKys.jpg
 

CamHostage

Member
It should basically ‘just work’. The game already updates weekly, and seasons, roughly ever few months, bring in massive changes. When the Chaos physics system in the demo today was added, the process was essentially invisible for players. It’s been that way for every major visual feature, revamp, etc.

I wonder what that will mean for Cross-Play, though?

(*I do not play Fortnite, so forgive any dumb questions or jumped-to conclusions, please...)

Will there be a break in Party Finder that only lets you match with PS5, XSX, and certain PCs? (By "certain PCs", I'm assuming there's some level of minimum specs for UE5 at full performance. Yes, UE is scalable and at some point will have to be made to run on everything down to certain-spec Mobile devices, but the point of UE5 is the GI, Nanite LOD, and Chaos physics, and yes features like GI can be toggled in implementation but once you design a game for overall global illumination or especially new physics, I feel like it's no longer a "feature", it's now core to game's run and presentation. So unless you can turn all that off and instead load a UE4ish iteration of Fortnite running in UE5, it seems like there will have to be a hard line of minimum specs, and Fortnite is built for mass-audience specs so that would cut some people out.)

I looked it up and found out that the Chaos physics engine was actually implemented already in a February 2020 update to Fortnite. So far, it has done kind of nothing (the capes are real flowy, that seems to be the big thing people have found different?), which Epic has tweeted as intentional, as the new update was not meant to change Fortnite away from what players expect when they play this game they're so used to. So maybe the whole UE5 conversion is a maintenance move to get this ready for years ahead of Fortnite going forward. It's hard to expect differences in a game that's so established and insanely profitable (a big change could turn off the audience), but I do wonder how there will be a major engine change without it affecting status quo?
 
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-Arcadia-

Banned
I wonder what that will mean for Cross-Play, though?

(*I do not play Fortnite, so forgive any dumb questions or jumped-to conclusions, please...)

Will there be a break in Party Finder that only lets you match with PS5, XSX, and certain PCs? (By "certain PCs", I'm assuming there's some level of minimum specs for UE5 at full performance; yes, it's scalable, but the point of UE5 is the GI, Nanite LOD, and Chaos physics, and yes features like GI can be toggled in implementation but once you design a game for overall global illumination or especially new physics, I feel like it's no longer a "feature", it's now core to game's run and presentation. So unless you can turn all that off instead load a UE4ish iteration of Fortnite running in UE5, it seems like there will have to be a hard line of minimum specs, and Fortnite is I assume built for mass-audience specs os that would cut some people out.)

I looked it up and found out that the Chaos physics engine was actually implemented already in a February 2020 update to Fortnite. So far, it has done kind of nothing (the capes are real flowy, that seems to be the big thing people have found different?), which Epic has tweeted as intentional, as the new update was not meant to change Fortnite away from what players expect when they play this game they're so used to. So maybe the whole UE5 conversion is a maintenance move to get this ready for years ahead of Fortnite going forward. It's hard to expect differences in a game that's so established and insanely profitable (a big change could turn off the audience), but I do wonder how there will be a major engine change without it affecting status quo?

Apparently, UE5 is targeting mobile platforms as far back as a few years ago, and certainly last-gen consoles, so it’s possible that we see every iteration of Fortnite moved to this new engine?

A big focus is also scalability, although I also question how things like GI will translate. I do think your solution will be the one they go with, essentially loading a non-GI version of Fortnite for those older platforms.

Source: "To maintain compatibility with the older generation platforms, we have this next generation content pipeline where you build your assets or import them at the highest level of quality, the film level of quality that you'll run directly on next generation consoles," continues Tim Sweeney. "The engine provides and will provide more scalability points to down-resolution your content to run on everything, all the way down to iOS and Android devices from several years ago. So you build the content once and you can deploy it everywhere and you can build the same game for all these systems, but you just get a different level of graphical fidelity."


(Fantastic article, btw)
 

Heimdall_Xtreme

Jim Ryan Fanclub's #1 Member
EDIT: Meant XsX AND PS5 launch title, if someone could fix title I would be very grateful thank you

Some Fortnite news today, and EG news












ME LLEVA LA CHINGADA!!!!!!


Damn, why ??? !!!

WHY???

That this damn game can not leave gamers alone?

city-on-fire-gif-6.gif

Damn poison that has corrupted the video game industry and gamers.

I'm already mad at this news.
 

-Arcadia-

Banned
hahahaha. Good joke, you made me great the day xD


Look, the game itself doesn't bother me that it has its fans, but it bothers me that it doesn't let players enjoy other different experiences.

All in good fun, of course. ❤

It is addictive, but if a player chooses to spend all their time playing Fortnite, and not check other awesome games, that’s kind of on the player. Can’t fault the game designer for doing their job well, after all.
 

Heimdall_Xtreme

Jim Ryan Fanclub's #1 Member
All in good fun, of course. ❤

It is addictive, but if a player chooses to spend all their time playing Fortnite, and not check other awesome games, that’s kind of on the player. Can’t fault the game designer for doing their job well, after all.
Yes, you are right about that.

