Unreal Engine Director Nicholas Penwarden Retires After 15 Years at Epic

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Former Unreal Engine director and longtime Epic engineer Nicholas Penwarden is stepping away from the company after 15 years.

"I'm proud of the part I was able to play in Unreal Engine's evolution from UE3 to where it stands today," the Epic veteran wrote in a post yesterday on LinkedIn "It's remarkable to see how far the engine has come, how much the community has grown, and all the incredible games and experiences developers have created with it."

Penwarden has been one of the faces of Unreal Engine for a while, popping up every now and then to give talks and take questions on the technical particulars of its tools and tout just how many complicated triangles devs will be able to insert into, well, whatever they like. In his time at Tim Sweeney's house, he's been an engine and graphics programmer on UE4, director of engineering on UE as a whole, VP of engineering, and engineering fellow.

He is not the only Unreal Engine bigwig to hang up his spurs in recent months. UE lost its former "chief evangelist", Sjoerd De Jong, when he left the company a few weeks ago after a 12-year stint.

"The games industry has always been an industry where change is relentless and inevitable, but it feels like we are reaching a pivotal point now and a potent mix of things," De Jong wrote.

Penwarden did not write anything quite so ominous. "Most of all, I'm proud of the team we built: the most talented, passionate, and extraordinary group of engine and game developers I could have hoped to work alongside. I wish Epic and the team all the best, and I look forward to seeing what they build next!" he concluded.

Nevertheless, it's another high-level departure from an Unreal Engine old-hand, just as Epic gears up for its 2027 release of Unreal Engine 6 . Rather than focusing on new graphical achievements, Epic is positioning UE6 as a unifying force for game developers that will enable "content, code, and economies to become portable and interoperable across games."

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