Epic Games has confirmed that Fortnite will be launching on PS5 and Xbox Series X alongside the consoles themselves later this year.
The news was announced during the company’s Unreal Engine 5 presentation earlier today, which featured our first glimpse at gameplay running in real-time on PS5.
Fortnite is one of the biggest games in the world, currently boasting over 350 million players across all available platforms. This number is set to grow even further as it arrives on PS5 and Xbox Series X in the coming months.
Posting on the official website, Epic Games has answered a number of questions regarding the next-gen versions of Fortnite. They have been optimised to support the new systems, so players can expect improved visuals and performance to reflect the improved hardware.
If you’re a hardcore Fortnite player with hundreds of unlocks, you don’t need to worry about losing them. Epic Games has confirmed that cross-progression will be fully supported, and they also intend to support cross-play with older consoles and mobile devices, too.
“While we can’t share specifics at the moment, more powerful hardware will allow us to improve performance and visuals. At launch, the version of Fortnite we release on next-gen consoles will be built with Unreal Engine 4. We will migrate Fortnite to Unreal Engine 5 in mid-2021,” reads the blog post.
Fortnite has grown into a sprawling metaverse in recent years, and is far more than the simple third-person shooter it launched as a number of years ago. We recently jumped back in, and scored it 4/5 in our re-review.
“This is a battle royale phenomenon no matter how far you slice it, evolving from an underwhelming third-person shooter into one of the biggest and most recognisable brands on the planet. Epic Games has achieved something truly special here, and I’m eager to watch its growth go even further,” reads our verdict.
It will be fascinating to see how Fortnite evolves on next-generation consoles and with the implementation of Unreal Engine 5 which could genuinely transform the entire experience if executed correctly. Only time will tell, with Tim Sweeney stating we’ve only seen a “small fraction” of what Fortnite will be in the future.
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Editorial independence
Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.