Fortnite studio Epic Games develops Metaverse programming language
Epic Games wants to master the complexity of the Metaverse with a new programming language. This once again underlines Epic's Metaverse ambitions.
Social 3D interactions in real time, a digital economy without dominant corporations, an open platform for developers and creatives: That is the Metaverse vision of Epic CEO Tim Sweeney. All applications on this platform should also be able to communicate with each other dynamically, instead of just being stored in the same store.
Sounds complex? It is. That's why Epic has been working on a new programming language for years, and new details have now come to light.
Verse as the basis for Metaverse
The new programming language is called "Verse" and, like the Metaverse itself, is to be developed openly. Epic promises to make all descriptions, specifications and tools publicly available without restrictions.
Objectively, no new programming language would be needed, all existing ones are Turing-complete, it says in a presentation. But Verse should offer more than existing programming languages in terms of scalability - applications from millions of programmers for billions of users - transactions and interoperability.
Those who want to delve deeper can watch the following video by Simon Peyton Jones, who after 24 years as a Microsoft researcher has been helping Epic Games develop Verse since 2021. His presentation is available here, and a technical discussion of the language can be found at Hacker News.
When will Epic unveil its Metaverse strategy?
Epic CEO Tim Sweeney is confident in the Metaverse concept. With the Unreal 3D engine, his company holds one of the foundational technologies for a 3D future, and also runs what is arguably the most successful proto-metaverse with Fortnite.
Epic Games won Sony as an investor and partner. The Japanese company invested a total of 1.25 billion U.S. dollars recently, highlighting Fortnite in particular as a social meeting place that goes beyond gaming. That was even before Facebook became Meta.
For years, there have been rumors about possible XR hardware and software from Epic Games, a new infrastructure around the Epic Store, but it has not been made official yet. However, the development of Verse, the partnership with Sony and the investments in tools like the digital human builder MetaHuman Creator indicate that more Metaverse might come from Epic Games in the future.
Note: Links to online stores in articles can be so-called affiliate links. If you buy through this link, MIXED receives a commission from the provider. For you the price does not change.
