A Street Fighter first: Capcom ditches in-house engines for Unreal Engine 4

Street Fighter V is getting some Epic help.

The upcoming fighting game for PlayStation 4 and PC will use Epic Games’ Unreal Engine 4. All previous Street Fighter games used in-house engines. This will be Capcom’s first Unreal Engine 4 game.

Licensing the Unreal Engine is a big business for Epic Games. Originally made for its own Unreal first-person shooter in 1998, it and its successors have helped create games like Borderlands, Infinity Blade, and Mass Effect. It’s a win-win for both Epic and other developers. It saves companies like Capcom time and resources on creating in-house engines, while Epic makes money off of licensing the tech, although it doesn’t reveal how much.

“Our goal with the next generation of Street Fighter is to take our beloved fighting game franchise and bring it to our fans in the best way possible,” said producer Bochan Kim in a press release sent to GamesBeat. “In order to fully deliver on that promise, we know we have to incorporate the latest and greatest technology available, which is why we partnered with Epic Games to power Street Fighter V using Unreal Engine 4.”

Other future games will use Unreal Engine 4, including Fable Legends and Crackdown. Perhaps most interestingly, the upcoming Tekken 7, one of Street Fighter’s biggest fighting game competitors, will also use Epic’s latest graphics technology. Tekken 7 comes out in Japanese arcades in February. Street Fighter V only has a vague 2015 release window.