EpicGames posts

UPDATE: To clarify, Reins believes that the insinuation that stereoscopic 'true 3D' technology is just now being researched is dumb. The tech, as he explains in the quote found below, has been in use for quite a while.

GamesIndustry.biz recently sat down with Epic Games president Mark Rein to discuss the forthcoming Gears of War 2, as well as talk a bit of tech regarding game industry trends and dalliances. On the topic of whether 3D stereoscopic technology is currently being explored, Rein said simply, "That's dumb."

Expanding, Rein said that such technology is already in use, but needs some tweaking before it can gain mainstream acceptance. "I have a 3D monitor sitting in my office and stereoscopic has worked on Unreal for a long time. In fact one of the guys pushing stereoscopic sent me the monitor, he said, 'Your games are great on these monitors,' so he sent me one. So Unreal works fine on stereoscopic, it's just you've got to change out your screens to use it - that's a big accessory."

Ignition Entertainment, Ltd., will use Epic Games' popular Unreal Engine 3 for its upcoming FPS title, the company has announced. The unnamed, original IP is currently in development at Ignition's Florida-based studio.

"Epic's Unreal Engine 3 is an extremely versatile engine," said Jeremy Stieglitz, Game Director and Lead Designer, Ignition Florida. "So when deciding on technology for Ignition Florida's first next-generation video game, there was no questioning that Unreal Engine 3 is the way to go."

"Ignition Florida is pushing Unreal Engine 3 in a very exciting direction, especially in terms of environmental capabilities," said Mark Rein, Vice President, Epic Games. "These guys have the chops to create some remarkable games, and we have complete faith in their technical and creative abilities."

Confident that they will bring something "fresh and exciting to one of the industry's core genres," Ignition plans to release their FPS in late 2009.

Kotaku recently caught up with Michael Gallagher, CEO of the Entertainment Software Association. Given the recent departures of noteworthy studios such as id Software, LucasArts, Activision, and Vivendi, many believe that there is concern over the ESA's future, but Gallagher doesn't think so. "The membership of any association fluctuates over time," Gallagher pointed out. "For example, though it didn't receive much attention by the gamer press, in the past nine months we added four new members-Epic Games, MTV Games, NCSoft, and Codemasters."

Gallagher went on to clarify that each of the departing companies "gave the ESA ample notice. In discussions, they expressed gratitude for our work and continued support for the mission of the ESA. The public comments from all involved reflect that."

Many have speculated that the reason for the collective departure might be related to the increased cost of ESA membership dues. Gallagher explained that originally, "E3 was a revenue-generating entity. As such, approximately 85% of the ESA's operating funds resulted from that event." With the formation of the E3 Media & Business Summit, the ESA board of directors found it necessary to increase membership dues. Gallagher said that "Without getting into specifics, which are private and specific to individual ESA members, each company pays a certain amount based on North American sales."

When asked if the membership dues played a factor in the companies' decision to leave the ESA, Gallagher asserted his belief that the decision was probably "tough ... for those few companies, but I would encourage you to contact them."

The 1.3 patch for Unreal Tournament III hasn't been released quite yet, but that didn't stop PlanetUnreal from digging for concrete details. Among the substantial list of fixes and additions are numerous bot improvements, several mod-specific collision detection issues, increased Aegia support, and cut/copy/paste functionality for the game's console.

While the list of tweaks and additions is quite long, most are individually minor. Collectively, though, the buggy UT3 should benefit greatly from all of the seemingly minute changes the patch will bring.

When Electronic Arts acquired Burnout developers Criterion Games a few years ago, they also got the rights to their Renderware graphics engine which at the time was used by a ton of third party PC and console games. However once EA bought Renderware no other publisher was interested in licensing the engine anymore. Cue up Epic Games; EA used Epic's Unreal Engine 3 in Medal of Honor Airborne and more recently Army of Two. Now a new press release announces EA and Epic have decided to renew their Unreal Engine 3 license agreement for at least five upcoming games. It should be interesting to see how EA uses the engine this time round.

It was perhaps the most popular and most successful gaming mod contests ever run and now we have a sequel. Epic Games recently announced the launch of the new Make Something Unreal mod contest using the PC version of their sci-fi shooter Unreal Tournament 3. The original Make Something Unreal contest yielded a ton of imaginative mods for Unreal Tournament 2003/2004 and some actually turned into full fledged commercial games.

The overall winner of the first contest, Tripwire Interactive's WWII shooter Red Orchestra, morphed into a stand alone game that has gotten a small but very loyal audience. It was recently announced that a runner-up in the last contest, Blue Omega's wield western shooter Damnation, would also be released as a stand alone game via Codemasters. Epic Games is teaming up with sponsor Intel to give people who win the various phases and categories over $1 million in cash and prizes. The grand prize, which will be awarded in fall 2009, will be a full Unreal Engine 3 license to the winning mod team. Of course we will be following the contest and its winners in the months ahead.