Epic Games Unveils Unreal Engine 5, Coming in 2021 With Mac and iOS Support

Epic Games today unveiled Unreal Engine 5, the newest iteration of its game engine that's used by game developers for many high-profile games. A demo video running on a developer version of the PS5 hardware shows what Unreal Engine 5 is capable of.


Unreal Engine 5 focuses on photorealism that's on par with movie CG and real life, and it will be released in 2021. Unreal Engine 5 will support current-generation consoles, next-generation consoles, PCs, Macs, iOS, and Android.

‌Epic Games‌ detailed two new core technologies that will be coming in Unreal Engine 5, including Nanite virtualized geometry for importing film-quality source art directly into Unreal Engine as virtualized textures and Lumen, a fully dynamic global illumination system designed to react to scene and light changes, which will allow for more realistic shadows and rendering of moving light sources.


Unreal Engine 5 has been designed to make it easy for development teams of all sizes to take advantage of content libraries and tools to create games with unprecedented levels of detail and interactivity.

In addition to Unreal Engine 5, Epic today announced a change to how its royalties work. Developers are now able to keep all royalties for the first $1 million in sales generated, and then it will take five percent of sales after that. Previously, Epic collected royalties on all games after the first $3000 in sales.

Epic is also launching Epic Online Services, an online multi-platform game management system that was originally created for Fortnite. Epic Online Services provides developers with tools for cross-platform matchmaking and account management.

Popular Stories

M3 iPad Air

Apple's Next Two Products Are Coming Soon

Thursday February 12, 2026 11:17 am PST by
Apple plans to release an iPhone 17e and an iPad Air with an M4 chip "in the coming weeks," according to the latest word from Bloomberg's Mark Gurman. "Apple retail employees say that inventory of the iPhone 16e has basically dried out and the iPad Air is seeing shortages as well," said Gurman. "I've been expecting new versions of both (iPhone 17e and M4 iPad Air) in the coming weeks."...
Apple Sales Coach App

Apple Launching New 'Sales Coach' App

Friday February 13, 2026 2:01 pm PST by
Apple plans to launch a rebranded "Sales Coach" app on the iPhone and iPad later this month, according to a source familiar with the matter. "Sales Coach" will arrive as an update to Apple's existing "SEED" app, and it will continue to provide sales tips and training resources to Apple Store and Apple Authorized Reseller employees around the world. For example, there are articles and videos...
Coffee Burgundy and Purple iPhone 18 Pro Mock

Five iPhone 18 Pro Features Revealed in New Report

Friday February 13, 2026 8:43 am PST by
While the iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max are still seven months away, an analyst has revealed five new features the devices will allegedly have. Rumored color options for the iPhone 18 Pro models In a research note with investment firm GF Securities on Thursday, analyst Jeff Pu outlined the following upgrades for the iPhone 18 Pro models: Smaller Dynamic Island: It has been rumored...
iOS 26 Home Feature

Three New Apple Home Products Rumored for 2026

Friday February 13, 2026 4:18 pm PST by
Apple has a long list of new products rumored for 2026, including a series of home products that will see the company establishing more of a presence in the smart home space. Robots are on the horizon for 2027, but the 2026 releases will be a little tamer. HomePod mini We're expecting a new HomePod mini 2 to launch at any time. Apple isn't going to update the device's design, but we could...
m5 macbook pro deal

Why You Shouldn't Buy the Next MacBook Pro

Tuesday February 10, 2026 4:27 pm PST by
Apple is planning to launch new MacBook Pro models as soon as early March, but if you can, this is one generation you should skip because there's something much better in the works. We're waiting on 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro models with M5 Pro and M5 Max chips, with few changes other than the processor upgrade. There won't be any tweaks to the design or the display, but later this...

Top Rated Comments

Luap Avatar
75 months ago
"Unreal" Engine, but no new Unreal Tournament? Its been like, 12 years! ?
Score: 36 Votes (Like | Disagree)
75 months ago

I've yet to meet the 8 gamers who play on macOS... I assume most have a console or gaming PC.
I'm one of them! I enjoy Tomb Raider, Civ 6, Endless Legend, Diablo 3, Warcraft 3 Reforged, Starcraft 2, Borderlands 1-3, Divinity Original Sin 1 & 2, XCOM 2, and Company of Heroes 2 among others. Plenty to play on my 16" Macbook Pro :)

That being said, I wish Apple would actually care about Mac OS gaming. It's really a shame that they don't.
Score: 21 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Internet Enzyme Avatar
75 months ago

I've yet to meet the 8 gamers who play on macOS... I assume most have a console or gaming PC.
Stardew Valley, Minecraft, Terraria, and Hotline Miami all still work on Catalina, not even to mention the whole Apple Arcade library. Granted, these aren’t AAA games, but they do exist and have a decent fan base on macOS
Score: 19 Votes (Like | Disagree)
75 months ago
While this is great news for games, I'm looking more close to see how this is used in film and TV show production - the Mandalorian is an example of what can be done.
Score: 13 Votes (Like | Disagree)
mattopotamus Avatar
75 months ago

Welp, lets see how well it looks and runs when it’s running a REAL video game. Like where there’s guns, explosions, stats, achievement tracking, AI, sprinting, jumping and the other 99 players that you’re playing online with. Along with 100+ GBs of maps, characters and engine that has to be QAed and maintained. Most video games consist of more than just pacing through a canyon. I bet in several years when Unreal 6 is released, we still won’t have any released games that look and run this well.

It looks great, but video games never end up looking as good as they do on these “first look” trailers when you actually play it on your TV in your bedroom.
At least it was actual gameplay compared to the joke Microsoft put on.
Score: 10 Votes (Like | Disagree)
MrUNIMOG Avatar
75 months ago

Stardew Valley, Minecraft, Terraria, and Hotline Miami all still work on Catalina, not even to mention the whole Apple Arcade library. Granted, these aren’t AAA games, but they do exist and have a decent fan base on macOS
Well, there’s like a thousand games that work on Catalina. And lots of AAA.
Score: 9 Votes (Like | Disagree)