What The HELL Is Going On With Unreal Engine 5?

The game industry appears to be converging on Unreal Engine 5, with more studios, including major developers, adopting it and abandoning in-house technology. Many significant game releases are now built on this engine. While a standardized engine with better tools, faster development, lower costs, and impressive visuals sounds appealing on paper, many games using Unreal Engine 5 experience performance issues, stuttering, and inconsistent optimization, leading some to claim that Unreal Engine 5 is "ruining gaming." When games built with Unreal Engine 5 are released, trailers often showcase stunning visuals, which are generally accurate. However, within hours of release, players frequently report significant performance problems. This pattern was observed with games like Remnant 2, Ark Survival Ascended, Immortals of Aveum, and even the Fortnite Unreal Engine 5 update. While games like Tekken 8 and the Silent Hill 2 remake had less severe but still noticeable issues, it seems that problems are more common than not, regardless of their severity. Despite these issues, studios continue to use Unreal Engine 5 for reasons beyond just graphics. It’s the only engine at its level that is widely available, inexpensive, and practical to license. For studios aiming to create games with the capabilities offered by Unreal Engine 5, the choice is often between using Unreal or developing their own engine. Building a proprietary engine is an extremely time-intensive process, starting from scratch without existing code or libraries. While proprietary engines have historically pushed boundaries and many creative individuals have successfully used them, practical constraints like monetary reasons or small team sizes make a standardized engine a more viable option for many. Unreal Engine is also free to use upfront, offering full access without initial licensing fees or gated features. Its royalty-based model charges a 5% royalty only after a game generates $1 million USD in revenue, making it an incredibly generous model that minimizes upfront risk in game development. This accessibility and cost-effectiveness are major factors in its widespread adoption. Anyone with an internet connection can download and start developing with the full Unreal framework, which includes a robust codebase, asset libraries, tools, and the credibility of a multi-decade institution. However, the fact that Unreal Engine is often the "best option" doesn't mean it's without flaws or that it's suitable for every scenario. A significant concern is the lack of a true alternative. While CryEngine is sometimes mentioned, its licensing scheme is less generous (free use limit of $5,000 per year), and its ecosystem of tools and assets is less advanced. CryEngine also lacks the continuous, rigorous development and innovation seen in Unreal Engine, which has produced many new technologies, some revolutionary and some less so. Furthermore, Unreal Engine functions as a comprehensive platform, simplifying many tasks that would be more complex with CryEngine. The core problem with Unreal Engine isn't that it's a bad engine or incapable of optimization. The issue arises when developers treat it as a "make content" button, similar to the backlash against AI tools. While the tool itself is neutral and can produce excellent results with dedicated effort, many developers, including AAA studios, tend to underutilize its full potential. They might simply "pop a bunch of stuff in there" without deeply understanding or optimizing the underlying code. The very strength of Unreal Engine 5 – its comprehensive framework and ease of use – can become its Achilles' heel when developers rely on default settings without customization. Analysts and developers have highlighted this disadvantage, noting that for AAA games, there's no real alternative to Unreal besides building an in-house engine. A developer from Kingdom Come Deliverance described how Unreal showcases incredible environments and technology, but these elements often don't scale as expected in a real game; things that work in small demos break down when expanded. While customizing the engine code can overcome these issues, it begins to negate the "set it and forget it" promise of a standardized engine. While it's tempting to blame "lazy developers," the issue is more nuanced. Indie developers using Unreal Engine 5 for content-focused projects, often with limited experience and resources, face different challenges than large AAA studios. For smaller teams, the engine's accessibility is crucial for their first or second games, which are inherently learning processes. However, this grace is not extended to AAA developers who release games with significant technical issues. Games like Black Myth Wukong and Hellblade 2 demonstrate that Unreal Engine can be utilized to its fullest extent. Hellblade 2, a controlled linear experience with a specific artistic vision, successfully bypasses many scaling problems. The true problem emerges when developers lack a clear vision, don't understand their project's scope, or make insufficient editorial decisions, believing that simply using Unreal Engine will guarantee a good game. This is a universally false assumption; the engine alone does not ensure quality, performance, or visual appeal. This misconception is particularly relevant to Unreal because many perceive it as a "content button" that produces a finished product with minimal effort. The larger the developer, the more detrimental this viewpoint becomes, unless, as a humorous aside, one is Bethesda, in which case a switch to Unreal is highly recommended to escape the "sunk cost fallacy" of their current engine.