Talking Point: The Unreal Engine 4 Gaffe Exposes Graphical Snobbery, Again

Again, we're not experts, but examples such as the use of PC assets in Need for Speed: Most Wanted U demonstrate that Nintendo's system should be able to handle scalable engines of various kinds.

[Neonridr]

Just goes to show what people value most in today's generation.

My first game console was a Colecovision, which required imagination half the time to figure out what was what on the screen.

Like the article says, the fact that the engine is scalable should speak for itself, but how many developers are going to want to scale down their games for a third console when they could conceivably create 2 somewhat equal builds for the PS4 and 720. Makes their jobs easier and saves time in the end.

Time will tell of course, but it's a worrying sign.

[CouldHaveYelledUiiW]

" -but when asked about platforms such as Wii U his reaction wasn't to emphasize that the engine could be scaled and potentially look great on the system. Instead he shared an opinion that we believe is shared by many, where "next-gen" means millions more polygons, not opening up the industry to new experiences"

Truth.

I also add that if Epic, specifically, is not creating WiiU Middleware /specific tools for WiiU to make the Scale-Up to WiiU easier-

-It's going to make the WiiU harder to Port to.

It will add extra cost to any developer who wants to port to WiiU.

So, most of the big current game Engine builders are not only impartial observers of console history; they are shapers of console history.

[rainslacker]

It wouldn't make it harder to port, because to port it would have to use the same engine. If they wanted to put it on Wii U, but built the original game in UE4, they would need to choose a new engine to do the job, and since UE is pretty specific in it's implementation it would mean a complete reworking of the game. This means ports are very unlikely as the time and cost would probably make it not worthwhile unless Wii U manages to gain a significant install base sometime in the future. If it does manage to gain one, which is quite possible, then devs will not be looking at the UE4 for their engine, which means Epic may have put itself out of the market for a good number of developers.

I honestly don't like Epic's backpedaling on this whole Wii U thing. Before the Wii U came out they were all about how the engine could run on it no problem, making it seem like the Wii U was a superior system to the current gens. Maybe they just got hold of the other system specs after the fact and went all out for next gen leaving the Wii U behind, but I find it hard to believe that Epic didn't have knowledge of the PS4/720 specs long before they were making the Wii U claims.

[delboy]

Couldn't care less about UE4, I think that CryEngine 3 will dominate this time.
Epic is behind in tech this time.

[Yodagamer]

I really don't think as many major companies will use unreal 4, ea has frostbite 2/3, square has their engine and edio's crystal engine, ubisoft has it's anvil engine. The only people i could see using it is smaller devs, but now we have cryengine and unity 3d to compete with.

[Munnkyman]

And also the engine retro is makking for nintendo to help their devs and smaller devs. I agree with you

[11eleven11]

The gaffe trilogy:
Rein, the moron
Press: what's up Mr Rein
Rein: I'm a mean moron (everyone laughing)
Press: c'mon Rein we kinda like you, you don't really mean it
Rein: I'm a moron, I'm tellin'ya. I only ain't really that mean.
Nexgen Rein
Nextgen Rein comes to party. Wants to get in. The guy at the gate laughs his guts out. Cmon man what we're looking for is a real nextgen dude.
Nextgen Epic PR guy
We would love to run UE4 on WiiU in it"s full power. What we think is despite being a great console it needs some more processing power for that. Developers will however be perfectly able to tune the engine for WiiU and port any game they like to it.