Respawn on why it used Unreal Engine 4 instead of Source Engine or Frostbite Engine for Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order


Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order is the next game from Respawn, the team behind the Titanfall series. The Titanfall games were powered by the Source Engine so a lot of gamers were wondering why Respawn decided to use Epic’s engine for this new Star Wars game. Thankfully, game director Stig Asmussen and Respawn’s CEO Vince Zampella have shed some light and explained why the team decided to use this particular engine.

Stig Asmussen claimed that it wasn’t a matter of choice as when Respawn started building the team for its new project – which at the time was not related to Star Wars – they had to create a game from the ground up and Unreal Engine 4 seemed like the better choice.

“There were a couple of other options out there, and remember we weren’t part of EA at this point so Frostbite wasn’t even an option, so I started taking around with it and was “Wow this is really powerful for what an individual developer can do with it, imagine what a whole team can do with it”. So we just pushed forward with it and we are very happy with the decision.”

Vince Zampella re-confirmed Asmussen’s claims, stating that they were hiring a new team and it was easier to find people that were familiar with Unreal Engine 4 than with other engines like the Source Engine.

“It made sense for the team, you know. So we are hiring up for a new team. It’s easier to find people that have Unreal Engine 4 experience, it was an engine that fit what we were kind of trying to do, instead of trying to adapt the Source Engine over. In evaluating all the engines that were available to us this is the one that the team felt it was the best choice.”

It’s also interesting noting that both Asmussen and Zampella claimed that they were not forced to start using the Frostbite Engine – when Respawn joined Electronic Arts – and even if Frostbite Engine was a choice, the team would still evaluate and decide what engine suited the game it was preparing to create best.

Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order is currently planned for a November 15th release.