Epic To Trial Fortnite Skin Sharing In Other UE Games

Epic, the maker of Fortnite, has said Unreal Engine 6 will be used to trial skin sharing between Fortnite and other games. The studio made the announcement during the recent State of Unreal presentation, although gamers will likely have to wait at least two years before they can port in-game assets.

Unreal Engine Upgrades

Epic created the first iteration of the Unreal Engine before the turn of the millennium. It was the engine that powered the game Unreal.

While it was initially used for first-person shooters, it has become the most popular gaming engine for a wide variety of titles. It powers ARK, Valorant, Gears of War, Deus Ex and, obviously, Fortnite.

The most recent version, Unreal Engine 5, was released in April 2022, and Epic is gearing up to launch version 6. In a release, Marcus Wassmer, the company’s development team lead, said that UE6 will evolve how gaming worlds are shipped and operated.

Epic’s Metaverse Dream

Effectively, that means bringing Epic’s dream of creating a gaming metaverse, first touted in 2019 by CEO Tim Sweeney, one step closer.

Wassmer goes on to say: “Over the next two years, we’ll be unifying the two major streams of Unreal Engine development—UE5 and Unreal Editor for Fortnite—into a single product: Unreal Engine 6.”

The integration will start by allowing developers to let gamers bring Fortnite skins into other UE6 games. Studios will also be able to let gamers bring Fortnite skins into other games.

While some games, like the recently announced Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4, are eschewing some of the quirkier skins, Fortnite’s stylised finish lends itself perfectly to cosmetic items. Fortnite is completely free to play, which means the majority of its approximate $5bn a year revenue comes from microtransactions. Skins make up a major part of that, so they are popular.

While the concept of transferring assets across games is exciting, we will have to wait a while before we see the fruits of Epic’s labour. Early access to UE6 is slated for late 2027, and it will be another year before a full release.