Unreal Engine 3

According to Epic’s Mark Rein, one of the many licensees of the Unreal 3 Engine is daring to bring it to the Wii. Why? Because they can! We choose to remain optimistic on this venture, contrary to the many naysayers out there - a stripped down version of the highly flexible UE3 may just lend itself nicely to a few quality projects. And its not all about graphics, remember.

I know one of our licensees who’s giving it a shot. It’s their own port, in the same way Ubisoft brought Unreal Engine 2 to the Wii.

Via Destructoid

IGN’s GameSpy has signed a licensing agreement with Unreal Engine 3 creator Epic Games that will incorporate GameSpy’s online multiplayer technology into the successful game engine. Licensees of the engine will be able to inject GameSpy’s multiplayer technology, such as communication tools, competition apps, matchmaking, stat tools, community features, leaderboards and future feature sets, into future releases. Mark Rein from Epic says Gamespy’s technology is a “huge value-add for Unreal Engine 3”.

The agreement will pave the way for cross-platform play between PC and PS3 versions of the game. And although GameSpy boasts that it’s got the technology to make total cross-platform play a reality, they will have to settle for this milestone while Microsoft and others catch up.

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The U.S. Army-commissionned first-person shooter America’s Army is coming to the arcades as a light-gun game, designed to closely simulate real-life Army training exercises, “immerse the player in the Army culture,” and “create a new communication channel with young Americans.”

Wait a minute…Manhunt 2 gets an AO rating, and this is what you’re feeding the kids instead?

I think Propagandhi said it best:

Thank you! Let me begin with some sentimental appeals to our national myths; assorted clichés coined by the state; the ideological shorthand meant to sweep your private doubts [away] of this virtual training course. This portal; this Trojan Horse that you living idiots paid for and actually rolled into your own kids’ rooms.

via GameSetWatch

Phil Harrison has admitted Sony could have done a better job helping Epic Games get their Unreal Engine 3 playing nice with the PlayStation 3. The backup has arrived, in the form of a team of Sony engineers who will help Epic optimize UE3 for the Synergistic Processing Units (SPUs) of the Cell processor that powers the PS3. This means better performance from the same code - which is a win for developers and gamers alike.

If we’re honest, we didn’t do enough of a good job supporting them and getting them the tools and technology early enough. Also, Epic isn’t a huge company. They don’t have unlimited resource. We have parachuted in some of our SWAT team of super engineers to help them. Specifically, to optimise for SPUs, which are the point of difference that the Cell Processor has.

The benefits that it yields to end developers, whether they’re writing exclusive titles or multiplatform titles, is that the performance on PS3 goes up exponentially - and it will make for a much better game experience,

said Harrison in a recent interview with Game Informer.

Silicon Knights have filed suit against Epic Games, in a dispute over the licensing of Epic’s Unreal Engine 3 for use in their upcoming Xbox 360 title, Too Human. The suit reads,

Rather than provide support to Silicon Knights and Epic’s other many licensees of the Engine, Epic intentionally and wrongfully has used the fees from those licenses to launch its own game to widespread commercial success while simultaneously sabotaging efforts by Silicon Knights and others to develop their own video games.

Turns out Epic promised licensees a functional engine six months after the Xbox 360 dev kits were released, giving them until March 2006 to deliver. It was November by the time Silicon Knights saw anything resembling a functional game engine, causing extensive delays in the development of Too Human. During the same period, Epic managed to complete their own Gears of War, and take “Best Game in Show” with their impressive demo at E3 in May 2006 - using the very same engine they failed to deliver to Silicon Knights.

Read the full, juicy story at Gamasutra.