Epic Games spent $10 million on Gears of War and has sold over 3 million copies at $50. Do the math for a second and then sit there in self-loathing for a little bit. Once the jealousy and nausea passes, check out this interview with Epic's VP Mark Rein about what it's like to kick that much ass, the future of the Unreal Engine 3 in the hands of developers like Midway and Square-Enix (whoozah!), and their love for two consoles that also have the number 3 in them. High hopes for the future aside, look at this passing kick to the Ninty nuts at the end of the interview:
WN: It's also tough to ignore the success of the Wii at this point. Do you guys have any plans to be in that space?
Rein: Hey, we're in that space! Red Steel, Splinter Cell -- those use our previous engine technology. But it's not in our plans to bring Unreal Engine 3 to the Wii. It's really designed for next-gen, high-definition.
Ouch.
I'm sure that there will be a significant amount of Wii owners that will read this and write it off as a "we don't want your stinking FPS ports anyway". There are greater implications, though. I brought up the money
Gears made because, at the end of the day, that's what most game studios care about. They will want to use that technology to make that kind of return. Square-Enix and Midway are not using UE3 to make FPS -- they're using it to improve their long-loved franchises, obviously.
Without putting words in Rein's mouth here's what I'm taking away from this: Epic knows they need to be on the Wii but they believe that the future is HD gaming on other consoles, not necessarily Nintendo's new controller scheme. The fact that Red Steel tanked reinforces that further. Epic holds the keys to significant technology that doesn't appear to be making it's way to the Wii, so Nintendo's new console will obviously have less games and third party publishers supporting it as a result -- something that made the PS2 shine and the Gamecube sink.
Make no mistake, fanboys -- I love my Wii to death, but I can't help take this as an omen of what's to come. Do I think Epic views the Wiimote as a passing gimmick? Look at where they are putting their money now and you tell me.
Contest:
1:11 PM on 02.06.2007
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The engine is more tham just code. It is a system that makes preogramming easier and more portable. Games made on the Unreal engine can go anywhere there is an unreal engine without much fuss.
This gen PC=XBOX360=PS3!= Wii
All that mean is no game made with the unreal3 engine will be on the wii. Plenty of people are willing to ignore the unreal3 engine. The ps2 isn't going away for at least a year so the last engine will still see much love, thus ps2-> wii ports.
Wii don't want your crappy FPSs anyway... or something.
Its not a knock to the Wii, at all. The Wii is not designed for high def or suped up graphics. Its like asking why you don't put syrup on a cheesburger. They just don't go together. That doesn't mean that you can't put ketchup on it and have a delicious lunch.
God, this tit for tat console gibberish is really f-ing annoying.
Seriously guys Wii motto is gameplay over graphics, so who cares? besides do you really want to see how a sweatty 40 year old plumber really looks like in HD full detail? you want to see what happens when you land on a turtle from a second floor using the Gears of war engine? You want a extreme close up on the princess face when make up just wont help?
Trust me you are way better off.
Gimmick?
Still...Cooking Mama with UE3 graphics would be interesting...
@ Joseph: Oh boy, PS2 to Wii ports. I know that's why I put my faith in Nintendo, so I could get ports of games with an "innovative" control scheme awkwardly slapped on, not for the original games designed for Wii originally, a la Rayman Raving Rabbids.
The unreal engine isn't what made gears of war a top seller.
The attention to detail, play value and the fact it is one of the few ,ie only, AAA title for the 360, made it a 3 million seller.
@Necros
Umm well yeah. PS2 to wii ports are the ports the Wii will get.
Of course games made for the wii will be the best. Ports are still important. Wii games could get ported to the PS3 with a little work but, the PS2 is the only console similar in power to the Wii right now.
There are only 4 million wii's right now. As a 3rd party developer you will want to sell your game to as many people as possible. 3rd party devs have had a very difficult time competing with Nintendo on Nintendo hardware and will want a backup plan for any game of considerable cost.
But I like syrup on my cheeseburgers.
Second, agreed that it was a critical failure, but I'm convinced that most reviewers didn't give it a fair shake. The control scheme was new, and so the learning curve is steeper than usual. I hated it too for the first half hour, but I forged ahead anyway because, what the hell, I paid 50 bucks for it. Now I have to say it's among my favorite shooters of all time, both because of the graphics and control.
So personally, I'm not worried. In fact, I'm pretty excited about what's to come on the wii in terms of first person shooters. Metroid Prime Corruption is not only looking pretty sweet, but by all accounts it's control has less of a learning curve because it emulates pc-mouse control on it's "expert" setting. That should cement the wii's place as a solid shooter console.
Some background on me: I have both the 360 and Wii. I have both Gears of War and Red Steel. I love both consoles, so I'm no fanboy.
I've posted all this shit plenty of times, but until people quit bitching(or everyone tells me to just plain shut up), I'm going to keep doing it. The console has been out for under 4 months(I think). There are already over half a dozen games for it well worth getting. The same couldn't be said about the 360 this time last year, and certainly not the ps3. More games will come. You chose to buy it at launch. Be patient and quit yer gorram whinin'.
Oh and since no one has been polite enough to encourage our motto, allow me to do so:
And also... cocks.
There. now Let us continue with our rather entertaining video game discussion, carry on [sips on tea]
I like that an article about a non-HD console not using an HD Engine is "the Wii taking it in the ass."