Monthly digest for May 2024
Unreal Engine 5.4 gets a hotfix. Plus: Unreal Fest, Epic v. Apple, and more.
Nick Pfisterer •
Greetings, everyone. Welcome to the monthly digest for May 2024. This month was very light on news, but I expect things will pick up as summer begins up here in the northern hemisphere. It's not-E3 season, and that means lots of new game announcements. I hope Epic has something up their sleeve for developers, too. I'm looking at you, FAB.
Unreal Fest 2024 reminders
Back in February, Epic Games announced plans for a whopping six Unreal Fest events in 2024. Gold Coast just wrapped up on May 30, and Prague (sold out) is happening June 18-20, which is fast approaching. Epic put out a call for proposals for Seattle that closed on May 22. Did you submit a proposal for a talk? Let me know in the comments.
If you want to know when Epic announces updates for future events, such as registration and session details, be sure to follow our Dispatch feed.
Here's the current state of the Unreal Fest schedule at a glance:
Gold Coast: May 29-30Prague: June 18-20SOLD OUT- Seoul: August 28-29
- Shanghai: September 5-6
- Seattle: September 30-October 3
- Tokyo: November 2
More GDC talks uploaded to YouTube
Epic uploaded two more GDC presentations to their YouTube channel in May. The first is from Aaron Langmead, senior technical artist at Epic Games, and it's all about Nanite best practices and edge cases for artists. The second is a presentation where Jose Villeta from Avalance Software dives into how his team extended Unreal Engine to aid in the development of Hogwarts Legacy. Both are embedded below.
Quick links
- Unreal Engine 5.4.1 hotfix is now available. Link
- Unreal Engine turned 26 on May 22. Link
- Submit your discounts for the Epic Games Store Summer Sale by July 4, 2024 at 8:00 AM PT. Link
What's on our radar
- The Epic v Apple saga continues. Epic has challenged Apple's plan to comply with an earlier anti-steering injunction – Tim Sweeney called it "bad-faith" compliance – which landed both companies back in court for a series of evidentiary hearings in May. The hearings are being presided over by Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers; the same judge that issued the injunction in 2021. It's too early to tell how the judge will rule this time around, but things aren't looking so good for Apple.
- How perfectly can reality be simulated? Anna Wiener wrote a deep dive for the New Yorker in order to answer this question. She explores the past, present, and future of simulating reality with computer graphics. Along the way, she talks to Steven Caron from Quixel, Cliff Bleszinski, and Tim Sweeney about the advancement of technology in this space. It's a great big picture examination of the just how much humanity has invested in simulating reality – and where it's all headed.
In other news
- The Netherlands authority for consumer & markets fined Epic Games 1.125 million Euro "for using unfair commercial practices aimed at children in its Fortnite game." Link
- The Polish Office of Competition and Consumer Protection (UOKIK) is investigating potentially anti-competitive practices on Steam & PlayStation Network. Link
- Bloober Team revealed 13 minutes of gameplay from their upcoming UE5-powered Silent Hill 2 remake, along with an October 8, 2024 release date. Link
- Kuro Games spoke to Epic Games about the development of their recently-launched open-world anime RPG, Wuthering Waves. Of note: The game runs on a bespoke version of Unreal Engine 4.26 with some features backported from UE5! Link
- ROCKFISH Games recently transitioned Everspace 2 from Unreal Engine 4 to version 5.3. Link
- Microsoft announced Windows Recall, a new upcoming feature that records everything you do on your PC. Link
- After banning the use of generative AI in 2022, Stack Overflow has now reversed course and announced a partnership with OpenAI. Link