Imagine the day DCUO looked and felt like Fortnite!

It is, in fact, fair to compare them because they're both competing for modern audiences of players.

DCUO is disadvantaged and no potential player is saying "oh hey this looks like a ps3 game and I want to play it"... or "I should give it a chance even though it's super old". That's not how gamers work. They're looking at character art (DCUO is good there), environments (ruh-oh) and VFX (ruh-oh). They're comparing how these games stack up against games made within the last couple years, and the 11yo game is at a disadvantage that can't be dismissed or ignored. But again, the Dev team here is excellent but there's only so much they can do with a graphics engine that began development in 2003 and was released in 2005 ish. Unreal3 is that old.

For all we know, the super-secret-project is a sequel based off Fortnite as a sandbox. Obviously WB has a relationship with their studio. So, anything is possible. An expansion based on it as a sandbox, that added character customization and new iconic character art would instantly overshadow this game unfortunately. Obviously this is just a random thought experiment though and not based on any news or information.

Possibly, but any such sweeping change might A) grow the player base...or B) kill the playerbase. In the end, graphics and customizations aside, DCUO is a role-playing mission and character based game and Fortnite is a shooter. Many of the playerbases don't overlap 100%

We don't really know, but it's fun to guess....as long as no one believes their guess has more merit than the others OR after guessing enough those musings somehow become 'facts'...facts we then get mad about not coming to light fast enough. This happens quite often here (and other places on the interwebs).

That all having been said, I don't believe the 'super secret' project is a new DCUO, based off Fortnite or anything else. I'd guess it's a whole new game...probably not using the DC IP.

Would love to see dcuo on a upgraded engine, I actually just loggwd back into fort recently because i got tired of wz, the graphics are amazing on ps5 id imagine they’re far better on pc.

I get it, moving the game to a new engine is hard, but does that mean we’re gonna have to run off these ps3 graphics until the end?Fort is killin it w character design of dc character, really like what they did w superman this season & deathstrokes model the season before.

I just don’t understand how they plan to keep dcuo around with no new powers, recycled missions, dimming style potential & a ps3 engine.theres alot going against dcuo as its nearly 11 years old now

I always say to myself though, I would take old graphics any day if the game's mechanic/gameplay is worthwhile. Fortnite is fun but annoying af lol.

Everquest and EQ2 say hi.

Massive graphical overhauls are the exception with MMOs, not the norm. DCUO being on so many platforms with different capabilities makes it even harder, as they've never played favorites with one platform over another. Doing so would likely increase the workload on the dev team. So the game looking the same on all platforms means it's never going to reach the full graphics potential it's always had.

When I say "using Fortnite as a sandbox" I'm using sandbox interchangeably with [development] "template". Meaning it's already an ingame world created for Unreal4 with updated graphics potential. The dev team would just have to replace and create new art assets and they're off and running. The differences in gameplay between Fortnite and an MMO, are not related to the Unreal engine--Fortnite could easily be given a narrative and role-playing missions if their Devs wanted to. They don't because that's the direction their Dev team doesn't want to take that game. So, a DCUO expansion using the architecture of Fortnite would still follow the same gameplay structure. It would just have updated visual potential and engine functionality.

Anyhow, like I said above, this is just a thought experiment for the sake of a conversation and I don't actually think that's what's happening. It's just another of many possibilities for the future of the game and is just as possible or impossible as anything else anyone has suggested over the last couple years.

If I were to put money behind a potential option for the future, it would be an official expansion based on Unreal5 as their project though (just not related to Fortnite). The DC comics license is valuable and it would be silly to not make the most of it, so I personally believe the secret project will at least be DC related. ...OR the game will just go into a custodianship phase. I believe those are the 2 most likely futures for this game. But that is of course just fun speculation and I have no solid information to base it on.

What exactly do you mean by this?

Also, do you want to stop playing DCUO for 2-3 years at minimum while they work on taking this game to a new Engine? In order to even have a chance at having a fully upgraded game on that short turnaround they'd have to stop producing new content or maintaining this game.

There's no game right now that is grabbing my attention that could keep me ok with a total abstinence from this game for more than a month, let alone years. The closest thing I ever had was the Gears of Wars series, and when I discovered DCUO back in 2012, I kissed GoW goodbye. I've played a few games here and there (mostly the InFamous series), but i've been hardcore on DCUO for 9+ years with no breaks.

There are no other Superhero MMOs for consoles, and the only PC option, Champions Online looks way more dated than DCUO. In fact, that PC only game still looks the same as it did back when it came out (2009) and we're in 2021. The only thing CO has going for it is their character customization options...and that's not enough by itself. All these comparisons to other games completely ignores the Superhero MMO aspect as if that didn't matter. That's a huge mistake, and is a part of why no other "superior looking" game over the past 10 years has done anything to kill this game (though it hasn't stopped a single person from making that failed prediction every month for the past 10 years).

I'm not saying that this game is above a graphical update, or that it doesn't need several dozen things to improve it, but people need to temper their expectations when it comes to the look and style of this game. It is far from as terrible as people are making it out to be, and it is not as simple as people think it is to upgrade this either.

