Unreal Editor for Fortnite launching in beta today

gamesindustry.biz:

At GDC 2023 today, Epic Games unveiled details about its Unreal Editor for Fortnite, Unreal Engine 5.2 procedural tools, and more.

During the State of Unreal event at the Blue Shield of California Theater, executive vice president Saxs Persson announced that Epic's Unreal Editor for Fortnite will be launching in public beta today, with the aim to combine the power of Unreal Engine to "the scale of the Fortnite audience."

Persson described it as being "one step closer to a connected Metaverse" with the aim to "move the industry forward."

UEFN will allow for cross-play collaboration, with the demo video showing players on PS5 and PC building and playing together. A new creator portal is also launching today.

Persson said that the final goal is full "interoperabatily between Unreal Engine and UEFN." UEFN will be supported by new programming language Verse.

UEFN's economy is called Creator Economy 2.0 and will see Epic share 40% of Fortnite's net revenue to developers creating in the title.

The amount will be proportional to engagement, with the money coming from Fortnite's Item Shop and "real-money Fortnite purchases." Person said it will take into account popularity, engagement, retention, and new players.

Tim Sweney described the announcement as a milestone for Epic's "unified" vision of the Metaverse, adding that a "revolution is happening right now." He added that "the Metaverse has to be open, it can't be another walled garden."

Prior to this, VP of engineering Nick Penwarden showed new experimental features for Unreal 5.2, including procedural systems for creating environments.

These procedural tools enable developers to create a wide variety of materials from foliage to rocks and trees, based on an initial