What’s Actually Live, And Why It Disappoints

The new Star Wars partnered modes drop into Fortnite as standalone playable experiences, ranging from squad-based shooter takes to lightsaber-flavored survival rounds. Players going hands-on report that the modes feel competent in places but rarely rise above the bar set by community-built UEFN islands. The combat lacks the snap of Fortnite’s main battle royale, the AI is rough around the edges, and the level design feels more like a tech demo than a polished commercial product. For a partnership leaning on one of entertainment’s most valuable licenses, the production polish does not come close to what Star Wars fans expect from Respawn, EA Motive, or even mid-budget licensed games of the past decade. The takeaway from playtime is consistent: there is potential here, but the launch lineup is not yet making the case that UEFN can deliver Star Wars at AAA quality.

The UEFN Strategy Has A Credibility Problem

Epic Games has spent years pitching Unreal Editor for Fortnite as the future of game development — a creator-driven platform where studios and individual developers alike can ship paid experiences inside Fortnite’s massive existing player base. The economic case is real: bypass storefront cuts, ride engagement instead of building it, and tap into a built-in payment system. But the platform’s credibility depends on lighthouse partners landing well. A Star Wars launch that underwhelms makes the next pitch deck harder. Major IP holders and publishers evaluating UEFN as a distribution play will see this rollout and ask whether the runtime can actually carry their brand. Smaller creators may benefit from a permissive economic model, but tentpole partners need showcase-quality infrastructure, and right now the gap between Epic’s promise and the player experience is wider than the company would like.

What This Means For Creator-Platform Economics

The bigger story is what this says about creator-platform economics in 2026. Roblox has built a multi-billion-dollar developer ecosystem on the back of accessible tooling and aggressive payouts. Fortnite is trying to push into the same territory with stronger production quality, stronger IP partnerships, and a more mature audience. The Star Wars partnered modes are a test run for whether premium IP can coexist with creator-economy economics. If Epic can iterate quickly — better content discovery, stronger production support, polished tools for licensed brands — the strategy still works. If the early showcases keep landing flat, established publishers will hesitate to commit IP, and the creator economy in Fortnite stays stuck at the indie tier. That is the inflection point this launch is sitting on.

The Star Wars rollout is not the end of UEFN, but it is a public reminder that platform economics only work when the platform can actually deliver. Epic has the resources to course-correct, and the next round of partner content will tell the real story. For now, fans hoping for a Star Wars showcase that rivals proper licensed games will need to keep waiting.

Source: PC Gamer

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What the Valve Veteran Actually Said — and Why It Hit So Hard

The post didn’t come with diplomatic hedging. The Valve veteran stated plainly: ‘I worked my ass off at Valve, and I could retire today. I made more money than I’ll ever make.’ The implicit argument is clear — Valve’s profit-sharing culture rewards employees at every level, while Epic, despite its massive revenues, chose layoffs over protecting the people who built the company.

Epic’s layoffs — roughly over 1,000 people at peak — were accompanied by Tim Sweeney’s acknowledgement that Epic had overspent relative to its earnings. The contrast with Valve, which has never had a significant public layoff event despite operating in the same volatile industry, is striking.

The veteran didn’t stop there, adding a direct challenge to Sweeney’s long-standing positioning of himself as the industry’s altruistic counterweight to Steam’s dominance: if Gabe Newell can run a leaner, more profitable, and more employee-rewarding operation, the moral high ground shifts considerably.

Valve vs. Epic: Two Philosophies, Two Outcomes — What Founders Can Learn

The Valve-Epic dynamic is one of the most instructive business case studies in modern tech. Both companies operate in the same platform economy, competing for developer relationships and consumer spending. But their internal cultures and financial models have produced dramatically different outcomes for employees.

Valve runs lean — notoriously so. The company operates with no traditional managers, a flat hierarchy, and significant employee ownership of outcomes. That structure has its own critics, but its stability through market downturns is hard to argue with.

