Highlights
EA Motive's upcoming Iron Man game will be developed using Epic Games' Unreal Engine 5, marking a shift away from its in-house Frostbite engine.
Unreal Engine 5 has gained significant popularity among both third-party and first-party development studios, with renowned titles such as Immortals of Aveum and Lords of the Fallen being created on this engine.
The decision to utilize Unreal Engine 5 for Iron Man may suggest that EA is considering a potential transition away from Frostbite in the coming years. Fans should anticipate a few years before additional information about the game is unveiled.
EA has announced that its upcoming Iron Man game will be developed using the Unreal Engine 5 from Epic Games. This marks the third full game from EA Motive, which was established in 2015. Previously, the studio provided assistance to DICE and Criterion Games on Star Wars: Battlefront 2 before releasing their first independent title, Star Wars: Squadrons, in 2020. Their most recent release, the Dead Space remake, has received critical acclaim and is regarded as one of the top games of 2023.
The Unreal Engine 5 has become a widely utilized tool for numerous third-party and even some first-party development studios. Prior to its launch, Epic Games collaborated with The Coalition, the studio behind Gears of War for PlayStation and Xbox, to create impressive tech demos, including The Coalition's The Matrix Awakens, which debuted in late 2021. This year has seen the release of notable games built on the engine, including Immortals of Aveum, Fort Solis, and the recently launched Soulslike Lords of the Fallen. Looking to the future, there are several highly anticipated Unreal Engine 5 titles on the horizon, including Black Myth: Wukong, Stalker 2, Ark 2, the Silent Hill 2 remake, and Xbox's Senua's Saga: Hellblade 2, among many others.
Now, there's another exciting addition to the growing roster of Unreal Engine 5 projects in the works. According to a recent blog post update by General Manager Patrick Klaus from EA Motive, it has been confirmed that the studio's highly anticipated Iron Man game will be developed using Unreal Engine 5. This is noteworthy because Motive's previous titles, Star Wars: Squadrons and the Dead Space remake, were both created using EA's proprietary Frostbite engine. Iron Man will be Motive's first venture into utilizing external technology for game development. Klaus further mentioned that Iron Man is still in the early stages of pre-production, which is understandable given that Dead Space was released just nine months ago.
EA's Frostbite engine has faced significant criticism in the past due to its impact on game titles such as Mass Effect Andromeda and Anthem. It even played a role in the closure of Visceral Games in 2017. However, Motive has managed to utilize Frostbite successfully for Star Wars: Squadrons and Dead Space. Nevertheless, transitioning to Unreal 5 for Iron Man seems like the right decision. Motive may be able to leverage their experience with Frostbite to incorporate the zero gravity sections from Dead Space into Iron Man's vital aerial movements using Unreal 5.
It will be intriguing to see if Motive's adoption of Unreal 5 implies that EA may eventually phase out Frostbite entirely or limit its use to their annual EA Sports franchises. With Unreal Engine 5 being one of the most visually impressive game engines available to developers currently, fans of Marvel's flying technology genius will undoubtedly be thrilled by this shift. However, since Iron Man is still in early pre-production, it will take a few years for fans to witness and discover more about the game.
Iron Man is currently in development.
Source: EA Motive