And fornite unfortunately is popular because it is free, otherwise ... this "GAME" would not have been successful
 
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phil_t98

#SonyToo
Be interesting to see how they change up the game with the new engine. I expect the graphics to largely remain the same but I wonder if they will add in reflections to the floors in buildings or make the water much better. The style of the graphics don’t realy lead to a major upgrade in detail but kinda excited to see how this looks
 

CamHostage

Member
eqR5yoC.jpg


Your PS3 must have been pretty awesome. All that at 60 FPS, open world, and with a 100 player count too.
I think you are proving my point with your picture lol.

Here is a PS3 game that I think looks similar. Open world too.....maybe even 60fps. No 100 players though.

156606

Let's be careful with these "this looks like this to me so it must be bad tech" posts. It's really detrimental to the conversation with screenshot rapbattles that don't take the real product into consideration. I mean, I don't play Fortnite either and don't really enjoy being around its fanbase, but it's unreasnable to call the game and its engine simplistic just because the graphics are intentionally flat-shaded.

If we're going to just pit screenshots against each other, fuck it: MGS3 was on PS2, so why do we even need next-gen consoles at all?

ZHAyOjh.jpg
 

CamHostage

Member
Be interesting to see how they change up the game with the new engine. I expect the graphics to largely remain the same but I wonder if they will add in reflections to the floors in buildings or make the water much better. The style of the graphics don’t realy lead to a major upgrade in detail but kinda excited to see how this looks

It feels like it will have to remain visual, right? Like, they could use the physics system to have all that crazy shit you build rain down on the players and collapse realistically from a lever point if you smash the supports and everything else that robust physics system implementation brings (though matching the physics calculations across devices in 100p game sessions without physics being rendered in the cloud is still a nightmare, I assume?) ... BUT, that would affect the play.

If you can't see because of fine particles are obscuring your view, or if your character gets stuck on a piece of geometry in a firefight, or if spawning a ledge or wall at a weird but advantageous doesn't work anymore because physics will make it fall down, that's all stuff that would affect the eSports reliability of the game. It's no longer Fortnite then, it's Fortnite 2, the "realistic" Fortite that players probably don't want. That chaos and unpredictability is all the kind of thing I want from a game (though it'd probably piss me off maybe more often than make me happy in online play, if I was really serious about my stats,) but Fortnite players want it to play like Fortnite.

Again, I don't play Fortnite so I'm going off of memory of how Fortnite plays (destruction magics away parts of the building when destroyed and you walk right through the destruction, am I right about how that works?) But for example, there's not a robust physics system in say Street Fighter for a reason; skilled SF players rely on frame-accurate fighting techniques, and they make bank in mastering play that is designed to reward those who develop those skills.
 
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johntown

Banned
Let's be careful with these "this looks like this to me so it must be bad tech" posts. It's really detrimental to the conversation with screenshot rapbattles that don't take the real product into consideration. I mean, I don't play Fortnite either and don't really enjoy being around its fanbase, but it's unreasnable to call the game and its engine simplistic just because the graphics are intentionally flat-shaded.
I agree with you. My main point was a game that was released in 2017 being a launch title for next gen systems just strikes me as odd. It would be the same for other older games being announced as launch titles too. To me is just seems strange.
 

Azurro

Banned
hahahaha. Good joke, you made me great the day xD


Look, the game itself doesn't bother me that it has its fans, but it bothers me that it doesn't let players enjoy other different experiences.

Nobody is making people play that game at gunpoint. It's ridiculously popular, you expect them to let the service die when it has tens of millions of people playing it?
 

Casanova

Member
Yes, you are right about that.

And fornite unfortunately is popular because it is free, otherwise ... this "GAME" would not have been successful

Not sure if that's a reasonable conclusion given their sales figures for optional, completely aesthetic, in-game purchases. I believe that it would have been successful regardless, though probably less of the giant that it was for a couple of years. I've played hundreds of games, and a ton of shooters, and I have genuinely enjoyed playing it with friends and found it to be a really fun game to play in general.
 

CamHostage

Member
I agree with you. My main point was a game that was released in 2017 being a launch title for next gen systems just strikes me as odd. It would be the same for other older games being announced as launch titles too. To me is just seems strange.
This thing with this generation, though (and every generation going forward,) is that games-as-service games just keep going forward. So it's not a "launch title" so much as it is a game which has to be there at launch because its playerbase demands to never stop playing. Be it backward-compatiblity or a cross-gen port (and with modern engines and friendly console specs, porting up is easier than it ever has been,) players expect it ASAP when they plug the new thing in.

Similarly, I'm not checking the blogs to see if Netflix is a "launch streaming app", but if I turn on my Xbox SX or PS5 and there's no Netflix app (which may happen if MS&Sony are serious about prioritizing games,) it'll be a WTF moment.

We had this a little bit last-gen with Destiny and GTA Online and FF XIV, but those were all very late-gen games and cross-play (even cross-gen play) wasn't fully a thing yet. Now, it's the norm.
 
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Heimdall_Xtreme

Jim Ryan Fanclub's #1 Member
Nobody is making people play that game at gunpoint. It's ridiculously popular, you expect them to let the service die when it has tens of millions of people playing it?