Epic pursued scale aggressively — Fortnite revenues, the Epic Games Store, Unreal Engine licensing — and employed at peak over 9,000 people globally. When revenue plateaued, the payroll couldn’t be sustained. For entrepreneurs, the lesson is uncomfortable but clear: growth funded by anticipatory hiring carries real human cost when the cycle turns.

The Bigger Platform War: Why This Matters Beyond the Drama

This isn’t just industry gossip — it’s a proxy battle for the future of PC gaming’s platform economy. The Epic Games Store was built on an explicit mission to challenge Steam’s 30% revenue cut. Tim Sweeney has been vocal, consistent, and strategic in positioning Epic as the developer-friendly alternative to Valve’s perceived monopoly.

But the Valve veteran’s post cuts through that positioning with a simple counter-narrative: Valve made its people wealthy. Epic restructured after its people built the company. That’s not a nuanced argument — but nuance isn’t what resonates in a market where thousands of game developers have lost their jobs industry-wide.

For anyone building in the games industry — whether as a developer, publisher, or platform — this moment is worth sitting with. The platform that wins the next decade won’t just win on features or revenue splits. It’ll win on the culture it signals to the people who have to choose where to build.

The Valve-Epic rivalry just entered a new, more personal chapter. Whether Tim Sweeney responds remains to be seen — but the framing has shifted. Valve’s reputation isn’t just built on Steam’s market share anymore; it’s built on the testimonials of the people who worked there. In the war for developer trust, that matters more than any storefront discount.

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Fall guys and battle royale

When you hear the term battle royale, you’re probably thinking of videogames such as Fornite or PUBG. Certainly, you wouldn’t be expecting a game that looks like this:

Well, that’s the charm of Fall guys! After the major success that Fortnite had, a lot of battle royales after it featured similar concepts with guns and bombs. However, this Mediatonic game had a fresh take. Instead of big grenades, you will be blown off the map by giant fruit!

The basic premise of the game

With a simple design comes a simple premise as well. A total of 60 players are put inside a certain map with obstacles that they’re meant to complete in the shortest time possible. After each round, only a certain number of people qualify for the next round. However, in the end, there is only one winner.

Don’t be fooled though, the game doesn’t just feature different maps but different game modes as well! Some of them include Hex-a-ring, Volleyfall, Speed circuit, The Swiveller, Bounce Party, Blast Ball, and many more. With this variety, you can also play solo, as a duo, or as a team!

Even though Fall guys induces a lot of rage within the people playing it, the overall gameplay is quite simple. There are only three movements that you can do: jump, dive, and grab. The last one can be problematic as there will be people trying to knock you down and push you to death. Who would have thought that such an easy-going game could bring the worst out of people? Reminds me a bit of Squid games!

Free to play now on Epic games!

On the 21st of June, Epic games made Fall guys free to play. This was certainly a great choice as there has been a major spark in popularity since then. A lot of big creators like the Sidemen are playing it, people are streaming it and everyone’s just having a great time. Even with its sociopathic competitiveness, Fall guys was just the right game that came out at the right time. During lockdown, it was perfect in bringing people together and making them forget about their worries. Hopefully, because the game is free, we won’t see a big spike in hackers. Although, I really don’t know who would hack in Fall guys.

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Epic Games, the creator, and publisher of Fortnite tries to keep users entertained by providing different content each season. It was during the recent season that the no-build mode was added to the Fortnite game. It was met with an unprecedented response from users. Fortnite FortniteNow, with the release of an update, the third season of the third chapter of the Fortnite game called Vibin has been made available to users, and we are witnessing spectacular changes in the game map, as well as the addition of various items to the Fortnite gameplay.

Vibin’s Season Map Changes

The Vibin season map can be considered one of the most beautiful maps of Fortnite since its release today. The western part of this map has a spring and fantasy atmosphere. There’s the addition of a new environment called Reality Falls. The mentioned environment has replaced Camp Cuddle. In this environment, we see various mushrooms that you can use to climb the environment. They are placed on the side of hot water pools. You can fly through the mushrooms and go to another part of the map. In the meantime, I would like to point out that players can see the growth of Reality seedlings by planting Reality seeds.

