Before they were known for developing Dune Awakening, Funcom were perhaps most familiar for their work on Conan Exiles – an open-world multiplayer survival crafter set in the Conan the Barbarian universe. With the title soon set to hit its 8th anniversary on the market, the team at Funcom have announced a surprise free update coming to the game next month, upgrading the title to Unreal Engine 5.

Making the surprise announcement, the team at Funcom officially unveiled Conan Exiles Enhanced, writing: “We’re excited to announce Conan Exiles Enhanced — a free, massive visual overhaul of Conan Exiles launching on the game’s 8th anniversary, May 5th.”

While sentiment surrounding UE5 is far from stellar, Funcom claims that this upgrade will not only boost the game’s visuals, but should allow for smooth performance, adding: “With the advanced capabilities of Unreal Engine 5, Conan Exiles Enhanced targets smooth 60+ FPS gameplay across Low, Medium, High, and Ultra settings on most PCs, while also delivering strong performance on Steam Deck.”

Of course, Funcom at this point do have experience working with Unreal Engine 5 and so hopefully this upgrade does prove to be well optimised.

Beyond visuals, the free update will also introduce a number of welcome additions, including the unification of the Exiled Lands and the Isle of Siptah; the ability to have multiple characters per-account and a “revamped” UI.

Unfortunately, as of right now this Enhanced Edition is only coming to the Steam version of the game, meaning console users and even those who own the title via the likes of the Epic Games Store are being left out.

That said, the team did claim that they “are not ruling out a future release on those platforms” so we will have to wait and see. Full details on the upgrade, including a comprehensive FAQ, can be found HERE.

KitGuru says: What do you think of this upgrade? Why do you think only Steam users are getting the update? Let us know down below.

For years now, Epic Games and Disney have had a close working relationship. Unreal Engine has been used for Disney Park attractions and film productions, while Disney has also leveraged Fortnite to promote its treasure trove of IP. It is now being claimed that Disney executives are waiting for their opportunity to swoop in and buy Epic Games outright. 

At this point, Disney and Epic Games just have a partnership. One that has seen Disney invest $1.5B in Epic Games for future content, including a new Disney experience built inside Fortnite. According to tech journalist Alex Heath, since signing that deal, a number of Disney executives have been mulling over acquiring all of Epic Games.

Speaking in a podcast appearance, Heath said that he knows “for a fact there are senior executives in Disney who want them to buy Epic and are just waiting for the right moment”. The podcast host, Matt Belloni, added that new Disney CEO, Josh D'Amaro, has also been particularly keen on Disney's continued partnership with Epic Games and prefers investments like that over Disney's now cancelled $1 billion deal with OpenAI.

Right now, Epic Games is still primarily controlled by Tim Sweeney, who founded the company decades ago. As the founder, Sweeney also has the controlling vote, so any potential sale of Epic Games would need to be approved by him.

KitGuru Says: Disney has owned some talented game development studios during its time but has rarely known what to do with them once set up, leading to numerous closures and cancellations. I wouldn't expect that to change with the acquisition of Epic Games.