July 15th, 2009 @ The Hilton Metropole, Brighton
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October 27th, 2009 @ BAFTA, London
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COO Tim Sweeney lays out roadmap for popular middleware - PC not a priority
In an interview with TGdaily, Epic Games COO Tim Sweeney has confirmed that the studio is planning to release a fourth version of its popular Unreal Engine in line with the next console generation.
While the engine won't be exclusively for the next-generation of consoles, it will be tailored and designed for those platforms (whatever they may be) in the first instance.
"The Unreal engine is really tied to a console cycle. We will continue to improve Unreal Engine 3 and add significant new features through the end of this console cycle. There is a long life ahead for Unreal Engine 3," he said, adding:
"Version 4 will exclusively target the next console generation, Microsoft's successor for the Xbox 360, Sony's successor for the Playstation 3 - and if Nintendo ships a machine with similar hardware specs, then that also. PCs will follow after that."
Focusing the development of the technology for the consoles rather than PC ties in with Sweeney's previous comments to TGdaily that the platform wasn't ideal for gaming.
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He said: ""Those machines are good for e-mail, web browsing, watching video. But as far as games go, those machines are just not adequate. It is no surprise that retail PC sales suffer from that."
Erm, why *are* Epic a member of the 'PC Gaming Alliance'?
When Tim says the next engine "will exclusively target the next console generation" what he means is that it won't be an engine suitable for this console generation Xbox 360, PS3 or the PC we have today. It does not mean it will be exclusive to consoles.
Epic are definately hammering the PC recently and I can't say it's a good thing to be doing. There's an element of "don't bite the hand that feeds you" that they should be aware of. Granted, they're desperately moving all resources to console platforms anyway, but if they manage to realise their new dream of making all their franchises and all their licencees' games into console exclusives then will all the FPS fans who've bought Epic games for years while they made their name on PC suddenly thank them for abandoning them and the PC platform?
I think there might be a bit of sour grapes going on as well as shrewd financial decisions to abandon loss-making sectors. I was one who was looking forward to Unreal Tournament 3, but I think it released at a time when there was too strong a competition - ET:QW in particular - and the game seemed poor performance and all too console-oriented. Even the map editor is console-friendly. I bought a copy, but it was purely for the editor and the DVD of tutorial videos - I've barely played the game itself.
This is confusing:
"While the engine won't be exclusively for the next-generation of consoles"
...
"Version 4 will exclusively target the next console generation"
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