I know that they would not stop taking it out, even so I am concerned, because it means that creativity will be more compromised if this spawn still exists on consoles and PC.
 

Shin

Banned
A game that looks like it belongs on the PS3 is going to be a PS5 launch title? Why?
All shitty looking games have the largest piece of the pie, CSGO, WoW, FF14 and all that.
Case in point it is precisely because developers make it their goal for the game to run on every possible device why they become the biggest success stories.
Personally I don't give 2 shits about Fornite, I'm playing FF14 ATM but feel the same way about that also, the UE5 didn't blow me away because it was done in a way that they made you focus on what they want.
If you pay attention to the girl's clothes or the statues, you'd think it's UE3 blurry mess level of demo (their 3D artists seem to love that shitty style as other studios have shown it's not a engine signature).
 

01011001

Banned
how will the Series X version be different from the One X version???

the One X version already runs at max PC settings at a Dynamic 4K60fps with the resolution going down to a worst case ~1600p.
meaning, running this on Series X simply through backwards compatibility would most likely result in it running at a full 4k60 with max PC settings.

the only real use for an actual next gen upgrade (not talking about the eventual shift to UE5) would be a performance mode that targets 120fps.
so will that be the improvement? why else would they port it over?

maybe they'll implement raytraced reflections right around that time? that would be at least something.
 
how will the Series X version be different from the One X version???

the One X version already runs at max PC settings at a Dynamic 4K60fps with the resolution going down to a worst case ~1600p.
meaning, running this on Series X simply through backwards compatibility would most likely result in it running at a full 4k60 with max PC settings.

the only real use for an actual next gen upgrade (not talking about the eventual shift to UE5) would be a performance mode that targets 120fps.
so will that be the improvement? why else would they port it over?

maybe they'll implement raytraced reflections right around that time? that would be at least something.

I bet XsX gamers would happily take a 120fps mode, if it's there
 

01011001

Banned
I bet XsX gamers would happily take a 120fps mode, if it's there

I guess... but does that need a port? lol
they could most likely just patch in the PC framerate toggles to the One X version and it would run at 120fps one Series X.
maybe lower the resolution to 1080p when it's set to that setting.
this could even get the One X comfortably above 60fps, and people with 120hz freesync TVs could use it on the One X as well
 

CamHostage

Member
I guess... but does that need a port? lol
they could most likely just patch in the PC framerate toggles to the One X version and it would run at 120fps one Series X.

But maybe you're thinking of this in kind of a last gen way, where each SKU was it's own special thing that you had to pay for separately and wait for its launch day. This gen has a different aim. Yes, there are new games, but there are also games you're used to that will just "be".

With "Optimized for Xbox Series X", for example, we're getting boxed products that have the same game to run on two different consoles. I'm not sure how they'll do it (Will they have two separate run-engines using the same core assets pack? Will they somehow be Xbox One executeables at heart but with significant BC hooks to take advantage of massively scaled-up framerate and effects? Will they just give you a download key to get the XSX version when it comes out? Will they actually put two different discs in the box?) The point is, though, that you're no longer buying the version of the game you're paying for; now, you're outright buying the license to the game for the platforms of choice.

Xbox Play Anywhere and PlayStation Cross-Buy was a bit the same thing. Yes, they were unique versions of the game, but in the ecosystem, it didn't matter what version you paid for, just what machine you were booting it on at any given play session.

They're not porting Fortnite onto next-gen as like an Ultimate Edition or Game of the Decade or anything re-introductory like that. They're porting it onto next-gen because when Fortnite gamers pick up an Xbox or PlayStation controller, they're going to expect to be able to play Fortnite with it. Next-gen may not need a port, but Fortnite players need Fortnite.
 
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-Arcadia-

Banned
how will the Series X version be different from the One X version???

the One X version already runs at max PC settings at a Dynamic 4K60fps with the resolution going down to a worst case ~1600p.
meaning, running this on Series X simply through backwards compatibility would most likely result in it running at a full 4k60 with max PC settings.

the only real use for an actual next gen upgrade (not talking about the eventual shift to UE5) would be a performance mode that targets 120fps.
so will that be the improvement? why else would they port it over?

maybe they'll implement raytraced reflections right around that time? that would be at least something.

Is it really at max settings? I feel like One X has a few spots for improvement, where it doesn’t quite live up to what I’ve seen on the PC, in terms of LODs, draw distance, shadow settings, and such. I could be wrong, though.
 

Gamezone

Gold Member
What does online services mean for achievements? That we can earn Xbox achievements by playing it on EGS?
 

01011001

Banned
Is it really at max settings? I feel like One X has a few spots for improvement, where it doesn’t quite live up to what I’ve seen on the PC, in terms of LODs, draw distance, shadow settings, and such. I could be wrong, though.

pretty sure it is max settings.
the far LODs in that game look atrocious even maxed out on PC, you can zoom in on a distant building with a sniper and all you'll see are N64-like textures and extremely low detail geometry.

there might be a slight difference between maxed out PC and One X, but if there is one it's extremely minor.
 
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