Epic: NGP perfect for Gears-style game

By Wesley Yin-Poole Published 28 January, 2011

Is "in the same class as PlayStation 3".

Is the Next Generation Portable capable of running a blockbuster third-person shooter such as Gears of War 3? According to creator Epic, a Gears of War style "experience" would be "appropriate" for Sony's shiny new handheld.

Sony unveiled the PSP successor, which features two thumb sticks, at a Tokyo press conference yesterday.

Speaking to Eurogamer following the unveiling, vice president of Epic Games Mark Rein emphasised the NGP's graphical power.

"This is the kind of machine that a Gears of War-style experience would be appropriate on because it has the control layout that games like that are designed for and can produce some pretty compelling visuals," he said.

"Activision announced Call of Duty for the device so of course a Gears-style game would also be appropriate."

Much has been made of the NGP's graphical horsepower, with some insisting it is capable of producing PlayStation 3 quality visuals.

When asked for his honest assessment of this claim, Rein replied: "This device is certainly in the same class as PlayStation 3. With Unreal Engine 3, we're able to produce some pretty spectacular visuals on this device already, and we're just getting started."

During Sony's press conference Epic founder Tim Sweeney took to the stage to confirm Unreal Engine 3 support for NGP and showed the Epic Citadel iOS tech demo running on the new handheld.

"This is made possible by Sony's multi-core GPU, which is roughly 4x as powerful as any portable we've previously seen," he said.

Sweeney went on to introduce a demo of Trendy Entertainment's UE3-powered Dungeon Defenders, a PC, PSN and XBLA game. Converting from PS3 took a week, apparently.

Rein went into more detail on the game, and confirmed that PS3/NGP cross-platform play is possible.

"Dungeon Defenders is essentially a PS3 game brought to NGP," he said. "At CES this year, Trendy showed Dungeon Defenders on a Tegra 2 mobile device playing multiplayer against a PlayStation 3. Trendy told me they're planning to have NGP players playing against PS3 players. So this part is already a reality.

"All they need to add is the ability to save your status in the cloud so you can pick up and play on another device and they're done. That's not a hard problem to solve and I suspect Sony will offer a good solution for that via PSN at some point."

But what of Epic itself? Does it plan to develop NGP games?

"Right now we're concentrating on Unreal Engine 3 and we're very excited with the results," said Rein. "Multiple UE3 licensees tells us they're building games they plan to ship on NGP and I suspect we'll hear more about that throughout the year."

Summing up his feelings about the device, Rein was unable to single out his favourite NGP feature.

"This is a bit of a cop-out but I'd say it's the complete package; multiple control methods, great screen, an OS that gives you low-level access to the hardware, great processing power on both CPU and GPU, GPS, 3G, dual cameras – all this on a high-end portable gaming device. There's a lot to like there."

Sony is expected to begin rolling out the NGP from late 2011.

Picture of Wesley.

About Wesley Yin-Poole

Wesley is Eurogamer's news editor. He likes news, interviews, and more news. He also likes Street Fighter more than anyone can get him to shut up about it.

Read more articles from Wesley by visiting the Wesley Yin-Poole archive page.

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Comments (33) Latest comment 1 year ago

Comments for this article are now closed, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • djed #1 1 year ago

    Never was a Gears of War on PS3.

  • customfirmware #2 1 year ago

    Until you reveal a game for it please shut the hell up.
    Talk is cheap.

  • SHPanda #3 1 year ago

    Cue people reading into comments too much and thinking Gears of War will actually be coming to PSP in some form.

  • the_merchant #4 1 year ago

    I seriously doubt Gears would ever make it to the NGP...Perhaps a new IP 3rd person shooter from Epic then?

  • asphaltcowboy #5 1 year ago

    When asked for his honest assessment of this claim, Rein replied: "This device is certainly in the same class as PlayStation 3."

    Yeah but it's not though, is it?

  • actionfitz #6 1 year ago

    "Is "in the same class as PlayStation 3"

    and probably the same price range... ^^

  • Trigga_Tybalt #7 1 year ago

    Post deleted at 15:43:01 23-02-2012

  • Freek #8 1 year ago

    Remember how much fun it was to play ports of PS2 titles back when the PSP1 launched?

  • ISmoke #9 1 year ago

    Cogs of Conflict / Apparatus of Struggle.

    Launch games on the NGP. You heard it hear first.
    I joke, i joke.

  • jag10 #10 1 year ago

    gears of war portable.

  • Monkey_Puncher #11 1 year ago

    I don't really get this. Surely the Iphone and DS success points to the fact that people really don't want full console experience on portable devices?

  • jonbwfc #12 1 year ago

    @asphaltcowboy
    Coded for one then have you?

  • kangarootoo #13 1 year ago

    "Trendy told me they're planning to have NGP players playing against PS3 players. So this part is already a reality."

