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

imac video apple feature

Apple Unveils First New Products of 2026

Monday January 26, 2026 1:55 pm PST by
Apple today introduced its first two physical products of 2026: a second-generation AirTag and the Black Unity Connection Braided Solo Loop for the Apple Watch. Read our coverage of each announcement to learn more:Apple Unveils New AirTag With Longer Range, Louder Speaker, and More Apple Introduces New Black Unity Apple Watch BandBoth the new AirTag and the Black Unity Connection Braided...
Second Generation AirTag Feature

Apple Unveils New AirTag With Longer Range, Louder Speaker, and More

Monday January 26, 2026 6:07 am PST by
Apple today introduced the second-generation AirTag, with key features including longer range for tracking items and a louder speaker. For those who are not familiar, the AirTag is a small accessory that you can attach to your backpack, keys, or other items. Then, you can track the location of those items in the Find My app on the iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple Watch, and iCloud.com. The new...
iPhone 5s

iPhone 5s Gets New Software Update 13 Years After Launch

Monday January 26, 2026 3:56 pm PST by
Alongside iOS 26.2.1, Apple today released an updated version of iOS 12 for devices that are still running that operating system update, eight years after the software was first released. iOS 12.5.8 is available for the iPhone 5s and the iPhone 6, meaning Apple is continuing to support these devices for 13 and 12 years after launch, respectively. The iPhone 5s came out in September 2013,...
M5 MacBook Pro

Apple Reportedly Aiming to Upgrade the MacBook Pro Twice This Year

Sunday January 25, 2026 11:46 am PST by
Apple plans to release new MacBook Pro, MacBook Air, Mac Studio, and Studio Display models in the first half of this year, according to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman. In his Power On newsletter today, Gurman added that redesigned MacBook Pro models with an OLED touch screen "should be hitting toward the end of 2026," meaning that the MacBook Pro line would be upgraded twice this year. First up...
Apple Logo Spotlight

Apple to Launch These 20+ Products This Year

Sunday January 25, 2026 6:02 pm PST by
2026 promises to be yet another busy year for Apple, with the company rumored to be planning more than 20 product announcements over the coming months. Beyond the usual updates to iPhones, iPads, Macs, and Apple Watches, Apple is expected to release its all-new smart home hub, which was reportedly delayed until the more personalized version of Siri is ready. Other unique products rumored for ...

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)
acastic 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.
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)
sublunar Avatar
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)