Square-Enix Revs Up with Unreal Engine

[Greg Tito]

Square-Enix Revs Up with Unreal Engine

The Japanese developer/publisher signed a huge deal to use the Unreal Engine 3 on multiple projects.

Epic Games is quickly getting many major publishers to sign onto using the Unreal Engine to make all their games. Square-Enix recently demoed an internally-developed graphics engine, but it was only a prototype and the deal to use Unreal on multiple unannounced games will tide them over until it is completed. Epic doesn't have a standard contract, so the details of the agreement were handled by Epic Games Japan's Taka Kawasaki.

"It is a pleasure to provide Square Enix with an exceptional game engine that will help them bring thrilling new experiences to legions of fans all over the world," he said. "Many western games have achieved great success with the Unreal Engine, and this milestone reflects the Japanese development community's trust in our technical prowess. We can't wait to see how Square Enix fuses the power of Unreal Engine 3 with its beautiful characters, enthralling storylines and fantastic gameplay."

As for what games Square-Enix will use the engine for, that's anyone's guess. Unreal Engine 3 is versatile enough to make any genre of game, but I wonder if Square is going to concentrate on more shooters and action games with this technology.

Just please Squeenix, don't make a Kane & Lynch 3 [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/editorials/reviews/8033-Review-Kane-Lynch-2-Dog-Days]. Please.

Source: Develop [http://www.develop-online.net/news/39152/Square-Enix-signs-landmark-Unreal-Engine-3-deal]

Permalink

 

[Vault Citizen]

Personally I'm more excited about the thought of what they can do with the internally developed engine than what they will be doing with the Unreal Engine 3, I'm especially interested to see what it turns into since all we have seen is a few rooms and a corridor (a very photo realistic corridor but still just a corridor).

 

[Excludos]

Final Fantasy VII: Dirge of Cerberus 2!
You heard it here first.


(please don't)

 

[Andronicus]

Wait, wasn't Final Fantasy XIII built using a brand new engine? What happened to Crystal Tools? Is that the "not yet complete" engine you're talking about, because it seemed pretty functional in FFXIII. Why build a whole new engine to power your games, then fork out for UE3?

 

[EmperorSubcutaneous]

Since they're giving FFXIV a complete overhaul, including a new game engine, I wouldn't be surprised if that's what this was for.

Maybe they saw what TERA was doing and decided they could make it work for themselves too.

 

[RollForInitiative]

I was under the impression that they'd already delved into Unreal 3 with Last Remnant, and it suffered horribly for it. They had no grasp of how to actually use the engine effectively.

 

[Atmos Duality]

To date, the most impressive use I've seen with the U3 engine has been Borderlands.
Cell-shading with efficiency and a bit of style. Sure, it's as brown as the rest of the shooters, but at least I could immediately distinguish it in both terms of aesthetics and gameplay.

I was under the impression that they'd already delved into Unreal 3 with Last Remnant, and it suffered horribly for it. They had no grasp of how to actually use the engine effectively.

They did, but I don't think Last Remnant's engine alone was to blame.
From what I saw, the gameplay and story wasn't all that good to begin with.

Final Fantasy VII: Dirge of Cerberus 2!
You heard it here first.


(please don't)

Careful. Words like that could get a man killed 'round here.
But since Squeenix already raped FF7 and its fanbase for all its worth, why not launch a sequel? I can't wait to see Nomura's next batch of buckle-n-strap-laden clowns.
Though it's going to be hard to top Nero the Sable, who wore a straight jacket for absolutely no reason and what could only be described as a jock-strap on his face.

 

[Ubermetalhed]

Wait, wasn't Final Fantasy XIII built using a brand new engine? What happened to Crystal Tools? Is that the "not yet complete" engine you're talking about, because it seemed pretty functional in FFXIII. Why build a whole new engine to power your games, then fork out for UE3?

If that's the case then please Square Enix stick with that engine. FFXIII was beyond beautiful.

