Unreal Engine 4 "years away", says Rein News
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Robert Purchese
Epic Games has told Eurogamer it plans to release Unreal Engine 4 alongside the next generation of hardware.
"It's just a research project today," Mark Rein, boss of Epic, told us. "Our plan is that it will be aimed at the next generation so it is many years away."
Epic technology boffin Tim Sweeney has previously said development proper will not begin until later this year. The fourth version of its engine will exclusively target new consoles, and then PCs.
Gears of War was responsible for bringing widespread acclaim to Unreal Engine 3, which has since been used to power games such as BioShock and Mass Effect.
It is now licensed by nearly all the major publishers for their games, as creation cycles and costs increase, forcing developers to look for third-party solutions. Mark Rein would not be pushed on discussing pricing in any way, shape or form.
But not all have been bowled over by UE3. Silicon Knights famously sought legal compensation after it claimed losing considerable time developing Too Human as it had to make numerous modifications to the engine; it claimed Epic was too busy making its own games to help.
However, this was far from a one-sided argument.
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Comments: 1-10 of 10 in total
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BadBoyBonner
09/04/08 @ 09:20
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While no argument has only one side by definition, Epic failed to deliver contractually bound features and failed to deliver even the cut down version on time.
A cynic may take the view that they over promised and under delivered to tie up the developers into contracts and a delivery pipeline it would be very expensive to move away from - ensuring continued support from the developers, albeit under duress. Hopefully the difficulties will ensure that the market takes an active interest in the alternatives (Cryengine 2, Rage etc.) resulting in games that don't all look the same (and use anti-aliasing;-). |
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Silicon Knights had/have a valid point. At one point it was starting to get to a point where Epic simply sold you the engine, pointed you to the forums and took your money. A lot of games companies who bought it were starting to get pissed off.
Luckily Epic seem to have realised that pissing off your core customers (each license costs an extortionate amount) was a bad business plan. Suddenly we got a flood of engine improvements that were first seen in gears. |
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"Luckily Epic seem to have realised that pissing off your core customers (each license costs an extortionate amount) was a bad business plan. Suddenly we got a flood of engine improvements that were first seen in gears. "
Indeed... that Silicon Knight lawsuit has really pushed them to be a lot more license friendly. |
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LosCapitan
09/04/08 @ 11:29
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"While no argument has only one side by definition, Epic failed to deliver contractually bound features and failed to deliver even the cut down version on time. "
I saw this first comment in the thread and misread the headline as "Unreal Engline 4 years away, says Rein" and thought it was an admission of sorts... :-) Tricky thing punctuation! (eats, chutes and then leafs) |
Comments: 1-10 of 10 in total
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