Microsoft has developed Universal Windows Platform (UWP) support for the widely used Unreal Engine 4. The game engine is the basis for titles including Street Fighter V, Gears of War 4, and Shenmue III.
The company submitted source code for Unreal Engine 4 UWP to GitHub as a fork of the repository posted by Epic Games, according to a report from MS Power User. The source code is available to anyone with an active UE4 license and a GitHub account.
It’s no secret that Microsoft wants to foster UWP development, and releasing this kind of tool set seems likely to have the desired effect. Unreal Engine 4 is already very popular, and using it to develop games that can run across a broad swath of Windows 10 devices is obviously an attractive prospect for developers.
The timing of this release is notable, as it comes just days after Tim Sweeney of Epic Games publicly criticized Microsoft and its UWP. Sweeney was a co-creator of the Unreal Engine back in the 1990s, and played a major role in the development of its fourth iteration.
Sweeney decried Microsoft for what he described as “sneaky maneuvers,” and accused the company of intending to weaken the Steam platform on Windows devices to promote its own alternatives. These comments build on statements made back in March, when Sweeney claimed that the company was “moving against the entire PC industry.”
Since this isn’t a typical software release, Microsoft is taking no responsibility for the stability of the source code. However, there are plans for the company’s Xbox Advanced Technology Group to supply periodic updates as time progresses.
Anyone interested in downloading the UWP version of UE4 can do so here — but you’ll need to have linked your GitHub account to your Epic Program account and joined the Epic GitHub org beforehand.
