Fortnite takes aim at Roblox as Unity and Unreal engines join forces inside Epic’s creator economy

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In an unexpected move, Tim Sweeney, the CEO of Epic Games, appeared on stage at a Unity event – despite being a competitor – to reveal a new collaboration between their two companies.

This partnership will let games made in Unity be featured within Fortnite, just like games built with Unreal Engine. Developers will also be able to participate in Fortnite’s program that rewards creators with hundreds of millions of dollars annually.

This new development suggests a larger plan for both companies involved. It also directly challenges platforms such as Roblox and Minecraft, which have creator programs but with stricter limitations.

Can Fortnite’s creator economy really compete with Roblox and Minecraft?

Roblox pioneered the idea of a platform where players create and enjoy games, all within a self-contained system. While everything – the games and how creators earn money – stays within Roblox, it’s become incredibly popular, with over 380 million monthly users. That’s more than Steam and approaching the 500 million users now part of Microsoft thanks to its purchase of Activision, Blizzard, and King.

Minecraft has roughly 200 million monthly active users. Fortnite averages around 110 million monthly players, though over 500 million people have registered accounts. Notably, Fortnite shares about 40% of its monthly revenue with creators, rewarding them based on how well their content performs with the community.

Allowing Unity developers to create content for Fortnite would be similar to how Roblox works, but potentially offering creators a larger share of the revenue. It would also give developers a way to reach mobile gamers without having to go through Apple and Google’s app store payment systems.

While platforms like Roblox and Minecraft make creators build directly within their systems, Epic Games seems to be allowing other game engines to join in. This collaboration means games made in Unity can now be played inside Fortnite without needing to be completely recreated in Unreal Engine.

It’s remarkable that games built in Unity can now run within Fortnite, especially since Fortnite itself uses Unreal Engine. This also opens up Fortnite’s built-in discovery tools to Unity developers, potentially introducing their games to a much wider audience on consoles, PCs, and mobile devices – reaching players they might not have been able to connect with before.

In October 2025, Unity released a new system that lets developers sell digital items directly within their games and apps. This system works on all platforms – mobile, PC, and the web – and is built right into the Unity engine. It simplifies selling by letting developers manage everything – like products, prices, and sales – in one central location, eliminating the need for separate tools for each platform.

Unity announced that Unreal Engine will also be supported on this platform. This means Unreal Engine developers will be able to handle everything – their game catalogs, payment systems, online stores, and ongoing game management – all from a single dashboard, with this feature expected to launch at the beginning of next year.

Where Fortnite goes next after opening up to Unity developers

Fortnite’s use of Unity is a first – it’s the first time a major game engine from outside the company has been integrated into the game. This could pave the way for other engines to join Fortnite in the future. Godot, a favorite among independent game creators, is a strong candidate for similar integration if Epic Games decides to broaden this capability.

Fortnite could attract more than just casual creators and small groups if it offers better rewards and easier-to-use development tools. We might even see larger game studios releasing their own games within Fortnite. The addition of Unity makes it more likely that fully developed games will come to the platform, potentially making Fortnite more competitive with Roblox and offering players a greater variety of complex and engaging experiences.

Fortnite faces some hurdles ahead. Its system for helping players discover new content could be better, and it needs to improve as more content is added. Keeping the game running smoothly on all devices – especially after the recent launch on the Xbox App for PC and support for the Xbox Ally – is proving difficult. For this partnership to truly succeed, Fortnite needs to ensure consistent performance across all platforms and game engines.

FAQ

What exactly did Epic and Unity announce?

Epic Games and Unity have teamed up to let games made in Unity be featured within Fortnite. Additionally, Unity revealed that it will soon offer support for Unreal Engine within its tools for selling games on multiple platforms.

When will Unity developers be able to publish games inside Fortnite?

I’m hearing from Epic that they plan to start offering full support for this next year. They’ve already done the necessary networking, and we even saw a live demo of the partnership. However, it sounds like access for creators will be gradually expanded over time, so it won’t all be available at once.

Can developers earn money from Unity games published inside Fortnite?

Fortnite is opening up its creator program to Unity developers, joining the platform’s system that distributes hundreds of millions of dollars annually.

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2025-11-19 14:40