I hope this unreal engine won't mean more westernising of classic Square franchises. Although more and prettier Deus Ex titles is all good mind.

 

[somonels]

Some would say this is the worst of both worlds. I say meh, though curious whether the companies are going to try to pull off a stylistic game that won't look like UT3.

 

[Sylveria]

Square-Enix! Now with more muddy brownness! Screw all those high graphics and beautiful colors that FF13 brought us, now we get brown dusty crap from them just like everyone else!

 

[Vie]

Square Enix: This new engine will swing our games into fifth gear.

Tiff Needell as a lead character?

Ok, so long as we get Viki as a sidekick and James May in a cameo as one of the bad guys.

 

[AbstractStream]

Square-Enix with a new engine? Whaaat?

Square-Enix! Now with more muddy brownness! Screw all those high graphics and beautiful colors that FF13 brought us, now we get brown dusty crap from them just like everyone else!

Nooooo! Don't do it!

 

[ResonanceGames]

Apparently someone doesn't understand the difference between an engine and art design...

This is good news for the Deus Ex franchise, assuming this also applies to Eidos. The in-house engine they used for Human Revolution was really poorly optimized and ill-conceived. It's a shame that they'll probably end up using it for Thief 4 as well, since it's most likely in very deep development at this point.

 

[Rad Party God]

I'm a huge fan of the engine and although many people seem reluctant to accept a corporal decition that, no matter how much they whine, they will still use it. I'm glad for them, the engine is easy enough to use and in good hands it can do wonders for any genre.

I can't wait to see how they use the engine for some of their most famous IPs, it'd be interesting how they develop a Kingdom Hearts game using the engine.

 

[Veldt Falsetto]

Anyone remember the graphical train wreck that is The Last Remnant...that used Unreal 3...based on that I say Square Enix should keep using the Crystal Tools engine...

 

[Veldt Falsetto]

To date, the most impressive use I've seen with the U3 engine has been Borderlands.
Cell-shading with efficiency and a bit of style. Sure, it's as brown as the rest of the shooters, but at least I could immediately distinguish it in both terms of aesthetics and gameplay.

I was under the impression that they'd already delved into Unreal 3 with Last Remnant, and it suffered horribly for it. They had no grasp of how to actually use the engine effectively.

They did, but I don't think Last Remnant's engine alone was to blame.
From what I saw, the gameplay and story wasn't all that good to begin with.

I'm pretty sure IGN gave it a 4/10 stating it's faults being poor graphics with loads of pop in and out of texture and the achievements being too hard and vague.

The rest of the game was fine, a lot of big reviewers mark games down on stupid things like that.

It's the same with Unlimited SaGa (a game by the same designer) who IGN and Gamespot listed the only good points as it's art and soundtrack...we don't understand these games that's all.

 

[RA92]

Square-Enix! Now with more muddy brownness! Screw all those high graphics and beautiful colors that FF13 brought us, now we get brown dusty crap from them just like everyone else!

Yes! Because art direction is generated by the engine! DICE must have used black magic to make Mirror's Edge with UE3 without a hint of brown!

*facepalm*

 

[koroem]

Anyone remember the graphical train wreck that is The Last Remnant...that used Unreal 3...based on that I say Square Enix should keep using the Crystal Tools engine...

The pc version was fine. The xbox 360 version was an absolute clusterfuck because console hardware sucks balls.

That said, I'm not at all happy about this as a longtime Square fan. UE3 is one of the worst budget engines to date and every developer is jumping on this stale middle ware because it is cheap and "good enough". All games on UE3 look the same and all have similar issues, art design only does so much to help, but everything always looks covered in plastic, or shader aliased to hell. PC ports from these lazy devs using UE3 stand a magnitude of fail above the rest of the shit ports out there. Poor documentation and poor support. The future of gaming just keeps going down and down in terms of quality and innovation.

Sad announcements like this make me die inside.