In 2005, Epic Games VP Mark Rein revealed that development on the fourth iteration of the Unreal Engine was in the works, and had been so for 2 years.
"Unreal Engine 4 will be totally groundbreaking and the way games will be done in the future," said Rein.
"I don’t expect it to be staffed up as a full team for several years. But when people come to work at Epic, they can come here with the knowledge that we’re always keeping one eye on the future and they’re going to be helping to shape the future of the videogame business".
Fast forward over a year later and some new details on the new engine have surfaced. During a visit at Epic Games, a press member from came upon Tim Sweeney’s office only to find a large pad of graph paper covered in code and digits. Later, it was revealed to be code for the Unreal Engine 4.
PSU contacted Mark Rein earlier this month to see if there was any new word on the development of Unreal Engine 4. This is what he had to say:
"We’re not ready to say anything more about the next Unreal Engine at this point in time. For now it’s a long-range research project."
Not much, but at least it’s good to hear that it’s in development. Judging by his words "long-range research project", it will probably be another year or two before we see the first tech demos.
Stay tuned to PSU for more updates.