By defeating the Order, we see the addition of Rave Cave to the Fortnite map. It is similar to a nightclub that you can visit to get a different feeling. Of course, changes to the Fortnite map in the Vibin chapter do not end there, and we see the addition of new landscape environments.

Vibin’s Season Gameplay Changes

With the start of each new season, we see changes in the gameplay and the addition of new weapons and items. The Ballers have been out of the game for more than a year and can be considered one of the most interesting vehicles in the Fortnite world. Now, during the third season of Fortnite Chapter 3, we are witnessing the re-addition of Ballers. Of course, this time changes have been made in the structure of the Ballers. For example, they have batteries and you cannot ride them all the time. Their use is much more limited than before. You can also use Ballers in water.

Screwballer is another item that we are seeing added during the third season. In other words, you can connect your baller to the Screwballer inside the environment and easily move to different parts of the game map. One of the interesting changes in the gameplay is the storm changes. In the past, if you stayed during the storm, your health would only be reduced. However, by staying in the storm (too much), you will receive a special Sickness, which causes the damage rate in the storm to change.

Of course, by leaving the game storm, the mentioned effect will stop until you enter the storm again.

Not to mention the addition of new weapons and items, including the Two-Shot shotgun and the DMR sniper rifle.

Vibin’s Season Battle Pass

With the start of the new season, we are witnessing a completely new Battleplaces. The theme of all battle passes may be the same, but the design of the items of each battle pass is what sets it apart. In the Vibin season, we see the addition of new characters to the game. The most important of which are the beloved Indiana Jones and Darth Vader. To get Darth Vader, you must take your battle pass to the final level (level 100). Indiana Jones will be added in the final weeks of season 3.

As before, users can earn points and increase their level by completing daily challenges, weekly challenges, and milestones. As the level increases, you get stars and you can buy Battle pass items through the stars. Of course, having things like Bounty and doing things like surviving, and killing enemies during each match will give you points to increase your level.

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What is new in Fortnite Chapter 3

Epic Games has said that Chapter 3 “is a new beginning- a perfect starting point for new players and a perfect returning point for those who haven’t played in a while.” It isn’t a secret that Fortnite had faded out of many gamers’ minds after Epic Games struggled to keep fans interested. Chapter 3 hopes to bring back all those fans who left with a sour taste in their mouth. The plan is to provide content that will interest them. They care about bringing back fans as they had to have spent millions on collaborations with big-name franchises such as Naruto, Marvel, Spiderman. Following the latest trends, Epic Games has managed to get The Rock added to Fortnite as a playable skin. Even haters have to agree, Epic Games knows what the trends are and seizes the marketing opportunity to grow their game.

New map

The map was almost completely changed and is now mainly a snow land. It still does have some aspects of the old desert and green patches, however. The old map was flipped over to show this new map during the event. It allowed the player to see the contrast of all the changes. There is now a Spiderman-themed location on the map- “The Daily Bugle”. We also got back some of the old locations such as Shifty Shafts and Greasy Grove which created a big buzz in the fanbase. Epic Games has also released information about a new map feature where the snow melts to reveal green land over time, changing the map and locations over time. They also promised some secrets that will reveal themselves as the snow melts.

Camping Features

Epic Games has also added a completely new feature to the game, camping. Players can now hop inside the tents to rest and heal up as well as store up items that they can use in future maps if they want. This feature completely changes the premise of the game before where players played a completely unrelated match each time they played a new one. Now players can use tents and storage to help their future matches. Although this is a very new and experimental addition, it’s a very exciting feature that gives the game a fresh feel.

New Items in Chapter 3

Med-Mist

Players can use this new item to heal themselves or to heal a teammate, even while running.

Guzzle Juice

Guzzle Juice is another healing item that heals up to 100 hp over time, however, its effect runs out if the player takes damage.

