News Unreal Engine 4.0 to exclusively target consoles

there's an ignore user function on this forum for a reason. i suggest you put it to use. why do you think nobody replies to him anymore?

 

Addressing the issues is exactly what Tim Sweeney did in those interviews.

 

But the bottom line is that Tim Sweeney said that Unreal Engine 4.0 will exclusively target next-generation consoles. The PC isn't even looked on as the third platform in the market any more by Epic - no, it even feels Nintendo is ahead in the pecking line if it makes a system powerful enough to utilise the engine. Here's a full quote:

Tell me I'm not pointing out the bleeding obvious by saying that isn't this biting the hand that made Epic successful?

Sweeney made some GREAT points in the interviews and he went a long way to addressing a lot of things - like the problems with the gap between the highest end and lowest end graphics chipsets. That problem isn't really the hardware manufacturers... well, maybe it's Intel's problem in some respects, because their control of the integrated market is stifling innovation from the discrete graphics guys. The biggest culprits are the high street retailers though because they are misinforming the consumer with nothing but complete lies. Since when was a 965G chipset classed as "POWERFUL 3D GRAPHICS", as we've seen recently in some brick and mortars? Yeah, uneducated gamers are going to be upset when they get home and can't play their games on something like that.

However, when you're pointing out all of the problems and then rather than trying to fix them, you come out with a quote like the one above - do you not think the PC gaming community will really believe that Epic cares about them any more?

 

company sux

games sux

 

this is totally lame

Epic were born on the PC, now their crapping all over it, go die in a hole

 

I'm disappointed with this from Epic.. They should really get booted from the PC Gaming Alliance for this. ..Thank goodness we still have Valve, Blizzard, etc.

 

Seeing as how Mark Rein is on the board of the PC Gaming Alliance, don't you think he's talking about all this stuff with Intel, Microsoft, NVIDIA, etc? How do you know what they're doing to fix the issue? The media doesn't like to print the positive stuff!

Sure, PC gaming is what made Epic what it is today - but the problems faced a few years ago have getten a lot worse - piracy, the ever widening gap between hardware specs and transparency to consumers, etc.

These challenges will not go away overnight, and the the gaming alliance is a long-term effort. Why not put the cards on the table now so that everyone involved is crystal clear on the issues and ultimately held accountable - Intel for integrated graphics, everyone for some kind of minimum spec standards, hardware and retailers for better educating customers regarding what machines will run their games.

Some of the challenges facing PC gaming will have to be addressed before most "next-gen" game companies put the the platform before console.

 

You speak like you work for Epic Games

 

I only played the UT3 demo, but it really didn't feel right. Enough that I decided not to buy it. I played the hell out of UT2k4 back in the day, but it just isn't the same now.

I miss the old days.

 

Nah, just make games for a living, and understand the challenges.

 

I think this goes towards what I was saying in the gaming forum. Big budget PC gaming is nearing the end of it's lifecycle ands consoles are ascendent. I don't like it either because I don't game enough to justify buying a console, but just because I don't like it doesn't make it not so.

You'll notice that everyone in the industry who comes through here says the same things about PC gaming, whether it be the guy from EPIC, the former hear of Iron forge, that Lurks guy, they're all preaching the same tune. Writing games for the PC is a pain in the arse and not profitable enough to be worth the headache. Piracy, minimum specs, hardware variations, etc all make it way way more difficult that consoles.

The console development cycle is also much friendlier to a developer. New console tech comes out, what. every 4-5 years? Having a reliable, predictiable, cycle to develop on instead of the constant bleeding edge of PC gaming not only makes life easier on developers, but it also makes for better games if you're not trying to rush them out the door before the tech becomes obsolete next week.

 

I understand there are a lot of challenges with PC games development--many more than there are in console development. My speciality is mainly in the graphics side of things and, from that perspective, am I right in thinking that the introduction of SM4.0 goes a way to helping PC gaming's attractiveness from a development standpoint?

Of course, the installed base is small at the moment and publishers focus on installed bases - I know Nvidia's developer relations team is working hard on the installed base side of things by trying to demonstrate that there are a massive number of GeForce 6 (and above) users out there... enough to meet a 200:1 hit ratio by selling 1m copies of an AAA title. Let's forget about the piracy aspect at the moment - it's there on every platform, but more obviously prevalent on the PC and it is something I am hoping the PC Gaming Alliance will go a long way to fixing.

SM3.0 hardware is obviously still being developed for--with many developers going back as far as SM2.0 and sometimes even further, depending on the game they're making and in order to hit their desired hit ratio--and there are massive hurdles to overcome with pre-SM4.0 compliant hardware because of the caps bits in DX9.0. Because of that, hardware-specific codepaths are often required to achieve the same result on hardware from the different IHVs. However, because SM4.0 has removed the caps bits (and from my talks with David Blythe, DirectXNext will expand upon this), doesn't that remove one of the biggest time-drains in PC games development from the graphics side of things?

 

I cannot understand why Epic are not allowed to publically talk about the issues the PC gaming world is facing ! Get real people... Epic is doing every member of the Windows Gaming Alliance a huge favour by bringing the issues into the open.

Otherwise.. nothing would be said or done.

Or would you rather we all lived like the Chinese, with a huge firewall blocking the things we really want to read about.

All you who say EPIC is dumping / crapping / selling out the PC market need to wake up and go buy yourselves an IQ. They are just debating the issues publically. Duh!

 

sorry did you read what we are pissed about, the fact that he pretty much said they couldn't care less about the PC. The fact the unreal engine 4 will go on the consoles and then the PC much later. He could have been a hell of a lot more diplomatic on what he said.

 

Well guess who is no longer going to purchase anything associated with Epic for his PC or consoles. This guy!

This is very disapointing to me since I have always supported the developers that make great games for the PC and Epic has always been one of them.

However, this current generation I have noticed a decline in their quality and support for PC gaming. Fine by me I will just stop buying their products on any platform.

 

I mean the EVIL Tim S. Not the nice bit-tech Tim S.

lol

 

brilliant.

 

The bit-tech one is pretty EVIL too.

 

Greetings!

Check VGChartz at 28/12/2007 for CoD4 console sales.
3,944,460 for X360 and 1,819,305 for PS3.

______________

As for the topic:
There is a long life ahead for Unreal Engine 3. Version 4 will exclusively target the next console generation, Microsoft's successor for the Xbox 360, Sony's successor for the Playstation 3 - and if Nintendo ships a machine with similar hardware specs, then that also. PCs will follow after that.

 

Thanks for the stats Impar.

So thats 82% of all COD 4 sales in 2007 were console based.

Another indictor on WHY it makes financial sense to target the console markets as their primary clients as opposed to the 18% PC market.

I personally own COD4 for the PC and PS3 for what its worth. A job well done on both platforms in my opinion.