Epic Games has unveiled its plans for the coming year in its State of Unreal address, with a focus on Fortnite, Unreal Engine 5, and AI tools for developers.
Fortnite will see a number of new IPs launched on the platform, including Avatar: The Last Airbender and Star Wars, as well as new AI-powered NPCs for creators to use.
Unreal Engine 5 will be updated to 5.6, which will include new open-world features and an engine-first animation workflow, as well as the ability to author MetaHumans directly in the engine.
AI toolkits include the new Epic Developer Assistant, which helps developers write Verse code for UEFN, and Scene Graph, which unifies editor and runtime views for easier management of objects within the game.
Epic Games Store will introduce a number of new features, including pre-loading, gifting, and self-publishing for developers on Android and iOS.
The Lego Brick Editor will also be launched in June, allowing creators to build brick-by-brick in Fortnite.