Spiderman’s Web-Shooters

This item is a Marvel collaboration along with the playable Spiderman skin. It can be used to shoot webs to swing on buildings. They also provide faster mobility while knocked.

Ranger Assault Rifle

The Ranger Assault Rifle is a long-range rifle- as the name suggests- which does 30-36 damage per shot with a 1.5x increase for a headshot. It has a fire rate of 4 with a magazine that can hold 25 bullets.

MK-Seven Assault Rifle

A medium ranged fully automatic rifle that does 21-25 damage with a headshot multiplier of 2.5x. It has a fire rate of 9 and can hold 35 rounds per magazine.

Striker Pump Shotgun

A slow-firing shotgun with an even shorter range compared to other shotguns that. It has a headshot multiplier of 1.5x and holds 5 rounds. It does 86-106 damage with a fire rate of 0.6.

Auto Shotgun

A fast-firing shotgun that is very deadly at close range. 76-92 damage per shot with a headshot multiplier of 1.5x and a fire rate of 1.5, however, the reload time is 8 seconds(even higher if it is uncommon or common)

Sidearm Pistol

A powerful and accurate semi-automatic pistol that performs best at medium range. 23-30 damage per shot with a 2x headshot multiplier with an average reload speed of 1.3 seconds. Each mag can hold 15 bullets and it has a fire rate of 6.75.

Stinger SMG

A fast-firing medium/short range fully-automatic SMG that does a lot of damage to buildings as well as players. It does 18-24 damage per shot with a fire rate of 12. Each magazine holds 35 bullets and has a headshot multiplier of 2x.

Hunter Bolt-Action Sniper

A long-range weapon that shoots a fast-moving projectile that can kill a player in 1 shot if it is a critical hit. It does 86-99 damage and has a 2x headshot multiplier and each magazine holds 3 rounds.

Chapter 3: Event and Concluding Thoughts

The event for the start of Chapter 3 started with the world turning dark and the pyramid glowing as the queen rises with a golden beam of light. The queen then opens up the sky while spaceships and other enemies shoot at the players but the cube protects everyone from all the attacks. The sky then opens to reveal multiple spaceships that the queen was in control of. Then the cube gets destroyed which was a very emotional scene for many players- old and new as the cube has been around for a while. Then the entire scene changes and the camera goes underground to show a cinematic where the rock is introduced. The insane cinematics put many animation moves to shame with its graphics and fast progression.

This is where The Rock is seen saving the default skin and opening a suspicious portal to save everyone and kill the queen who was trying to destroy the map. The players then get sent back to their characters where they had to follow one of the allies who was saving everyone. The players then end up in the water where they saw the entire map flip over as the queen disappeared, revealing an entirely new map on the other side.

Then a big tsunami washed over everyone and the event was over, kicking off the new chapter with a big bang, exciting everyone. Epic Games announced that they have lots of mini-updates that will go live throughout the chapter, keeping the game fresh and exciting. We hope to see Fortnite rise once again to become the biggest game- Judging by the initial reactions to Chapter 3, we’re sure our hope will become a reality.

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The news of the company’s latest valuation was released as they prepare to engage in what may be another epic encounter against Apple regarding a disagreement over App Store fees, resulting in Apple’s removal of Fortnite from their platform.

Under the leadership of Tim Sweeney – who is the founder, CEO, and controlling shareholder – the Cary, North Carolina-based game developer has faced many obstacles over the course of its 25 years in the field. However, Epic Games has since proven its ability to successfully adapt to suit the changing environment.

As Sweeney puts it, Epic Games have had to evolve 4 times in order to remain competitive. To him, the company started at 1.0. Then progressed to 2.0, 3.0, and then its most recent evolution – Epic’s transition to its 4.0 phase.

Epic 1.0

This epic journey began in 1991. When Sweeney used his parent’s house in Potomac, Maryland, as his base of operations. Then founding the company Potomac Computer Systems. This was the pre-epic phase. The company’s big break came from the unexpected commercial success of ZZT, a game that could easily be modified through Sweeney’s ZZT-oop programming language. At the time, Sweeney distributed ZZT Bulletin Board Systems.

