Former Epic director is building a European rival to the Unreal and Unity game engines

Former Epic Games executive Arjan Brussee is developing a new European game engine, The Immense Engine, aiming to rival dominant platforms like Unreal and Unity from the US and China. Designed to be f... Read original →

Europe’s push for an indigenous game engine is less about gaming and more a strategic play for digital sovereignty in 3D simulation infrastructure. Technically, deep AI agent integration in The Immense Engine could pressure GPU vendors to optimize on-premise inference architectures aligned with Gaia-X standards. Regulatory compliance—while shielding it from GDPR and DMA liabilities—imposes significant compute cost premiums that U.S. rivals can’t easily replicate. In response, Unity may streamline its portfolio to fortify its dev ecosystem, while Epic could leverage defense contracts to infiltrate European public-sector projects. Over the next 18 months, success hinges not on consumer games but on becoming the default platform for EU defense simulations and smart logistics. If embedded in government procurement frameworks, it could evolve into a geotechnical anchor akin to ASML’s lithography dominance—forcing global engine providers to localize deployment logic within EU borders.