This winner of this console generation is not Microsoft or Nintendo or Sony. No. This generation goes to Epic. Hands down.
Their newest engine, Unreal Engine 3, has been used in millions of games already. Ok, maybe not millions; but it feels like every time I load up a game I see the Unreal logo: from Gears of War, to Rainbow Six, to Army of Two, to even Undertow an XBLA game.
Even Square Enix is using it in an upcoming FF title. It certainly shows its versatility; as more game programmers become familiar with the engine, the easier it will be for them to make better looking games.
Mark Rein told Videogaming 247 that Electronic Arts has been extremely satisfied with the five titles it has used UE3 for. So satisfied that they have just extended their deal with Epic to "significantly more than five more games," said Rein. "It’s pretty important, yeah. I think it’s one of the biggest engine license deals we’ve done."
I think this is a logical move for EA. They crank out so many games each year I’m sure that many of their development teams also float from project to project. With a unified engine running across most of their games, it will be easier for EA to move teams to different projects without the wasted time needed to relearn how an engine works.
Basically what I’m saying is those annual releases we have become so used to from EA, will now be coming out two or three times a year. Wooo!
The question of ‘Do you think EA will scoop up Epic?’ was posed to me this morning as I was talking to my roommate about this article. To be honest I don’t think so. If EA wanted to buy Epic they wouldn’t have just made what is probably a multi million dollar deal to license out their technology. EA would have spent that money purchasing Epic.
Also we know that Mark Rein thinks Epic is worth 2 billion dollars. And I’m not sure EA, or any other publisher is willing to spend that kind of mullah on the company. So score one for the little guy! Even if the little guy is a multi million dollar company in the shadow of a multi billion dollar company.
