EA’s Iron Man Game Still in Pre-Production, Will Use Unreal Engine 5

More than a year after being announced, EA Motive Studio’s Iron Man is still in the pre-production phase, but the game will use Unreal Engine 5.

The news came as part of a blog post from Motive general manager Patrick Klaus, where he provided an overview of where the studio is at. He began by highlighting the launch of Dead Space back in January as a milestone achievement before moving on to Iron Man. According to Klaus, the new game is still “early” in pre-production, with the team “taking our time to make sure we set the best possible foundation for development.” While that doesn’t tell us much of what to expect, it does suggest that the game is likely to still be several years from launch.

The team is currently exploring what’s possible with the story and mechanics of the character, with Klaus adding that “it’s exciting to see the fantasy start coming alive. Even this early in the process, we’ve put in place a Community Council made up of Iron Man and Marvel fans; as with Dead Space, they’ll be offering feedback on pretty much everything throughout the development process.” That certainly helped Dead Space to meet and even exceed the expectations of many, so hopefully the same magic can be recreated.

Klaus’ final note about the status of the Iron Man game is that Motive Studio has decided to use Unreal Engine 5, rather than the Frostbite engine that powered the Dead Space remake. He said that the decision was made “in order to empower the dev team to work their magic and create something really special.”

Iron Man is said to be the first of several EA games that will emerge from a partnership with Marvel Games, with new studio Cliffhanger Games working on a project based around Black Panther. Meanwhile, PlayStation and Insomniac Games have just launched Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 to widespread acclaim.