Unity vs Unreal Engine: Which Game Engine to Choose in 2023?

What is a Game Engine?

A game engine is a tool or suite for building video games for different platforms. It comes with relevant libraries and support programs for doing so.

There are a galore of gaming engines available and although they have different architectures, the basic idea is the same. Game development is a long and intricate process with multiple stages, ranging from planning and pre-production to launch and promotion.

What is Unity?

Unity is a popular game engine that has been the force behind several famous video games. Developed by Unity Technologies, the game engine was released at the 2005 WWDC as a Mac OS X game engine.

The popular indie PC game Norco that headlined video gaming in 2022 is developed using Unity. The game engine is among the leading options to develop AR and VR video games. It is loved by independent developers and hobbyists.

Although Unity is capable of developing video games for many platforms, it is the go-to option for mobile game development. That’s because of two reasons. For one, it is easier to develop 2D games with Unity and secondly, it eases the process of scaling down video games for running on low-end hardware.

What is Unreal Engine?

Unreal Engine is a leading game engine that is developed by Epic Games. It made its debut with the 1998 FPS game Unreal. It has been the source of power behind several popular video games, including Dragon Quest XII: The Flames of Fate, Fortnite, and Tekken 7.

Unreal Engine receives much love from AAA game developers due to its advanced graphics capabilities and support for a multitude of gaming platforms. Both Unreal Engine and Unity allow developers to further expand their capabilities by means of plugins.

Unity vs Unreal Engine: Which Game Engine Should You Choose?

Both Unity and Unreal Engine are the foremost choices when it comes to video game development. Each one of them has a dedicated community and a long list of chart-topping video game titles under its belt.

However, there are certain scenarios where one is better than the other. To understand that, let’s compare the two on the basis of various parameters. So, let us begin:

1.The Basics

Unreal Engine was launched in 1998 by Epic Games while Unity saw the light of day in 2005. Unity is developed by Unity Technologies.

Unlike Unreal Engine, which is a pseudo-open-source software since its source code is available as a reference for developers, Unity is a closed-source game development tool. Unity is developed using C# and C++. On the other hand, Unreal Engine is developed in C++ only.

2.Programming Languages

Unity leverages C# for the main Unity editor and plugins. It also uses Bolt and Prefab, which are its proprietary programming languages.

Dissimilar to Unity, Unreal uses C++ as its primary programming language. It also uses its proprietary video scripting language Blueprint to build a video game. As Unity is developed in C#, the game engine makes it easy for beginners to get started with it.

3.Graphics

Unreal comes with advanced graphics features. These are a material editor, global illumination, post-processing, physically-based rendering, and volumetric lights.

Unity has good graphics but they are not as advanced (and awesome) as Unreal. Moreover, the volumetric lights feature in Unity is available as an optional feature via a plugin.

4.Pricing

Unity has three pricing plans:

• Unity Personal – This plan of the gaming engine is free to use for earning up to $100k a year with the addition of a “Made in Unity” splash screen.
• Unity Plus – Opting for this plan costs $40 a month. It allows earning up to $200k/year and provides perks such as integration with collaboration tools and splash screen customization.
• Unity Pro – It costs $150 per month. This Unity pricing plan has no yearly revenue limit. It gets you all the features of Unity Plus with the inclusion of a high-end art asset pack and 3 extra seats.

In addition to these three plans, Unity Student Plan is also available. It makes Unity free for students enrolled at accredited educational institutions.

Unlike Unity, Unreal Engine has a simple no-tier pricing plan. It is free to use but for monetizing the games, the developer needs to pay 5% for video game titles that earn more than $1 million. The first $1 million, however, remains royalty-free.

5.Supported Platforms

Unity is intended for all three of the popular desktop operating systems, namely Linux, macOS, and Windows. The same holds true for Unreal. Although both game engines facilitate cross-platform integration, Unity offers more integrations than Unreal Engine.

Both platforms provide support for Android, iOS, Linux, macOS, PlayStation, SteamOS, Windows, and Xbox. While Unity allows game development for WebGL, Unreal facilitates HTML5 game development.

Unity enables developers to code a video game for Android TV, HoloLens, Nintendo Switch, Samsung Smart TV, Tizen, and Web Player.

6.2D vs 3D

One of the most important points to consider when choosing between Unreal Engine and Unity is the type of graphics that you require. Unity is the better choice for 2D game development as it has a simple UI and well-developed 2D tools.

Unreal Engine is developed for traditional graphics-laden first-person shooter games like Fortnite and Unreal Tournament. Therefore, you must go for Unreal Engine if you require a visually stunning 3D video game.

Unity vs Unreal Engine: A Comparison Table

Unreal vs Unity: Which One to Choose?

It depends. Both Unity and Unreal Engine are leading technologies used widely for developing hundreds of thousands of video games. However, there are certain scenarios where one is better than the other.

Choose Unreal when you need to:

• Add high-quality visuals to your video game.
• Develop a first-person shooter game.

Develop with Unity when:

• Making a 2D game for mobile devices.
• You are new to video game development or coding.
• Targeting many platforms.
• You want to develop a VR game.

Other Great Video Game Engines

Other than Unity and Unreal Engine, there are several game engines that can be used for developing a video game for different platforms. Let’s take a brief look at some of the best game engines so far:

• Amazon Lumberyard – It is a free cross-platform video game engine based on CryEngine. Released in 2016, Lumberyard forms the basis of Open 3D Engine, released in 2021, which is another free 3D game engine distributed under the Apache 2.0 License.
• Autodesk Maya – Popularly known by the mononym Maya, it is a 3D computer graphics application. It was originally developed by Alias Systems Corporation but is now developed and maintained by Autodesk, Inc. It is a popular tool not only for video game development but also for crafting assets for interactive 3D applications, animation films, and visual effects.
• Blender – Programmed using C, C++, and Python, Blender is a freely available open-source software for developing 3D graphics for animated films, interactive 3D apps, and 3D-printed models in addition to video games. It is available for Linux, macOS, and Windows.
• CryEngine – Developed by Crytek, CryEngine is a game engine that came into the limelight after the launch of the popular FPS game Far Cry. It follows a royalty model for commercial use. It was released in May of 2002.
• Havok – It is the gaming engine behind many popular video games like the Dark Souls series, Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, and the Bioshock series. It was acquired by Microsoft.
• Pygame – Great option for Python developers. It is not a game engine, albeit a set of Python modules for coding video games using the Python programming language.

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Conclusion

Video gaming, ever since its inception, hasn’t slowed down. Advancements in technologies like immersion, AI, and blockchain had further expanded its horizons.

Video gaming is a sprawling industry that offers numerous opportunities to businesses to develop a game that is loved by everyone. Both Unity and Unreal Engine are leading options to build a video game.

Underline all your requirements and objectives to pick the most suitable option between Unreal and Unity to get started. We hope that this Unity vs Unreal Engine blog will help you to make it easy to pick among the two leading video game development options.