Epic Games has already presented impressive demos of its Unreal Engine 5 in the past. However, these were neither playable nor associated with a famous license. To make an impression and bring the point home, the American studio decided to cause a sensation with a new technical demo, both free and playable, linked to the universe of The Matrix. But to achieve its goal, Epic Games needed reinforcements.
Epic Games just released its The Matrix Awakens demo for PS5 and Xbox Series S | X released. This technical demo, which runs on the Unreal Engine 5, has the specialty of mixing kinematics and a playable experience. According to the American studio, the aim of the process is to show what is possible by combining Unreal Engine 5 and the new generation of consoles.
The Matrix Awakens, more than just a demo
For the purposes of The Matrix Awakens, Epic Games claims to have created an open world city of 16 km2. The latter comprises 7,000 buildings, 1,248 intersections, 45,073 parked cars (38,146 of which are passable), 260 km of streets and 512 km of sidewalks. As shown in the video above, this demo also uses many of the effects activated by Unreal Engine 5.
On the PlayStation blog, Ross Hogben from Epic Games speaks about the people and groups who participated in the project. The film crews were represented by Lana Wachowski, James McTeigue and John Gaeta. And on the other side were “Epic games and partners
Private partner
In fact, one of Epic Games’ partners on this The Matrix Awakens demo was none other than The Coalition. The same The Coalition that developed the Gears of War games within Microsoft Game Studios. The information is most official since it was revealed by Guy Welch. The latter is Marketing Director at Xbox and is particularly concerned with the Gears of War series.
Although The Coalition is a Microsoft-owned studio, ties with Epic Games remain strong. The coalition was actually formed by the team that developed the Gears of War at Epic. And obviously both camps are open to cooperation. This partnership around The Matrix Awakens is proof of that. The arrival of Gears of War heroes Marcus Fenix and Kait Diaz in Fortnite is a different one.
As a reminder, the Matrix Awakens demo is available for free on PS5 and Xbox Series X | S to be downloaded. However, about 30 GB of free space on the SSD of the consoles is required for the recovery.
What do you think of Matrix Awakens? Did you receive this technical demo? Are you surprised by The Coalition’s participation in the project? Do you think full versions will soon achieve this kind of rendering? Let us know what you think in the comments below.
