I was halfway through a Dutch tech podcast when the sentence hit me: a veteran of Guerrilla and Epic said Europe could build an engine that stands up to Unreal. You felt that quick, small electric shock of possibility—like a cathedral losing stones and still holding its weight. If Arjan Brussee succeeds, the scaffolding of games, film, and real-time media could be rearranged.
I’m not here to sell hype. I follow engines, studios, and policy shifts so you can separate marketing from momentum. You should care because this isn’t just another indie tool—it’s an attempt to redraw who controls the software bricks under whole industries.
On a tech podcast, Brussee described a fully European-hosted engine before naming its scope
Arjan Brussee, a co‑founder of Guerrilla Games and an Epic Games alum, has announced a project he calls the Immense Engine. The claim: an engine built and hosted in Europe, compliant with local rules and run by teams inside the continent. From Guerrilla’s Horizon: Zero Dawn to Epic’s Unreal, Brussee’s résumé gives weight to the idea that he can assemble the right people.
What is the Immense Engine?
The short answer: a proposed general-purpose engine intended for games, film, virtual production, and other 3D worlds. Brussee told De Technoloog, as relayed by Video Games Chronicle, that usable 3D creation is expanding beyond games and that Europe lacks a fully homegrown, rules-compliant option. He also signaled heavy use of AI in the codebase—an approach he believes multiplies developer output through AI agents.
On your screen, Unreal Engine powers Fortnite, Gears, and even The Mandalorian
Unreal Engine is the default scaffold for blockbuster games and virtual production; Fortnite, Gears of War, Mass Effect, and even Lucasfilm’s on-set tech lean on it. That concentration leaves studios dependent on Epic’s roadmap and licensing choices. Europe’s CryEngine exists, but Crytek has long struggled to gain broad adoption.
Can Europe build an alternative to Unreal Engine?
Yes—if a few things line up. Talent and capital are available across the continent. The harder parts are long-term support, tooling parity (editors, pipelines, middleware), and convincing studios to bet a production on a newer stack. Brussee’s Epic experience helps on the credibility front; whether his team can deliver an engine with the same polish and ecosystem is the open question.
On the ground, national decisions are already nudging software strategy
France’s move away from Windows toward Linux last month is a small signal with outsized intent: governments and companies want control over their tech stack and data. Brussee stresses European hosting and compliance—an attractive pitch for studios wary of foreign cloud or licensing dynamics.
The EU’s interest in sovereignty is also visible in AI. French model maker Mistral and other European initiatives aim to reduce dependence on U.S. cloud and models. Brussee’s talk about AI agents—doing “the work of ten or fifteen people”—aligns with that direction, but AI-driven code generation raises questions about maintainability and security.
On technical risk and reward, the AI angle cuts both ways
Brussee openly said the rise of AI changes how such software should be built. If the Immense Engine’s core is heavily AI-assisted, the upside is speed: faster iteration, automated asset creation, and smarter tooling. The downside is brittle systems, hidden behaviors from AI components, and a new maintenance surface that studios must master.
I’m cautiously curious: AI tools from Mistral or others can accelerate startups, but they also require governance, audit trails, and a talent layer that understands both ML and graphics. That is a rare combo.
On adoption, the real test will be studios voting with their budgets
Having a technically capable engine is only half the battle. Studios choose engines for publisher approval, middleware compatibility, and a staffing pipeline that knows the tool. Epic’s decades of community, the Marketplace, and the Unreal Editor’s polish are nontrivial advantages.
If Brussee can deliver strong editor UX, robust documentation, and an ecosystem—plus a convincing argument about European data and compliance—he could pry open a niche that grows into serious competition. The alternative is a competent engine that never reaches the scale needed to threaten Epic’s incumbency.
I’ll be watching how studios, middleware vendors, and cloud providers respond. Will they treat the Immense Engine as a curiosity, a tactical option for EU projects, or a strategic bet that shifts where production happens and who profits from it?
Is Europe ready to build its own core engine—and are you ready for the implications if it succeeds?