Epic Games has changed its migration plan from Unreal Engine 5 to Unreal Engine 6. The UE6 development environment, expected to launch at the end of 2027, will remove Blueprints from the start, with all game logic written uniformly in Verse, while the underlying engine will continue to use C++.
Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney announced this adjustment during his keynote speech at Unreal Fest Tokyo 2026. The company originally planned to retain Blueprints in the early stages of UE6, phasing them out only after the Verse system had matured. Sweeney stated that AI is far more efficient at processing text-based code than Blueprints, leading the company to concentrate its resources on next-generation text scripting.
Sweeney acknowledged that a large number of designers and developers are still using Blueprints, and apologized to the developers present for this potentially unpopular decision. To assist with migrating existing projects, Epic plans to provide AI-assisted conversion tools and has already attempted to migrate thousands of Blueprints and the remaining C++ game logic in Fortnite to Verse.
UE6 will also combine the capabilities of UE5 with Fortnite's open ecosystem, allowing developers to connect their own chosen AI models. Epic Games Japan also stated that the UE5.9 preview version is expected to be released one week after the speech, with updates covering AI workflows, web platforms, rendering, and animation.