Epic Games is one of the first gaming companies to announce its ambitions to create a metaverse. The other day, its head, Tim Sweeney, noted that these plans were partly the reason for his confrontation with Apple and Google.
Fortnite
Sweeney said this on Tuesday, November 16, during a speech at a conference in South Korea.
According to the head of Epic Games, more and more companies have recently begun to look at the concept of the metaverse. It’s time to pre—ensure fair conditions for their competition.
“In the coming decades, the metaverse could become a multi—trillion-dollar part of the global economy,” Sweeney said. “The next three years will be crucial for Epic Games, Roblox, Microsoft, Facebook and other companies seeking to create a metaverse. This is a kind of race for a billion users. Whoever is the first to gather such an audience will become a conditional leader and lay down standards for the rest.”
Epic Games itself is going to win this race thanks to Fortnite. And she has everything to win. The MAU of her Battle royale alone is 60 million people. Plus, the company has been developing the social functions of the title for a long time and conducts various collaborations. For example, Fortnite regularly organizes concerts of famous musicians — one of the last was the Ariana Grande show.
On the other hand, the removal of Fortnite from the App Store and Google Play is a significant obstacle to the realization of these ambitions.
Sweeney also has a backup plan. If a company cannot build its own metaverse, it may try to make its technologies become “building blocks” for others. Therefore, one of the tasks facing Unreal Engine is “to allow all industry companies to be present in 3D in real time.”
Also during the Korean conference, Sweeney said that Epic Games is now working with other developers to create a single store for all platforms. In his opinion, it is important that users can purchase games and applications in one place, regardless of whether they play on a smartphone or on a PlayStation.