In 1992, Sweeney decided that gaming was the right direction. Which led to the decision to change the company’s name to Epic Mega Games. From there on, the company focused on releasing shareware games like Epic Pinball and Jill of the Jungle – a period that lasted until 1998.

Epic 2.0

From there, Epic MegaGames began its metamorphosis with the release of Unreal in 1998 – a first-person shooter that denoted a major shift from 2D to 3D gaming.

The following year saw another name change, this time the company chose to remove the Mega from its name and called themselves Epic games – also shifting its base of operations to Cary, North Carolina. During the same year, Epic Games partnered with Digital Extremes and GT Interactive on the development and distribution of Unreal Tournament – a multiplayer-focused follow-up to Unreal.

It would not be very long before Epic Games would have to adapt again.

Epic 3.0

Starting with the release of Gears of War in 2006, Epic Games began its 3.0 phase that would see the company redirecting most of its resources away from the PC market and catering more to the console market.

This led to the Unreal Engine and the Unreal Tournament franchise finding success on consoles as well. They followed by other commercial successes like Infinity Blade in 2010 and Bulletstorm in 2011 – in the same year announcing Fortnite, arguably the company’s most successful titles.

One of the most significant events of the Epic 3.0 era happened in June of 2012. This is when Chinese tech giant, Tencent, acquired a 40% stake in the company through a $330 million investment. This fell in line with Sweeney’s vision of moving the company towards a GaaS (Games as a Services) business model.

“There was an increasing realization that the old model wasn’t working anymore and that the new model was looking increasingly like the way to go.” Sweeney started at the time.

However, Sweeney also points out that Tencent’s stake in Epic Games does not give them any suffrage in the development of the games.

“Epic Games is incorporated and has a board of directors that make[s] major financial decisions about the company but doesn’t involve itself in the design or product development of games,” further stating that “Their expertise is how to operate these games on the large scale and to really appeal to customers, and we found that their values are very similar to ours and that we had a great deal we could learn from them.”

Epic 4.0 & Beyond

The transition to its current form began in 2014. In this phase, Epic Games is shifting away from consoles and campaign-oriented “boxed” games. Going back to PC as the company dives deeper into Gaas and digital distribution.

They cemented this decision when they announced Fortnite would be a free-to-play title. They followed with the Unreal Engine also becoming free to use. While those who intend to use it for profit will have to pay royalties.

Epic Games has remained largely successful in its four different forms. Even with the most recent 4.0 vision taking the company to entirely new highs. The $28.7 billion is a major accomplishment. Especially for a company that chose to remain independent for the majority of its existence.

Moving forward, Epic Games looks to expand its reach by focusing on Virtual Reality and meta-verses. What could stop them from becoming a dominant force in both spaces.

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At the beginning of April, the much anticipated, AAA rated, title from Polish games developer, People Can Fly, Outriders, was made available on multiple platforms. Users of PC, Xbox, PlayStation, the Epic Games store, and streaming platforms, Steam, as well as mobile streaming platform, Google Stadia.

“We’re excited to team with Google to bring Outriders to Stadia with Stadia exclusive features and the highest levels of performance, allowing players to get the best experience on all supported devices” said Jon Brooke, of Square Enix.

The game is set in a fictitious future, where the planet Earth has been rendered unlivable by an ecological cataclysm (sound familiar?) Anyway, humanity sets out to colonize planet Enoch. Quite a hostile environment , man comes to find.

Players employ a arsenal mix of magic, and futuristic weapons to subdue the hostile planet and its inhabitants. To fulfill one’s quest, one must complete missions while blasting through enemies in solo mode, or in co-op mode, with up to three players.

The game’s Stadia release was the first to coincide with releases on other platforms. Titles have previously been released on Stadia a lot later than they had on other titles.  Madden NFL 21, Jedi Wars: Fallen Order, as well as Fifa 21 are some high profile titles that came to Stadia a lot later than their original release dates. This affords Stadia, parity with other platforms, which positions it as a legitimate game streaming platform.