    Cool. My first thought was a client that can put NGP and PS3 players in the same game. Play an online shooter at home, or away, using the same ID and stats and so on. Imagine playing something like Monster Hunter with your friends, regardless of whether you are sat at your PS3 or on a wifi equipped train somewhere. Not sure how big the market would be for that, but I like the idea all the same :)

  • asphaltcowboy #14 1 year ago

    @jonbwfc If they are equivalent (power-wise), why is the PS3 Slim even half the size it is now?

  • NotSoSlim #15 1 year ago

    Sony may have a hit on its hands, just needs good pricing as the devs seem to love how easy it is to port.

    So you may see PS3 n NGP game bundles...tho people will still moan

  • HarryB #16 1 year ago

    they shouldnt mix ngp and ps3 for things like fps online, ngp players would be rich pickings

  • Freek #17 1 year ago

    They always say "it's as powerfull as: insert hip thing here". The key there is that it's always an opinionated statement, not an actual tech fact.
    The screen is smaller, the resolution is lower so you can kind of get close to a ps3/Xbox 360 like graphic fidality without having as much polygons and high res textures.
    That kind of technology is already up and running on the iPad with Infinity Blade. NGP will be something similar.

  • Tinrib72 #18 1 year ago

    @Monkey-puncher. Yes they do, your wrong. Maybe not as many, but they do.

  • Dizzy #19 1 year ago

    How many times do people have to tell you... mobile gaming is NOT about power (unless it is battery power).

  • xypha09 #20 1 year ago

    Well I can't speak for everyone, but I would love the console experience on a handheld. It's just that no portable has been able to provide it, especially with psp only having one analogue stick (more like nub).

    I've never been as engaged on a portable as I am on a console. Hopefully ngb should be able to bridge that gap and provide that experience away from my ps3 and 360.

  • MJHaylett #21 1 year ago

    I really really hope that Sony don't price themselves out of the new handheld market with the NGP. I get the feeling they will though as the codename has 'Next Gen' in it and that to Sony means - Hey you will get another job to pay for it - just like the launch price of the PS3. Oh and who can forget the launch price of the PSPGo? I am more into this device than the older PSP's as it looks like a beast with good controls finally but well price is the main concern. Battery life not so much - I am a grown man who plays games indoors not a 12 year old at school.

  • Stop-gap #22 1 year ago

    @jonbwfc If they are equivalent (power-wise), why is the PS3 Slim even half the size it is now?

    several reasons:
    blu-ray drive, power transformer, HDD, but most importantly because it's only meant to display to that small screen. When they say it's the same class as the PS3, more truthfully they mean "NGP is as powerful as it needs to be to play a game the same(ish) quality as a PS3 game if you shrunk it down to the size of the NGP's sreen". :p

    edit - so no, it's technically nothing like as powerful as a PS3.
    Edited by Stop-gap at 28/01/11 @ 17:27

  • asphaltcowboy #23 1 year ago

    Well said Stop-gap :)

  • SeesThroughAll #24 1 year ago

    Remember how much fun it was to play ports of PS2 titles back when the PSP1 launched?

    Yes, I do. I remember wishing there was a second stick.

  • NotSoSlim #25 1 year ago

    Sony are clearly going to have one model near 3ds price so it can be competitive. Looking forward to this and yes console experiences on move suits me, but give me over fro PS3 and I will be all over this.

  • MadCaddy13 #26 1 year ago

    Cant wait!!!

  • Widge #27 1 year ago

    Epic make a game engine that they want on as many platforms as possible.

  • azix2 #28 1 year ago

    epic games needs to just gtfo. hate the unreal engine and their games... are for idiots.

  • Zaiz #29 1 year ago

    I'm stuck seeing NGP as Neo Geo Pocket because someone said that's what they thought.

  • mr2ange #30 1 year ago

    @Monkey-Puncher: "I don't really get this. Surely the Iphone and DS success points to the fact that people really don't want full console experience on portable devices?"

    The other 60+ Million people would tell you otherwise.

    Some of us like to play games that require precise controls and aren't either 5 minute long games or the 150th version of mario.

    At least there is now an OPTION to have a console experience on a handheld. which no other company is doing.

  • des #31 1 year ago

    Yeah 60 million people that don't give a shit about games,sales charts are like wasteland for like 3+years...just like was this website and forum on anything PSP related until few days ago

    powerful as PS3?...so now PS3 is weak,make up your mind
    This device is nowhere close to HD consoles,it's just a powerful handheld but that will also evaporate in a year or two

    With that said,Gears of War portable,bring it on,will play...if it's not a port


    Edited by des at 28/01/11 @ 21:44

  • VibratingDonkey #32 1 year ago

    Offputting. They should do fresh, actual interesting stuff built around the unique capabilities of the platform, not port over these boring ass third person shooters we've been playing on consoles for the last five years.

    You can do it, but you shouldn't. Hope publishers realize this.

  • Flooq #33 1 year ago

    "Epic were never this interested like this for the PS3."

    PS3 has the unusual cell processor to deal with and the dev tools were apparently not very good in the beginning so it was a big commitment to work on the PS3 from the start. NGP is different, it uses the much more standard ARM architecture which they're already working with (for iOS / Android). In other words this doesn't require as much of an investment so they might as well get behind the hype and see how it goes.