{"id":1926932,"date":"2026-05-09T17:39:02","date_gmt":"2026-05-09T14:39:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=1926932"},"modified":"2026-05-09T17:39:02","modified_gmt":"2026-05-09T14:39:02","slug":"europe-may-soon-get-a-non-u-s-alternative-to-unreal-engine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=1926932","title":{"rendered":"Europe May Soon Get a Non-U.S. Alternative to Unreal Engine"},"content":{"rendered":"

[analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/gizmodo.com\/app\/uploads\/2026\/05\/video-game-mockup-1200×675.jpg”]<\/p>\n

\n
\n

For Americans, following European news can feel like trying to follow a soccer game on your neighbor\u2019s TV while in your own living room there are two simultaneous gunfights, a nu-metal concert, and someone revving a pickup truck for no reason. But it\u2019s worth keeping an eye on Europe right now, because in areas like tech and defense, a trend has emerged in which Europeans are just so over our BS, and are moving on\u2014that\u2019s the vibe anyway. Last month, for instance, the French government began a transition from Windows to Linux.<\/p>\n

And now, the Dutch co-creator of the legendary 90s game Jazz Jackrabbit has a vision of a Europe unshackled by the Unreal Engine, a load-bearing pillar of the gaming world also used in other media, and he may just have the chops and experience to pull it off. Caution is probably merited, though, because he sounds well and truly AI-pilled.<\/p>\n

As noticed by Video Games Chronicle, Arjan Brussee, the co-founder of Horizon: Zero Dawn studio Guerrilla Games appeared on the Dutch tech podcast De Technoloog earlier this week to talk about his project, \u201cthe Immense Engine,\u201d an alternative piece of general purpose software that would theoretically provide a true alternative to Unreal Engine.<\/p>\n

Unreal Engine is the software foundation of Fortnite most famously, but also of classics like Gears of War, Bioshock Infinite, Mass Effect, and Batman Arkham City. It\u2019s also used in Hollywood productions like the Mandalorian and is even used to make popular Kids\u2019 YouTube content. European game engines exist, notably Germany-based CryEngine, which is associated with the Far Cry games, but that\u2019s mostly a first-person shooter engine, and has long struggled with adoption.<\/p>\n

If anyone has the credibility to build Unreal-Engine-but-for-people-who-eat-muesli, it\u2019s probably Brussee. He\u2019s both a successful gaming entrepreneur in his own right, and has worked across multiple decades at Unreal Engine parent company Epic Games.<\/p>\n

Some translated statements about his plans for the Immense Engine come from Video Games Chronicle (a U.K-based blog, so it\u2019s not clear who or what actually translated them). Brussee apparently said, \u201cNo one is currently making an engine that is fully European-hosted, built by Europeans, and complies with European rules and guidelines.\u201d He also hinted at a goal of Unreal-like generalizability, saying, \u201cCreating usable 3D worlds is becoming increasingly important, certainly for purposes other than just gaming.\u201d<\/p>\n

But he apparently also claimed, \u201cThe rise of AI means that we need to approach the development of this kind of crucial software differently,\u201d and \u201cif you are smart and know how to put a good framework of AI agents to work, you can do the work of ten or fifteen people.\u201d So the codebase for this project sounds like it will be heavily, um, AI-assisted. Maybe Brussee will use Mistral\u2019s models, just to keep things European.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n

\n

For Americans, following European news can feel like trying to follow a soccer game on your neighbor\u2019s TV while in your own living room there are two simultaneous gunfights, a nu-metal concert, and someone revving a pickup truck for no reason. But it\u2019s worth keeping an eye on Europe right now, because in areas like tech and defense, a trend has emerged in which Europeans are just so over our BS, and are moving on\u2014that\u2019s the vibe anyway. Last month, for instance, the French government began a transition from Windows to Linux.<\/p>\n

And now, the Dutch co-creator of the legendary 90s game Jazz Jackrabbit has a vision of a Europe unshackled by the Unreal Engine, a load-bearing pillar of the gaming world also used in other media, and he may just have the chops and experience to pull it off. Caution is probably merited, though, because he sounds well and truly AI-pilled.<\/p>\n

As noticed by Video Games Chronicle, Arjan Brussee, the co-founder of Horizon: Zero Dawn studio Guerrilla Games appeared on the Dutch tech podcast De Technoloog earlier this week to talk about his project, \u201cthe Immense Engine,\u201d an alternative piece of general purpose software that would theoretically provide a true alternative to Unreal Engine.<\/p>\n

Unreal Engine is the software foundation of Fortnite most famously, but also of classics like Gears of War, Bioshock Infinite, Mass Effect, and Batman Arkham City. It\u2019s also used in Hollywood productions like the Mandalorian and is even used to make popular Kids\u2019 YouTube content. European game engines exist, notably Germany-based CryEngine, which is associated with the Far Cry games, but that\u2019s mostly a first-person shooter engine, and has long struggled with adoption.<\/p>\n

If anyone has the credibility to build Unreal-Engine-but-for-people-who-eat-muesli, it\u2019s probably Brussee. He\u2019s both a successful gaming entrepreneur in his own right, and has worked across multiple decades at Unreal Engine parent company Epic Games.<\/p>\n

Some translated statements about his plans for the Immense Engine come from Video Games Chronicle (a U.K-based blog, so it\u2019s not clear who or what actually translated them). Brussee apparently said, \u201cNo one is currently making an engine that is fully European-hosted, built by Europeans, and complies with European rules and guidelines.\u201d He also hinted at a goal of Unreal-like generalizability, saying, \u201cCreating usable 3D worlds is becoming increasingly important, certainly for purposes other than just gaming.\u201d<\/p>\n

But he apparently also claimed, \u201cThe rise of AI means that we need to approach the development of this kind of crucial software differently,\u201d and \u201cif you are smart and know how to put a good framework of AI agents to work, you can do the work of ten or fifteen people.\u201d So the codebase for this project sounds like it will be heavily, um, AI-assisted. Maybe Brussee will use Mistral\u2019s models, just to keep things European.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

[analyse_source url=”https:\/\/gizmodo.com\/europe-may-soon-get-a-non-u-s-alternative-to-unreal-engine-2000756702″]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/gizmodo.com\/app\/uploads\/2026\/05\/video-game-mockup-1200×675.jpg”] For Americans, following European news can feel like trying to follow a soccer game on your neighbor\u2019s TV while in your own living room there are two simultaneous gunfights, a nu-metal concert, and someone revving a pickup truck for no reason. But it\u2019s worth keeping an eye on Europe right now, because […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[226,53],"class_list":["post-1926932","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","tag-crawlmanager","tag-gizmodo-com"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1926932","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1926932"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1926932\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1926932"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1926932"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1926932"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}