Still , the Metaverse requires that everyone be able to create and contribute to “content” and “experiences,” not just well-staffed companies and technically skilled individuals trying to make games or movies. The company wasis focused not on VFX engineers or game designers, but on providing intuitive, icon-based software that enables “architecture, construction, urban planning, and landscape professionals” to generate realistic, immersive digital environments based on Unreal “in seconds.” According to Epic Games founderCEO Tim Sweeney, this means there are now three ways to create in Unreal : the standard “coding” engine itself, the more streamlined and “visualized” Twinmotion, and Fortnite Creative Mode for people with no programming and design experience. Each option is likely to become more powerful, easier to use, and integrated over time.
Another increasingly important part of Epic’s offering is its “Online Services” suite, which allows developers to instantly support cross-play across Sony + Microsoft + Nintendo + PC + iOS + Android, and leverage Epic’s netherlands mobile database account systemsocial graph with 1.6B connections. This in itself isn’t all that unique — Microsoft spent $4M to acquire PlayFab and millions more to support Xbox Live, while Amazon bought both GameSparks and GameLift in order to sell services to developers of online games that need lots of servers and tools to work. Valve doesn’t provide server infrastructure, but its Steamworks solution provides matchmaking and account services to developers for free — but only for Valve’s core business, the Steam store. This reveals what Epic is doing with online services.