Outriders was published on Google Stadia, alongside titles like Resident Evil 7 Biohazard: Gold Edition, Kemono Heroes, Trine 4: The Nightmare Prince, among others, and lead the pack of games to be released that week. 

The game also launched – perhaps another record breaker – alongside a game patch for the Outriders title, which is called the Outriders Day One update. The update smoothed out some issues that were noted by players who got hold of the demo version, prior to official release. 

Jittery visuals were the main focus of the update. Aside from improving player experience in the latter part of the game, cutscenes & dialogues are supposed to play out a lot smoother after the update is installed.

Improvements to co-op functionality, decreased loading time for Xbox One, and PlayStation 4 versions of the game were also noted. People Can Fly also worked on the game’s cover system, balance functionality, while making cross-play a default function, between the demo and release versions of the title.

Outriders’ gameplay is much like a cross between Gears of War, Anthem, and Destiny, so it won’t be completely unfamiliar with folks who have dabbled with any of those titles. Aside from that, it’s a brilliantly crafted game. The whole ‘dying earth’ narrative is getting rather clichéd though.

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“It’s a real generational leap in new features. Even though it doesn’t break things that came previously, Unreal Engine 5 will be a straightforward upgrade for anyone working with Unreal Engine 4,” Epic Games’ CEO, Tim Sweeney said to GamesBeat.com back in May, this year. “It’ll be like going through a few minor version updates. But it has major new graphical features targeted at a new generation of hardware, defined by PlayStation 5. These capabilities are also coming to PC and elsewhere.” he continued.

Epic Game’s Unreal Engine 5 (UE5) is set to go public in 2021 and the firm collaborated with gaming hardware manufacturer, Sony, on their PlayStation 5 in order to have the gaming engine “take full advantage of next-generation hardware”. UE5 will also be completely compatible with practically all other gaming hardware.

UE5 takes a lot of the hard work out of game development and comes with a host of features that simplify the process, and reduce the costs involved. All while translating games for different hardware, enabling them to run on console, PC, as well as mobile platforms.

Epics’ UE 5 will first release as the backbone for the gaming firm’s flagship title, Fortnite (currently over 350 million global players strong). Fortnite will make it’s Xbox Series X and PlayStation 5 debut later this year – featuring a forward compatible version of Unreal Engine 4. Forward compatibility allowing it to migrate to UE5 in 2021. 

Keeping true to it’s open approach to industry advancement, Epic intends to keep the UE5 engine free to download, and harness for development, with a 5% royalty due after a title achieves a minimum of $1 million in sales.

“Our goal isn’t just to bring more features to developers — it’s to help solve the hardest problem in game development right now. Building high-quality content takes enormous time and cost. We want to make it productive for people to build games at this quality level.” – Tim Sweeney

What’s New?

Of All the bells and whistles showcased by Epic Games through a real-time demo called Lumen In The Land Of Nanite, running on a PlayStation 5, the standout additions to the Unreal gaming engines software are Lumen & Nanite.

Nanite

The system responsible for the near life-like graphics generated by UE5. Virtualized micropolygon geometry enables artists to create worlds with the finest geometric detail, bringing out film quality imagery. Up to billions of polygons are streamed and scaled in real-time, eliminating the need for polygon count, polygon memory, and drawcount budgets. 

Lumen

Lumen offers a dynamic global illumination system which reacts to scene, and lighting changes in real-time. Lumen renders light bounce, indirect specular reflections, and diffuse interreflection in detailed environments at varying scales. Both tools are geared toward making game development more cost effective and less time consuming.

Conclusion

It appears that, come next year, the gaming industry will leap to a new level of productivity and visual quality. UE5 marks a step into a more realistic gaming experience than ever – which come right in time for the explosion of VR gaming. Though it is, as yet, unclear whether or not Unreal Engine will support VR development. A likely scenario, seeing as many of the hallmark titles backboned by previous irritations of Unreal Engine are beginning to look into VR optimised titles.

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