Epic Games boss Mark Rein feels that launch titles for the next crop of home consoles would be better off utilizing the Unreal Engine 3 as opposed to its inevitable successor.
Chatting with CVG, Rein noted the Unreal Engine 3 is able to produce visuals on par with the Samaritan demo, which he says the tech is capable of powering “right now,” albeit on high-end PCs.
"Samaritan is something you can do right now. In fact, Unreal Development Kit has all the features that powered Samaritan – every single graphics feature you can do. We could have shown another 30 videos,” he said.
"We have guys doing stuff on high end PCs that are just outside of the gaming space that are really pushing the envelope there. So that to us is pretty exciting – and you can do that now."
"UE3 is already available for that sort of stuff. I think if you were going to do a launch title for a future console, UE3 would probably be the way to go. And likewise if you were going to do something cross-generational, like Mortal Kombat on PS Vita, Xbox, PS3 and potentially it could be on iPad… that’s Unreal. Unreal spans the gamut, it goes from the smallest smartphone platforms up to the highest spec PC you can build and beyond,” he continued.
Rein said of Unreal Engine 4: "The UE4 stuff is very futuristic. UE3 is really the horse for this year."
The outspoken developer previously described UE4 as being so powerful that it even makes the gorgeous Samaritan look like “a piece of crap.”