Rocket League Becomes the First Game to Reveal Unreal Engine 6

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Epic Games and Psyonix showed off the very first gameplay footage using Unreal Engine 6 this weekend at the Rocket League Championship Series in Paris. They revealed it with a new trailer for Rocket League, which has been around for ten years. Surprisingly, they didn’t announce it at a special event or with a separate tech demonstration, but instead included it at the end of the Rocket League trailer shown to the audience.

The trailer, called “New Era,” immediately showed that all the footage was recorded directly within the game itself. It then featured a sweeping, cinematic view of a bright, modern stadium, transitioning to gameplay footage of a sleek vehicle. Text on the screen announced “New era, new engine,” and the trailer ended with the first look at Epic’s new Unreal Engine 6 logo, which is purple in color.

The audience clearly reacted with excitement when the reveal happened. As the official description stated, it was a remarkable moment, with the crowd enthusiastically welcoming the new era of Rocket League.

A short animation shown at the end of a Rocket League event hinted at a possible connection with other Epic Games titles, like Fortnite. Popular Fortnite creator ShiinaBR noticed this and believes Epic might be planning a single app to combine Fortnite, Rocket League, and other games. The animation also mentioned Epic’s large, multi-year deal with Disney – worth $1.5 billion – which is expected to include a new Star Wars shooter game.

UE6 WILL PUT FORTNITE & ROCKET LEAGUE IN THE SAME APP

Epic Games today showed off what appears to be a new interface, called the “Metaverse Selection UI,” that lets users pick and choose different games and experiences.

— Shiina (@ShiinaBR) May 24, 2026

Okay, so Rocket League is getting a HUGE upgrade! It’s been running on Unreal Engine 3 since it came out back in 2015, which feels like ages ago. We were originally supposed to get Unreal Engine 5, but Psyonix decided to skip that and go straight to Unreal Engine 6! Since Epic Games bought Psyonix a few years back, everyone’s wondering if this is going to be a totally new game or just a massive update to the one we already love. Honestly, neither company has really said which it is yet, so we’re all just waiting to find out!

Epic Games hasn’t shared many details about what makes Unreal Engine 6 better than Unreal Engine 5, and their website doesn’t offer much information either. This is different from how they launched Unreal Engine 5 in 2020. Back then, they created a detailed tech demo—a Tomb Raider-style temple—to showcase the new features. Although impressive, that demo wasn’t released as a playable game.

Unreal Engine 5 was first shown six years ago, but it wasn’t officially released until 2022—four years ago. Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney has mentioned they’re working on the next version of the engine, but they haven’t said when it will be available. Currently, there’s no release date for Unreal Engine 6, and Psyonix hasn’t given any timeframe for when Rocket League will be updated to use it.

Epic Games might reveal more about the future of its Unreal Engine at next month’s Unreal Fest in Chicago. This news comes as both Microsoft and Sony are starting to talk about their next-generation consoles – the successor to Xbox Series X/S and the development of the PlayStation 6, respectively.

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2026-05-28 09:16