NetherRealm and Rocksteady using Unreal Engine 3 for 'the next few years'
Epic's Unreal Engine 3 will power any games developed by Rocksteady Studios (Batman: Arkham City) and NetherRealm Studios (Mortal Kombat) through 2014 as part of a deal announced today by parent company Warner Bros. Interactive. Sure, the news in and of itself isn't all that exciting, but it does hint at the future of the Unreal Engine and the timeframe for the dawn of the next console generation.
Specifically, this news would suggest that we're not going to see Unreal Engine 4 for at least a couple of years. Given that Epic has said UE4 is being targeted "exclusively" at next-gen consoles, it gives us some insight into when Epic -- and developers -- are expecting to be creating games for successors to PS3 and Xbox 360. Sometime around, say, 2014?
Of course, there's no saying Unreal Engine 3 won't be used for next-gen games -- one look at the GDC 2011 demo of new UE3 features and it's obvious the engine still has a lot of miles left on it.
Specifically, this news would suggest that we're not going to see Unreal Engine 4 for at least a couple of years. Given that Epic has said UE4 is being targeted "exclusively" at next-gen consoles, it gives us some insight into when Epic -- and developers -- are expecting to be creating games for successors to PS3 and Xbox 360. Sometime around, say, 2014?
Of course, there's no saying Unreal Engine 3 won't be used for next-gen games -- one look at the GDC 2011 demo of new UE3 features and it's obvious the engine still has a lot of miles left on it.
