Who woulda thunk it.. FF and Gears of War will soon have something in common.

[jazper]

From IGN:

Square Enix to use Unreal Engine 3 for future titles.
by Hilary Goldstein

January 25, 2007 - In the videogame equivalent of Angelina Jolie hooking up with Brad Pitt, Final Fantasy developer Square Enix will use Epic's Unreal Engine 3 for future next-gen and PC titles. Final Fantasy XIII, exclusive to PS3, is to be the last game to utilize Square's White Engine exclusively.

In an effort to ensure top-quality in its next-gen games, Square Enix is building a "combined technology platform." In a press release issued this morning, Square noted the new platform would be used "throughout the company, utilizing proprietary technologies as well as third-party solutions such as Unreal Engine 3."

Taku Murata, general manager, research and development division at Square Enix, expanded on Square's decision to use Unreal Engine 3. "The complexity of next-generation game systems featuring HD graphics and multi-core parallel processing poses a number of technological challenges to our game development," Murata said. "However, we can expedite our game development process significantly while allowing extra time and resources to be spent on game design and mechanics by establishing an effective technology platform... I'm excited to be partnering with Epic Games in such an important area."

"We're extremely excited to be working with Square Enix," said Epic Games' vice president, Jay Wilbur. "Square Enix is one of the biggest and most influential companies in the worldwide game business, and having them work with Unreal Engine 3 is a major honor for us and something we're very proud to be announcing."

No specific titles were mentioned in the press release, but it is likely the first Square Enix title to utilize the Unreal Engine would come no earlier than 2008.

 

[CmdrFly]

Epic Games' vice president, Jay Wilbur

I thought "the biz guy" was too high on life with his wife & kids and couldn't manage a fulltime job. Was there something going on at Id that nobody's saying? Or did he leave during that whole 'Quake4 or Doom3' argument between Id and Activision?

 

[Strid]

I'd venture to say the Unreal 3 engine is the best engine currently out and probably will be until the "Offset" engine is spread out a bit. I can't wait to see how SE will use it and I hope they take full advantage of it. Unreal tournament 2007 needs to hurry up and get here dammit...

 

[CmdrFly]

GRAW used UE3 didnt it?

I know Vegas does, and god damn is it painful. I have to turn off all the fancy shit like HDR and blurring just to make the game playable, on a friggin X1900XTX.

 

[Strid]

GRAW used UE3 didnt it?

I know Vegas does, and god damn is it painful. I have to turn off all the fancy shit like HDR and blurring just to make the game playable, on a friggin X1900XTX.

Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighters isn't on the list of games developed using UE3. That game... from the controls alone has to be one of the worst shooters I have ever experianced. Rainbow Six: Las Vegas does use UE3. The blurring from it is suppose to be painfully bad. It only happens when you get shot and your vision blurs best I can tell and have seen yet. However, I don't think they used it to its full potential as it looks like shit, compaired. The Tom Clancy team just can never seem to make anything that sits well with me. They always seem kind of cheap, for lack of better explaination.

 

[Chasym]

i dunno about anyone else...but this isnt good news to me :/

 

[Antor]

I've never liked Unreal Tournament, but I have yet to play Gears of War. However, I believe this has more to do with graphics than gameplay (I honestly don't keep up with the engines... I'm not going to lie), and Unreal Tournament and Gears of War has some really badass graphics. I can see this as a positive move for Square Enix.

 

[CmdrFly]

UE3 is friggin nuts. I'm not too technically adept at 3D jargon, but one statement really stood out to me.

3D models in UE3 can have more polygons on one single character than you would find in an entire map of the original Unreal.

 

[Tiael]

I don't think they're gonna use it in all their games, a few titles it could get used in could be their next MMO or *shudders* a sequel to Dirge of Cerberus...

 

[Antor]

If the next MMO is anything like FFXI I'm jumping ship. I'd like to actually not be constantly screwed over because of waiting on people all the time (that was my biggest mistake with FFXI), and now that I've taken too long end-game is supposedly much more of a bitch than it used to be.

Being one of the first to end-game would be neat, and I think I'm probably right after starting the game with Artem, seeing all the stuff he has, and knowing that he got a lot of it because there was much less competition for items and whatnot.

 

[Blabj]

Sick, FPS RPG, thats something new to the Final Fantasy genre!!!

Oh wait, wasn't there that game?