Square Enix signs Unreal Engine 3 for "multiple" unannounced games

By Wesley Yin-Poole Published 17 November, 2011

Square Enix Japan does deal with Gears of War maker.

Final Fantasy maker Square Enix has signed Epic's Unreal Engine 3 to make multiple unannounced games.

Square Enix signed on the bottom line after meeting with Epic Games Japan, the Gears of War developer's Japanese branch.

It is unclear which games this deal relates to, but quotes from Taka Kawasaki, territory manager of Epic Games Japan, suggest Square Enix Japan will make use of the tech.

"Many Western games have achieved great success with the Unreal Engine, and this milestone reflects the Japanese development community's trust in our technical prowess," he said.

"We can't wait to see how Square Enix fuses the power of Unreal Engine 3 with its beautiful characters, enthralling storylines and fantastic gameplay."

Square Enix Japan creates the Final Fantasy, Dragon Quest and Kingdom Hearts games.

Its studios in the West make Tomb Raider, Hitman, Kane & Lynch, Deus Ex, Thief and Legacy of Kain.

Hitman maker IO Interactive uses the new Glacier 2.0 engine, which is next-gen ready. Crystal Dynamics' CDC Engine is used for the upcoming Tomb Raider.

Details about the games using the Unreal Engine under this license agreement will be revealed by Square Enix, Epic said.

Square Enix Japan recently announced its next generation engine, Luminous Studio. Luminous Studio is said to be similar to Unreal Engine, and is DirectX 11 ready in anticipation of the transition to the next generation of consoles.

The deal with Epic suggests Unreal Engine 3 will be used in the short term by Square Enix.

Square Enix has form with Unreal. It used the tech to make role-playing game The Last Remnant in 2008.

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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 (21) Latest comment 6 months ago

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  • MattEdWithCheese #1 6 months ago

    Possibly a decent fit for FF Type-1, I thought it worked quite well with the art of Lost Odyssey. I doubt it will have the technical issues The Last Remnant had.

  • evild_edd #2 6 months ago

    Interesting. This news falls just a day after the report that FFXV could be more action oriented. Could we be blasting Chocobos with a cover-based shooter mechanic in future.....?

  • loopy #3 6 months ago

    Now I'm wondering if the new Thief game will be made in the same engine as DE:HR (CDC engine I believe) or in the new Unreal engine?

    If they decide to go with Unreal tech, then I at least hope they'll make the levels a bit more open-ended than was managed in the last Thief game (Deadly Shadows) on the Unreal 2 engine.
    Edited by loopy at 17/11/11 @ 15:03

  • -cerberus- #4 6 months ago

    Kane & Lynch 3.

  • Yeoung #5 6 months ago

    So this got me thinking, would japanese games appeal more to western audiences if they're built on a western engine? Would the statement "created with U3 engine" featured prominently on the box cover inspire people to rush the stores looking to get in on that? Does the japanese gaming industry sincerely think it'll catch up to the western developers by simply using a western toolset? Isn't the U3 engine a bit of a bad fit considering the SE catalog and U3's heavy emphasis on gameplay element versatility rather than a top notch renderer? Such as the one SE already has in their own engine?

    So many questions..

  • Cappy #6 6 months ago

    Great, so now they can 'improve' their games with lots of tearing.

  • GamesConnoisseur #7 6 months ago

    Final Fantasy XV: The Dirge of the Locusts

    Obviously we all ll harp on Gears/Actionisfaction of the RPG, the game engine is still just an engine, a blank tapestry for the artists to create game with.

    Square had said they are following the trend for more actions in the game, so let us hope there ll be publisher who ll provide the much lamented deep RPG games wether JRPG or WRPG. Planescape Torment, Chrono Cross (playing on my US acct set PSP) or others like them. And more importantly, for those games to sell in bucket loads and get Square and others back on track.

    If they don't sell, then it's would be all down to Joe Public innit?

  • King_Edward #8 6 months ago

    Great news. There games play like vomit, now they'll look like it too.

  • TheGuvernor #9 6 months ago

    Good, 'cos lets be honest, Deus Ex really did look like crap.

  • oceanmotion #10 6 months ago

    Oh well, that's them locked in Unreal land for the next decade. Someone please come out with a better engine next gen rather than one that does tiny levels with pretty textures with no interaction.

  • patchbox360 #11 6 months ago

    @King_Edward

    so i take it you hate Mass effect, Bioshock, Gears and Batman

  • Yeoung #12 6 months ago

    @TheGuvernor Art direction, atmosphere, rich varied textures, great lighting effects en dynamic environmental particle effects notwithstanding, I assume?

    Then also discard the fact that it was developed by Eidos Montreal and you have an actual valid non-argument. Congratulations.

  • God_Octo #13 6 months ago

    Yay? It might mean that it doesn't take 5 years for SE to put out a game, but Unreal doesn't run exactly brilliantly on the PS3, which is gonna be a shame.

  • epiazk #14 6 months ago

    Post deleted at 09:51:13 12-12-2011

  • jackdoe #15 6 months ago

    I'm surprised they're going back to UE3 after the clusterf*ck that was Last Remnant, their last UE3 powered game. Ran like crap on the Xbox 360 and ran so badly on the PS3 that they canned it completely.

  • azix2 #16 6 months ago

    I still hate how that stupid engine makes games look. Wtf is with the obsession with it? Are people blind?

  • Kaminari #17 6 months ago

    Expect crappy PS3 ports of crappy JRPGs anytime soon.

  • TheBrotha #18 6 months ago

    He mentioned Legacy of Kain. It's probably nothing but I'm hoping that it's a sign that something may be coming from that series.

  • Pwnsweet #19 6 months ago

    This can only be a bad thing. What's wrong with the Crystal Tools engine?

  • Jon1292 #20 6 months ago

    They better not try and make a damned RPG with the unreal engine again.

    The Last Remnant pretty much highlighted everything that is wrong with the engine.

    Appalling scene to scene load times, awful texture pop-ins, terrible field of view, persistent slowdowns when there's multiple effects, horrible movie editing features, terrible animation load rates and very iffy physics.

    Now I'm not saying its a bad engine, because FPS's don't need any of these features, the zones are far more enclosed and don't require fast scene switching, but its just not built for PRGs.

    And it's not just SE being incompetent with the engine, because Lost Odyssey was exactly the same (albeit the load times were actually bearable)


    That said, these days SE is one hell of a big company, so who knows what game it could be for, it just better not be an RPG...

  • Kami #21 6 months ago

    Sadly, middleware options really are cutting out a lot of the groundwork. And, as much as people want to go "LALALAIAMNOTLISTENING!" about it, it's also meaning people are losing their jobs. It's just one of those unspoken dark realisations, like when a cashier thinks you gave her a twenty instead of a ten, and you never see her on the till again. The assumption is there, but because it was such a pleasant surprise you don't assume the worst. You just can't bear to think someone would pay for it with their jobs.

    I assume, considering the troubles at SE of late, this is more of a financial thing than a technical. Which means it's likely sooner or later we'll see some other big news about jobs/layoffs at SE or periphery studios.

    Sad. but I think SE will try and use it for as much as they can... RPGs included. And that makes me... rather sad, actually...