The 3D tool Unreal Engine is revolutionizing the creative industries, from video games to TV news graphics and animated films. But here's where it gets controversial: while many studios develop their own engines, Unreal Engine stands out as a powerful and accessible tool that is quickly becoming the go-to choice for 3D projects. Created for the 1998 game "Unreal" by Tim Sweeney, the engine was soon made available for other companies, marking a rare move in an industry where most studios develop their own engines. In recent years, the ease of use and power of the latest version of Unreal Engine has seen it integrated into hit game titles such as China's "Black Myth: Wukong" and France's "Clair Obscur: Expedition 33".
"Tomb Raider" star Lara Croft will be crafted in Unreal Engine in her upcoming fresh adventures too, said Scot Amos, director of the Crystal Dynamics studio. Using Unreal "gives us access to a broad swath" of developers, he said, calling it "an ubiquitous tool that so many people will use and get". The off-the-shelf solution saves on time and costs as "we don’t have to keep teaching people how to use a proprietary tech" developed in-house, Amos added. More than one quarter (28 percent) of games released for PCs in 2024 were built using Unreal Engine, according to specialist data firm Sensor Tower. "It’s become truly indispensable in the industry," said Brice Roy, director of France’s Institute for Digital Creation and Animation (ICAN), a training school with sites in several cities. "The engine is preconfigured, which is what makes it so attractive: as soon as you create a rough build, it looks really beautiful, it works right away".
But the tool’s dominance as the first choice for creators could lead to excessive "standardisation" of 3D content, ICAN’s Roy warned. "Games developed with Unreal often have a graphical footprint that’s easy to spot," he said. Epic still has big plans for Unreal Engine, aiming to adapt it for mobile games and add to its capabilities. "Today we can make multiplayer games on maps of around eight square kilometres (three square miles) with 100 players," Epic’s Miglio said. "What we’re looking at today is how to put up to 100,000 players on maps of 100, 200 or 300 square kilometres." The tool has not escaped the 2020s AI fever, with the developer also planning to integrate a generative tool for 3D objects or for automatically carrying out certain tasks.
