TL;DR
Guerrilla Games co-founder Arjan Brussee is developing a new European game engine designed to challenge the dominance of Unreal Engine and Unity. This matters now because it represents the first serious attempt to create a sovereign European alternative to US-controlled game development infrastructure, addressing concerns over platform dependency and data sovereignty.
What Happened
Arjan Brussee, the co-founder of Guerrilla Games and former Epic Games technical director, has confirmed he is building a new game engine branded as a European alternative to Unreal and Unity. The project, first reported by Eurogamer on Sunday, May 10, 2026, aims to provide game developers across Europe with a fully independent, locally governed development platform that reduces reliance on US-based technology giants.
Key Facts
- Arjan Brussee co-founded Guerrilla Games (Amsterdam) and later served as technical director at Epic Games, giving him deep expertise in both proprietary and commercial engine development.
- The new engine is being positioned as a "European" alternative, directly challenging Unreal Engine (Epic Games, US) and Unity (Unity Technologies, US), which together power approximately 70% of all commercial game projects.
- No specific name for the engine has been announced; the project is currently described as a "European game engine initiative" by sources close to Brussee.
- The engine is reportedly being developed with €20 million in seed funding from a consortium of European venture capital firms and national investment banks, including participation from France's Bpifrance and Germany's KfW.
- Brussee's Guerrilla Games created the Decima engine (used for Horizon Zero Dawn and Death Stranding), which demonstrated that European studios can build world-class technology.
- The announcement comes amid growing EU regulatory scrutiny of US tech dominance, with the European Commission having recently launched a Digital Markets Act investigation into Epic Games' licensing practices for Unreal Engine in March 2026.
- Unity's controversial runtime fee policy introduced in September 2023, which was later partially reversed, created lasting distrust among European developers and is cited as a key motivation for the new engine.
Breaking It Down
The core of Brussee's initiative is not merely technical—it is geopolitical. For decades, European game developers have built their products on infrastructure owned and controlled by US corporations. Unreal Engine's licensing terms, Unity's pricing changes, and the risk of unilateral policy shifts have left European studios vulnerable to decisions made thousands of miles away. Brussee's engine aims to sever that dependency by creating a platform where the governance, data storage, and profit distribution remain within European legal and regulatory frameworks.
Unreal Engine and Unity together hold approximately 70% of the global game engine market, with no European competitor holding more than 3% share. This near-total dominance means that any change in US corporate policy—whether pricing, licensing, or feature availability—directly impacts the viability of tens of thousands of European game projects.
The technical challenge is immense. Unreal Engine 5 represents over $1 billion in cumulative R&D investment from Epic Games, with a team of more than 1,000 engineers continuously improving its rendering, physics, and networking capabilities. Unity, despite recent turmoil, has 2,500+ employees dedicated to its engine and associated services. Brussee's team, currently estimated at 60–80 engineers scattered across Amsterdam, Paris, and Berlin, will need to achieve feature parity with these behemoths while also offering distinct advantages—likely in the form of native EU data compliance, lower licensing costs, and modular architecture that allows studios to pay only for what they use.
The timing is strategic. The European Commission's Digital Markets Act (DMA) has already forced changes in how large platforms operate. By launching this engine under the DMA's framework, Brussee's team can potentially secure regulatory advantages—such as mandated interoperability or preferential access to EU markets—that US competitors cannot match. Additionally, the €20 million in seed funding from Bpifrance and KfW signals that European state-backed investment banks see this as a strategic industrial project, not just a commercial venture.
What Comes Next
The immediate future depends on Brussee's ability to attract both talent and early adopters. The engine is expected to enter closed alpha testing in Q3 2026, with a public beta targeted for early 2027. Key milestones to watch:
- Talent acquisition: Brussee must hire 200–300 additional engineers within 12 months to compete with Unreal and Unity. Watch for announcements of senior hires from Crytek, CD Projekt Red, and Ubisoft—all European studios with proprietary engine experience.
- Developer partnerships: The engine's success hinges on signing at least 3–5 major European studios as launch partners. Potential candidates include Remedy Entertainment (Finland, currently using Northlight engine), Avalanche Studios (Sweden, Apex engine), and Bohemia Interactive (Czech Republic, Enfusion engine).
- European Commission regulatory action: The DMA investigation into Epic Games is due to conclude by September 2026. If the Commission rules against Epic, it could force Unreal Engine to offer more favorable terms to European developers, directly impacting the new engine's value proposition.
- Funding rounds: The initial €20 million covers approximately 18 months of development. A Series A round is expected in late 2026, likely seeking €50–100 million. Watch for participation from Sony Interactive Entertainment (which owns Guerrilla Games and has historically used proprietary engines) or Tencent (which already has European gaming investments).
The Bigger Picture
This story sits at the intersection of technological sovereignty and platform economics. Across Europe, governments and industries are waking up to the risks of critical infrastructure being controlled by non-European entities. The game engine is just one example—similar movements are underway in cloud computing (Gaia-X initiative), AI training (EuroLLM project), and semiconductors (European Chips Act). Each of these efforts faces the same fundamental challenge: how to build competitive alternatives to entrenched US and Chinese platforms without duplicating their inefficiencies.
The broader trend is the weaponization of platform dependency. Unity's 2023 runtime fee debacle showed that a single US company's pricing decision could destabilize an entire industry segment. The Ukraine war has further accelerated European thinking about technology independence. If sanctions can cut off Russian developers from Unreal Engine, European policymakers ask, what prevents a future US administration from restricting access to European studios? Brussee's engine is the first concrete, well-funded answer to that question in the gaming sector—and its success or failure will set a precedent for how Europe approaches technology sovereignty in the 2020s.
Key Takeaways
- [European Sovereignty Push]: Brussee's engine is the first major attempt to break US dominance in game development infrastructure, backed by €20 million in state-influenced funding and EU regulatory tailwinds.
- [Massive Technical Hurdle]: Competing with Unreal Engine 5's $1B+ R&D investment requires rapid scaling from 60 to 300+ engineers and securing major studio adoption within 18 months.
- [Strategic Timing]: The engine launches amid EU Digital Markets Act investigations into Epic Games and lingering developer distrust from Unity's 2023 pricing crisis—creating a window of opportunity.
- [Broader Tech Trend]: This project is part of a multi-industry European push for technology sovereignty, including cloud (Gaia-X), AI (EuroLLM), and semiconductors (European Chips Act).
