Summary
EA has revealed that its upcomingIron Mangame will be developed using Epic Games' Unreal Engine 5.Iron Manwill be the third full game coming from EA Motive since its inception in 2015. The studio first assisted DICE and Criterion Games withStar Wars: Battlefront 2before releasing its first solo title,Star Wars: Squadrons,in 2020. Most recently, Motive’sDead Spaceremake released earlier this year to critical acclaim and is considered by many to be one of the best games of 2023.
Unreal Engine 5 has become one of the most widely used tools for many third-party, and even some first-party, development studios. Before its release, Epic Games partnered with PlayStation and Xbox’sGears of Warstudio The Coalition to create a number of impressive tech demos, including The Coalition’sThe Matrix Awakens,which released in late 2021. This year has seen some big games that have been built in the engine finally see the light of day.Immortals of Aveum,Fort Solis, and thefreshly released SoulslikeLords of the Fallenare some of the very first Unreal Engine 5 titles to be released. Looking ahead, there are several high-profile Unreal 5 titles on the horizon, such asBlack Myth: Wukong,Stalker 2,Ark 2,theSilent Hill 2remake, and Xbox’sSenua’s Saga: Hellblade 2among many others.
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Now, one more high-flying title can be added to the list of Unreal Engine 5 projects in development. In a blog post update from EA Motive, General Manager Patrick Klaus confirmed that the studio’supcomingIron Mangamewill indeed be developed using Unreal Engine 5. Motive’sStar Wars: SquadronsandDead Spaceremake were both made using EA’s in-house Frostbite engine;Iron Manwill mark Motive’s first title developed with external tech. Klaus also added thatIron Manis still early on in pre-production, which makes sense consideringDead Spacelaunched just nine months ago.
EA’s Frostbite engine has been regularly criticized in the past for causing issues for many EA titles likeMass Effect AndromedaandAnthem, even being partially responsible for the closure of Visceral Games in 2017. While Motive has been able to find success with using Frostbite forStar Wars: SquadronsandDead Space, moving to Unreal 5 forIron Manis likely the right move. Perhaps Motive will be able to carry over its experience working onDead Space’s zero gravity sectionsover from Frostbite into Unreal 5 as part of Iron Man’s all-important aerial movement.
It’ll be interesting to see if Motive’s move to Unreal 5 is hinting toward EA fully moving away from Frostbite at some point in the future, or perhaps using it only for its annual EA Sports franchises. Since Unreal Engine 5 is currently one of the most impressive looking game engines in the hands of developers at the moment, fans ofMarvel’s flying tech geniusare sure to be excited to learn about this shift. Though, considering thatIron Manis still in early pre-production, it’ll be a few years before fans will be able to see and learn more.
