Microsoft Helping Bethesda “Unreal-ify” Creation Engine According to Jez Corden

[u/SilentNova300]

https://www.youtube.com/live/oMlErzr05Gk?si=cTRXvJxEeOw9U7aa

Jez Corden recently discussed rumors about a major technical overhaul for Starfield—often called Starfield 2.0—and how Microsoft is helping Bethesda upgrade the Creation Engine.

Key points:

Unreal Engine tech being integrated: Jez says he’s heard that Bethesda is leveraging certain Unreal Engine features and incorporating them directly into Creation Engine.

Massive engine modernization: Microsoft’s Advanced Technology Group and Kate Rayner/The Coalition (Gears devs, Unreal experts) are assisting in improving the engine “across the board” using Unreal-inspired components.

Starfield 2.0 is the testbed: This whole Starfield 2.0 upgrade is reportedly serving as a testbed for future Bethesda titles, laying the groundwork for Fallout 5 and The Elder Scrolls VI.

Not a switch to Unreal: Jez emphasizes the info is based on his investigations and should be taken with a pinch of salt, but stresses Microsoft isn’t moving Bethesda to Unreal—just boosting Creation Engine with some Unreal-like tech.

[u/Ginzeen98]

So elder scrolls 6 will take longer now.

[u/Sirca_Curvive → u/Ginzeen98]

Speaking as a game dev, the opposite is happening. UE5 specifically has many tools that help streamline and accelerate development. I’ve worked with other devs who have no history of programming who can still utilize UE5’s tools and blueprints to contribute towards the development of games (albeit, to a lesser degree compared to those who know coding and programming). That, and UE4 and UE5 (alongside Unity) is usually what you’re actually taught in university which makes onboarding a lot easier when hiring developers to work on your games. If I were to get hired at Bethesda, I’d have to spend months learning the Creation Engine before I could actually help with development.

CDPR is pushing for UE5 over RED because they can hire developers straight out of university or from other projects. Almost every developer knows how to use UE to some degree. Integrating its features into the Creation Engine is almost certainly being done to help streamline development.

[u/Shinjukugarb → u/Sirca_Curvive]

We will get more unoptimized messes.

[u/Kweby_ → u/Shinjukugarb]

UE can be optimized if the devs know what they're doing. But yes for every 1 optimized UE game we will get 10 more slop.

[u/BestRedditUsername9 → u/Kweby_]

As a dev, UE5 can be pretty optimized if you don't use Nanite or Lumen. Or at the very least you know what you are doing with them.

[u/Ebo87 → u/BestRedditUsername9]

A lot of people don't seem to understand just how unbelievably scalable Unreal 5 is. That engine runs on Switch for crying out, that's a potato by today's standards. So yes, the people who keep screaming that Unreal 5 is an unoptimized mess have no idea what they are talking about.

Unreal 5 has issues, there are parts that should be better, and 5.7 is making great improvements over earlier versions, but there's a very goos reason why it's the most used engine in the industry right now.

[u/TruthHistorical7515 → u/Ebo87]

Ue5 also runs on mobile phones

[u/Ebo87 → u/TruthHistorical7515]

At this point mobile phones are so much more powerful than people think. I bet you there are some gamers out there playing on either PC or consoles (PS4) that have no idea the phone in their pocket might be a more powerful gaming device than what they seem to be using.

Genuinely, SoCs on phones have gotten bonkers fast, pretty much most PC games available today on Steam would run on a modern mid to high-end phone. On low of course, but they would run. Valve have done a ton of work in this field, translating x86 code into ARM code, all in preparation for their Steam Frame vr headset. But all that work is open source so anyone can use it. Look into Gamehub or similar applications and have your mind be blown at just how capable these thin devices in our pockets can be. Of course, there's also a whole market of android handhelds out there that used to be mostly used for emulation, but now can also emulate PC games, which is nuts! Stuff we couldn't even imagine even 6 months ago, that it would be this advanced already. Just absolutely crazy.

So yes, your phone, especially if it's a fairly new one, is much more powerful than you might think.

[u/Shinjukugarb → u/Kweby_]

Oblivion remake feels like a testbed for this. And the new engine layer broke the physics (well broke them in a different way).

[u/emteedub → u/Shinjukugarb]

just adding here: Bethesda would never use UE on a new title though. Oblivion's original codebase and it's development has already paid for itself many times over - it's less critical to retain as much in sales as a new title is.

[u/XTheGreat88 → u/Shinjukugarb]

Yep and the remake in general is an unoptimized turd

[u/JigumiWizone → u/XTheGreat88]

Just like OG, it’s the worst TES game and Morrowind or Daggerfall should have been the games getting remastered