EA extends Unreal Engine partnership

By Robert Purchese Published 8 April, 2008

Likes it, wants more.

Electronic Arts has decided to extend its Unreal Engine 3 licence so it can use it to build more games.

The Epic-developed technology will feature in plenty of titles going forward, including five that EA is currently working on - although no one is telling us what they are.

"Epic is committed to providing EA with the premier development infrastructure, tools and technology for its upcoming games," said Mark Rein, loudest at Epic Games.

"We're extremely excited that EA has chosen to expand their use of Unreal Engine 3 and we can't wait to see more of the great games they will produce with it."

Unreal Engine 3 was the horsepower underneath Medal of Honor Airborne and Army of Two, and has been the foundation for around 74 games to date - just off the top of our Wikipedia.

The much-licensed engine has undergone many improvements, too, and these were demonstrated at the Game Developers Conference in February.

We asked Mark Rein how much an Unreal Engine 3 license costs at GDC and he asked us how much we got paid.

Which is heavier, Eurogamer reader?

Picture of Robert.

About Robert Purchese

Bertie is Eurogamer's Senior Staff Writer. When he's not hunting down news stories he's often found playing with his kids or gabbling about fantasy games and strange online worlds.

Read more articles from Robert by visiting the Robert Purchese archive page.

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Comments (16) Latest comment 4 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • dsmx #1 4 years ago

    So we have to endure another medal of honour with yet more plastic troops?

  • DUFFKING #2 4 years ago

    Epic should double the price of the Engine for them too.

  • Les #3 4 years ago

    Please no.... Am I the only one that truely hates the look that engine generates?

    *sighs*

  • Triggerhappytel #4 4 years ago

    Les - another one right here. Some games manage to generate a good art style and look okay (alright, one game - Shiobock), but most games just look ugly and bland and have a horrible, horrible grey art style.

  • DUFFKING #5 4 years ago

    Not the engines fault. I've played around with the engine a fair bit and really it can do anything, it's just devs choosing to copy what's been done. UE3 can definately produce stunning, non gritty, non gears style stuff, but since Epic took the route with the engine most developers seem dedicated to ripping it of, rather than spending time with the engine and doing something unique like the Bioshock team did.
    Edited by 1 at 08/04/08 @ 15:23

  • JohnnyWashnGo #6 4 years ago

    Any reason why this article is on the RSS feed twice?

  • lambtron #7 4 years ago

    "Les - another one right here. Some games manage to generate a good art style and look okay (alright, one game - Shiobock), but most games just look ugly and bland and have a horrible, horrible grey art style."

    To be fair - that's a pretty common thing with Current-Gen games regardless of whether they are Unreal driven or not.

    Either that or Nuclear Bloom.

  • Darren #8 4 years ago

    @Les & Triggerhappytel - I don't like the look of many UE3-based games either, mainly because they're synonymous with texture pop in, tearing, lack of anti-aliasing and framerate issues, e.g. Lost Odyssey and Mass Effect, and there's a tendency for some games that use it to look incredibly bland and samey, e.g. Turok, Blacksite: Area 51 and Hour of Victory, etc. The only two UE3 games that have really impressed me graphically have been Gears of War and Unreal Tournament III, ironically both from Epic! LOL

    Dunno whether the engine is really suited to the consoles really, especially the Xbox 360 where it's lack of a standard HDD must surely be a hindrance. Take a look at Lost Odyssey and watch how it judders and jerks as it loads data during the pre-battle cutscene and even in the ingame cinematics. I'm not sure all the issues are down to poor development myself, I believe it's an engine that runs better with lots of physical memory which makes it better suited to the PC IMO.

    P.S. Was BioShock an UE3 game 'cos that was a gorgeous-looking game despite the texture pop in issues?

  • Nithron #9 4 years ago

    I personally thought Unreal Tournament 3 looked bloody excellent. But then that's just me, and I was playing it on PC, not on PS3.

  • MENTAL1ST Verified Senior Software Engineer, Picsel UK Ltd. #10 4 years ago

    Shiobock

    A pint of that, please!

  • gallow #11 4 years ago

    I rather I saw a lot less games using the Unreal Engine 3 as they are all starting to look the same.
    Edited by 1 at 08/04/08 @ 23:57

  • Yaz #12 4 years ago

    Darren wrote: "P.S. Was BioShock an UE3 game 'cos that was a gorgeous-looking game despite the texture pop in issues?"

    Yep.

    http://ww w.joystiq.com/2007/08/29/biosho...

  • JonFE #13 4 years ago

    Why don't they buy Epic instead?

  • Darren #14 4 years ago

    Thanks for the confirmation, Yaz. I guess it shows that in the hands of the right developers, great-looking games *are* possible with the UE3. :)

  • Xerx3s #15 4 years ago

    They might as well attempt to buy ms or blizzard.

  • Triggerhappytel #16 4 years ago

    "Why don't they buy Epic instead?"

    Shhh! Don't give them any ideas...

    Anyway, if this was on the table I'd suggest MS would step in to defend one of their greatest and most profitable partnerships, although since they didn't do so with BioWare I wouldn't bet on it.