Epic Games is bringing Unreal Engine 4 to Firefox. After successfully porting Unreal Engine 3 – the software that powers high-end video games such as the Gears of War and Mass Effect franchises – the company has given an early look at how its successor will run on the web.
The video below shows two demos, Soul and Swing Ninja, running inside Mozilla’s browser without the use of plugins. In a blog post, Mozilla said both titles were running at “near-native” speeds and the based on this early footage, the results look promising. “Any modern browser can run asm.js content, but specific optimizations currently present only in Firefox, ensure the most consistent and smooth experience,” Mozilla said.
It’ll still be some time before a blockbuster title such as Thief is running smoothly inside our browsers, but demo videos such as this one highlight the Web’s potential as a games platform. Unreal Engine 4 is designed to scale between consoles, PCs, mobile devices and the Web, so it’s possible that smaller, less intensive titles from indie developers could soon make the jump.
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➤ Mozilla and Epic Preview Unreal Engine 4 Running in Firefox
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