Thats a point that seems to be lost on a lot of people when they stretch to compare other more modern games to DCUO.

They would like to have people believe for example that a new Ratchet and Clank game developed in now actually poses a threat to DCUO when in reality it simply doesn't.

The reason they errantly assert that is because they feel like it might put pressure on the developers to undertake an engine upgrade or graphical update, when in reality it simply doesn't.

Much like you I'm not saying DCUO couldn't use a graphical update, but let's be real here it's just not that likely, certainly not in the immediate short term, apart from a few ps5 tweaks.

1. DCUO has a monopoly on the super hero MMO genre, there are no other games featuring DC universe or comparatively its Marvel competitor that offers the player a final fantasy-esque, build your own character MMO dungeon experience, it's just not there.

2. A modern game even on PS5 on an entirely different IP doesn't replicate the experience a DCUO player is seeking, therefore the player isn't going to replace DCUO with Ratchet and Clank.

For those reasons even if the graphics are incredibly dated, the more modern games pose no threat to DCUO because the devs and players know (well seemingly not all players) that when they want their super hero MMO fix they're always, always going to return to DCUO.

To be clear too I know theres a few super hero multiplayer games out there, but they're not the same MMO experience, a player, playing DCUO is playing to create their own character and experience not play as Thor while someone else plays as Hulk.

Fortnite for that exact reason is also not an equal conparison to DCUO, they're not even the same genre and other than having the license to use DC IP aren't even appealing to the same audience desire.

Can you imagine being teabagged by a Ritalin deficient 12 year old dressed up as Batman with the name BatmanXX33tm

Genuine lol

Typically separate distinct depts handle these things. For example the character art team doesn't build missions or artifacts. Engineering or whatever team DI would tap for an engine update wouldn't be the same people building new missions and artifacts -- so an overhaul like this wouldn't bring new content releases to a grinding halt. Engineering would create a build of the new engine with all the existing systems and bugsquash that build while everyone else works on the original build creating new content for players and keeping a normal production schedule. Once the updated build is stable they would start applying new content to it to see how it shakes out and squash anything that comes up there; all this is done internally. None of this would effect the original build of the game and what players are using until they were reasonably sure it was all stable and any issues could be relatively easily resolved. Things will always come up; it's never just as easy as 1,2,3 but most of that would be dealt with without any of us knowing.

The environment and VFX teams would probably be most impacted by an overhaul like what people are asking for and environment building is substantially streamlined in U5 so once the learning curve is broken through that team would be able to create environments exponentially faster than they do in the current pipeline. Also, if they were doing something like a graphics overhaul etc as proposed by the community, it's probably something they've been working on concurrently while producing content already, for at least the past year.

I agree DCUO needs facelift? Absolutely.

But it needs more than that. I dont bother so much about that, I think the game has a nice art and it looks good for a 10+ yo game.
I think new exciting content, iconic habilities, new habilities and a revamp of gameplay mechanics are long overdue.

They need to do something to engage people again, the last episodes are not enough for some people like me. The game right now its boring, I've been playing since beta, I need new toys to play around.

I love hairstyles, styles and customization but if you are not having fun or not engage with the content, all visuals are pointless.

This is true. It absolutely needs a facelift to keep up with appearances from a marketing perspective. BUT to your point, if it doesn't also add meaningful content additions like powers, movement modes, game systems, and so on... the facelift won't mean anything and won't be nearly enough (and even a waste).

Fortnite's style is not meant to mimic realism, but cartoony.

Saying that, is still looks more realistic or polished than DCUO, which were aiming for a more realistic look. It just shows how dated this game has become. And I really dislike you all for making me say nice stuff about Fortnite.....lol

Well it helps that Fortnite was written by the same people who wrote the game engine. Other games as old as DCUO have updated their engines. Star Trek Online (home of the character sliders) did a pretty big engine update a couple of years ago, and Warframe (Pathos 'R Us) just finished a big update. Both of them use home-grown engines, though, so they have the expertise in house.

DCUO's aesthetic borrows HEAVILY from the art style of Jim Lee. Hyper-detailed at times? Yes. Realistic? Well, one look at his usual depictions of the female form will pretty much remove "realistic" from the conversation. LOL

RuneScape is a example of change in graphics.

RuneScape Classic:



RuneScape OldSchool:



RuneScape 3:



It just a matter of the Team wanting it and planning.

What if they took the servers down for 2-3 months and put us on a new engine.. man i bet thatd breathe some new life into the game

If DCUO looked like Fortnite, meaning generically similar with very little character customization, I would be quite disappointed.

If it FELT like Fortnite, I wouldn't play it.

Because, I mean, if I enjoyed Fortnite more than DCUO, I'd probably play Fortnite. Which I don't do, since it's not as much fun as DCUO.

Putting in a new engine for the game would probably take more than 2-3 months, especially since we're talking about more platforms for the game and about 10 years worth of content at this point.

Also, the last time the game went down for a period anywhere near that amount of time, it took a bit of time before life started coming back into the game. That forced downtime probably came closer to shutting down the game than anything else, and I don't see the devs risking that again.