Epic boss Tim Sweeney says Unreal Engine 6 will be a “metaverse” that complements Fortnite and other Unreal games, including an upcoming “persistent universe” being developed with Disney

In an interview with The Verge, Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney explained his big plans for the rest of the decade and why Epic had to lay off 16% of its workforce last year to make it happen. The bottom line is that Sweeney still sees the prospect of a “metaverse” of interoperable assets and marketplaces between Fortnite and other Unreal Engine games/initiatives, such as a planned Disney-owned Unreal “persistent universe.”

“Last year, before Unreal Fest, we were spending about a billion dollars more a year than we were making,” Sweeney said. That has now fallen to “slightly” more than Epic generates in revenue. To illustrate, Forbes estimated the company's 2022 revenue at over $6 billion, while the Epic Game Store itself reported revenue of $950 million in the 2023 reporting year. Like Microsoft, The Embracer Group and many other publishers, Epic experienced a bust during the surging years of the pandemic and NFTs before having to tighten its belt in the face of the current industry downturn.