Epic Games announced that Unreal Engine 6 will permanently eliminate Blueprints, Actors, and the C++ Gameplay Framework rather than simply deprecating them. Speaking at Unreal Fest Tokyo, CEO Tim Sweeney confirmed that gameplay logic will transition entirely to Verse and Scene Graph ahead of the targeted late 2027 early access release. The decision forces the largest architectural reset for developers since the launch of Unreal Engine 4.
C++ will remain strictly as a low level foundation for core engine systems such as rendering and physics calculations. Sweeney stated that moving gameplay systems exclusively to Verse delivers faster iteration times, better compatibility with automated AI development tools, and seamless content portability across connected virtual environments. The announcement reverses earlier messaging from previous developer presentations where legacy frameworks were expected to survive into early versions of the engine.
Sweeney addressed the community directly during the keynote, offering an apology for the severe disruption this brings to established studio pipelines.
This is a painful change.
Epic absorbed this transition internally by migrating Fortnite from Blueprints over to Verse without taking live game services offline. To assist studios facing similar code overhauls, Epic plans to deploy automated AI conversion tools, though the exact release format remains undecided.
According to event reporting from Game Makers JP, studios with active productions will not be forced into the new architecture immediately. Teams can continue building on the Unreal Engine 5 track, including the newly revealed version 5.9 release. Studios must now weigh the productivity gains of the Verse framework against the cost of completely rewriting their existing gameplay codebases for the late 2027 launch.
Source: gamemakers
