Unreal Engine 4 Up And Running On Next-Gen Consoles

nofi 36 Comments

Speaking at the recent DICE summit, Epic’s Mark Rein has confirmed that Unreal Engine 4 is already up and running on next generation consoles.

Picked up by GAF, Rein said that the engine, the last version of which was famously used to power Gears of War, is already functional on PC, and “systems [they] can’t name yet.”

The news won’t be too shocking to anyone, Epic (or at least, Unreal) are normally up there present and correct with new technology (see Infinity Blade) but if nothing else we can expect next-gen to feature even more bald space marines.

Is that still a meme?

In other, related and equally bitty news, Future published Xbox World Magazine says that the new Xbox will be a “matt-black media hub” with “four player finger-tracking Kinect” and – get this – a “tablet-like controller”.

I can’t wait for E3.  The burgers are amazing.

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36 Comments

  1. But will it bloom?

    • It will probably bloom AND do shadows!!

    • And will it blend?

      • haven’t you heard?The next gears of war game on the new xbox will come with a blender attachment and a shipment of small animals! to get that interaction of covering you in blood while you play :)

      • It will blend and do your taxes, iron your clothes, wash your clothes, make you dinner/a drink, give you a massage and tidy up your house.*

        *source:a mug full of coffee. :p

      • No way??! I’m getting an XBox Terry just for the ironing and massage features, which means more time for DIY! Unless it does that too…

      • It does DIY as well. It only does everything. ;)

  2. E3 (or more likely the run up to it) is going to be brilliant this year.

    • It was crap last year, hope it improves

    • Actually E3 is what is destroying gaming.

      Journelists flying long-haul staying in lavish hotels and then attending an E3 briefing with bribes handed out at the end.

      All paid for by certain American companies keen to win over gamers by winning over the press.

      Don’t say it doesn’t happen, it does.

      Every person at E3 got given a Xbox360 slim, and a lifetime Xbox Live Gold account, many got all their expenses paid too.

  3. I’m starting to think that other companies are going to copy Nintendo’s idead earlier than in this gen without even knowing if it turns out to be a success or not, simply because Nintendo’s Track record with such things was so good.

    • For every success that Nintendo has, it also creates something like the Wii-Speak…. karma

      • I guess MS will have to take a leap of faith and hope that the tablet idea is not one of those failing peripherals. :P

  4. No surprise

    Next console gen will be roughly DX11 standard, they can make the engine on PC & change a few lines of code to suit console as their specs get narrowed down. Unless they’re talking about WiiU.

  5. Please PS4, still come bundled with a Dual Shock, a touch pad / screen sounds nice and all but the joypad is still where its at. Its called that name for a reason ;)

    • Whilst a touch pad/screen may sound nice, i don’t think i will want it anywhere near a PS4 (or equivalent) – As you say, a joypad is all i need to get enjoyment from a game (well, apart from the console, the game, a tv etc!).

      • I think sony will use what they have always used, the Dual Shock. and with the blu-tooth connectivity of the vita and a firmware update the vita could be the tablet controller. with mapped buttons on the touch screen for rear or front triggers.
        again all this microsoft talk is rumor and speculation. but the Vita has enough in built spec to accomodate this type of tech without sony having to lift a finger in hardware development.

  6. In this day in age, even with everything moving in the opposite direction, holding a physical controller in my hand and buttons (YAY! Buttons!) are a massive selling point for me. If the next xbox is tablet and Kinect enabled, It will lose a sale from me. If it aint broke, dont fix it. Thats my motto about my PS3 controller.

  7. The one thing I took from the pictures of the WiiU tablet controller from last year was how lacking it was in any kind of ergonomics. Surely holding that thing for anything more than an hour is going to just get annoying….

    • Think the WiiU & its controller will be relaunched at E3 this year, they’ll almost certainly drop the WiiU name & I’m sure the controller will be redesigned in some way although the large touch secondary screen seems key in Nintendo’s attempts to differentiate themselves and offer new types of gameplay for home consoles, perhaps it will be more PSVita-like in shape?

  8. In my opinion, all Sony need to do to win the next console war is announce the PS4 will drop Motion technology and touch technology. Make it Pad only and Gamers will flock there.

    The Casual Market is just that, and it won’t be around forever.

    • There are that many ‘gamers’ though, the PS2 sold most of its volume when it dropped to £99-£129 and stuff like the dance mats & EyeToy helped shift it to market you seem not to like.

  9. I really hope PS4 is similar to ps3, just better spec. This new tablet stuff is crap, I want a joypad, now a piece of flat plastic.

  10. They lost me at Tablet controller. What happened to the simple idea of using buttons. Won’t someone please think of the buttons!

    I wonder if it do more then have pretty graphics? Oh, i wonder if complicated gameplay mechanics can now be implented in Unreal engine that was impossible to do previously?

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