Epic says Unreal Engine 6 is in development after Unreal Fest Chicago

Epic said during its State of Unreal keynote at Unreal Fest Chicago that Unreal Engine 6 is in development. In its June 17, 2026 newsroom post, Epic said the engine will combine the AAA development capabilities built in UE5 with a next-generation game-development pipeline built live in Fortnite. (epicgames.com)

What Epic says UE6 is meant to do

Epic says the goal is to let developers create games of any scale and scope once, then deploy them to traditional platforms, Fortnite, or their own live and potentially multi-product ecosystems. That wording comes from Epic’s announcement and frames UE6 as a bridge between Unreal’s broader engine roadmap and Fortnite’s creator pipeline. (epicgames.com)

Why Fortnite creators should care

The announcement matters for Fortnite and UEFN because Epic explicitly ties the future engine work to systems it has been building inside Fortnite. That suggests the company sees Fortnite as part of its long-term tooling strategy, not just a standalone game. (epicgames.com)

Context

• Epic published the statement on June 17, 2026.
• The news came from Unreal Fest Chicago.
• Epic says the engine is in development, not released.