Epic Games plans to open an office in Detroit, but it won't be making games there. Instead, the studio behind Fortnite plans to market its Unreal Engine to the the US automotive industry.
According to a report by Crain's Detroit Business, Epic aims to hire up to 15 expert support staff for its Detroit office, which it hopes to have running by the end of the year. From there, it will work with automakers on applying Unreal technology to their design and marketing processes.
Companies like Ford have already adopted the tech in parts of their business. Ford, for instance, used Unreal and VR to debut its 2020 Explorer model in a relatively small space at the New York International Auto Show in Manhattan.
Crain's also points out that Audi uses Unreal for interactive displays in 1,000 of its dealerships worldwide for customers to use to configure their ideal rides.
There are any number of possible applications for Unreal in the auto industry, and Epic apparently is planning on finding as many as possible. It's a little, well, surreal to imagine it all started with a game about aliens with Wolverine claws on their wrists.
