Arjan Brussee, co-founder of Guerrilla Games and a veteran of Epic Games, has announced he is developing a new graphics engine named The Immense Engine. This engine is positioned as a European alternative to dominant market engines like Unreal Engine and Unity. The announcement, made on the Dutch podcast De Technoloog, highlights Brussee’s belief that a truly “European-hosted, European-built engine, compliant with European rules and guidelines” is currently missing.
The Immense Engine’s ambition extends beyond just video games. Brussee envisions it as an infrastructure for creating 3D worlds applicable to a wider range of sectors, including defense, logistics, and industrial simulation. This suggests a strategic aim to provide sovereign, European 3D technology aligned with the European Union’s regulatory framework, rather than solely competing in the traditional video game development space.
The Immense Engine Could Disrupt the Unreal Engine and Unity Monopoly
For context, Arjan Brussee was a programmer for the early Jazz Jackrabbit games and co-founded Guerrilla Games in 2003. This studio is renowned for franchises like Killzone, Horizon Zero Dawn, and Death Stranding. His resume also includes over eight years at Epic Games, where he directed product development for Unreal Engine. His extensive experience gives him unique insight into both AAA studio development and the evolution of a leading graphics engine.
A key differentiator for The Immense Engine is deep artificial intelligence integration. Brussee argues that current engines like Unreal were designed for traditional workflows, relying on interfaces, menus, visual editors, and broad system-wide changes. His vision is to build an engine on new creation principles, where AI agents can significantly boost the productivity of smaller teams. He proposes that a robust agent system could enable a single person or a small team to achieve the output of ten to fifteen individuals.
The timing of this announcement is particularly relevant. Unreal Engine remains a benchmark for AAA games, virtual production, film, architecture, and simulation. Epic Games continues to offer a 5% royalty model on gross revenue exceeding $1 million for products using the engine at runtime, which is a significant draw. Meanwhile, Unity faced considerable reputational damage with its controversial “runtime fee,” which was ultimately rescinded due to strong community backlash. This erosion of trust creates an opening for new players to distinguish themselves not only through technology but also through governance, commercial stability, and sovereignty.
Unity’s Crisis Boosted the Popularity of Other Engines Like Godot, Which is European
Godot’s usage surged following Unity’s crisis. It’s a free and open-source engine supported financially by the Godot Foundation, a non-profit organization registered in the Netherlands. However, Godot is a global, community-driven, open-source project, not necessarily an engine “built by Europeans, hosted in Europe, and explicitly oriented towards European regulatory compliance” in the strategic, business sense Brussee appears to be pursuing.
Currently, The Immense Engine is more a statement of intent than an evaluable product. Details regarding its release date, business model, technical architecture, platform compatibility, editing tools, renderer, asset pipeline, scripting system, or support for external studios have not been disclosed. It remains unclear whether it will be a closed commercial engine, a SaaS platform, a hybrid product, or an infrastructure geared towards public and industrial sectors. The central question is whether Brussee aims to directly compete with Unreal Engine and Unity in the gaming market, or if he will leverage the gaming sector as a starting point for a broader sovereign 3D simulation business.
Regardless, the core message is clear: The Immense Engine is founded on three key principles. First, European technological sovereignty. Second, regulatory compliance and hosting within Europe. Third, AI integrated from the ground up, not as a superficial addition. It’s conceivable that Guerrilla Games could be among the first to adopt it, generating buzz and attracting attention from other studios and companies.
