Fortnite will arrive on PS5 and Xbox Series X at launch, Epic has announced. The news was revealed as part of the Unreal Engine 5 unveiling, which showcased gorgeous footage running on PS5. While Fortnite will launch on next-gen consoles in its current Unreal Engine 4 form, the game will be migrated to Unreal Engine 5 in mid-2021.
This will make a difference to the game's visuals. "While we can’t share specifics at the moment, more powerful hardware will allow us to improve performance and visuals," Epic said in a blog. It was also stated that these newer versions of the game will be "optimized to take advantage of the new hardware and features".
On next-gen consoles, it seems likely the game will be able to run at higher framerates and resolutions. On PS4 Pro and Xbox Series X, Fortnite runs at 60 fps, though we haven't tested that ourselves. You can probably expect these new consoles to push that further.
"We will release Fortnite, built with UE4, on next-gen consoles at launch and, in keeping with our commitment to prove out industry-leading features through internal production, migrate the game to UE5 in mid-2021," Epic said.
Both consoles are due in late 2020, though exactly when is still a mystery.
Epic plans to support crossplay across all platforms, including these next-gen machines. The same is planned for accounts, progression and items.
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Fortnite on PS5 is no big surprise
Pretty much every PS5 and Xbox Series X free-to-play game with a big existing audience is likely to arrive on both consoles on day one, just for continuity's sake. These developers naturally want players to feel invested enough to follow their games between generations
We've seen indications that Apex Legends will likely come to next gen, along with acclaimed shooter Warframe.
No doubt all of these games will benefit from the upgrade in next-gen hardware when it comes to performance and overall fidelity, closer to how these games run on high-end PCs now.
Check out Epic's Unreal Engine 5 video reveal below.
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