Epic says Unreal Engine 6 is in development after Chicago keynote
At Unreal Fest Chicago, Epic said Unreal Engine 6 is in development and will extend a pipeline built live in Fortnite.
By IslandAtlas
In a June 17, 2026 post, Epic said during the State of Unreal keynote at Unreal Fest Chicago that Unreal Engine 6 is in development. Epic said the new engine will combine capabilities from UE5 with a next-generation pipeline it has been building live in Fortnite.
Epic links the next engine to Fortnite production
Epic said the goal is to let developers create games of any scale once and deploy them to traditional platforms, Fortnite, or other live ecosystems. The company framed Fortnite not just as a game, but as part of the production pipeline behind the next generation of Unreal tools.
- Announcement date: June 17, 2026.
- Venue: Unreal Fest Chicago.
- Epic says UE6 is in development.
- Fortnite is part of the pipeline Epic referenced.
The post did not provide a release date for Unreal Engine 6. It did, however, describe the project as the result of work Epic has been developing “live in Fortnite,” underscoring how closely Fortnite and Unreal tooling continue to overlap.
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