Unreal Tournament 3
Midway has joined the list of third-party publishers and developers with a gripe about Epic's Unreal Engine 3.
Speaking in a company conference call, Midway's president and CEO, David F. Zucker said the publisher "encountered challenges as a result of shipping two of the very first PS3 games using Epic's Unreal Engine 3". The games in question were Stranglehold and Blacksite, with the former due to ship two and a half months after its 360 counterpart.
He wasn't laying blame squarely on the Unreal Engine for problems with the PS3, however. Zucker also said, "For our first wave of next-gen games... lead development has been on the Xbox 360, due to its earlier introduction and larger installed base. We ran into some technical issues developing for the PlayStation 3 that have taken more time to finalise than we expected.
"These include... making sure that the framerate, networking, and graphical features are at parity between the platforms."
There's light on the horizon, however, with Zucker adding, "We do believe that these technical issues are now complete at a core level in our engine. Looking ahead to 2008, we expect the PS3 versions of our titles to ship day and date with the Xbox 360 and other SKUs."
Other companies that have mentioned problems (to varying degrees) with the Unreal Engine include THQ, darkSector developer Digital Extremes and Silicon Knights, which is taking its grievances all the way to court.
We're glad Midway's not that miffed, of course, since it is publishing Epic's Unreal Tournament 3.
One other thing that crept up in the call was reference to an "ambitious open-world game" due to be announced shortly. Keep your eyes on SPOnG for more details as they emerge.
Speaking in a company conference call, Midway's president and CEO, David F. Zucker said the publisher "encountered challenges as a result of shipping two of the very first PS3 games using Epic's Unreal Engine 3". The games in question were Stranglehold and Blacksite, with the former due to ship two and a half months after its 360 counterpart.
He wasn't laying blame squarely on the Unreal Engine for problems with the PS3, however. Zucker also said, "For our first wave of next-gen games... lead development has been on the Xbox 360, due to its earlier introduction and larger installed base. We ran into some technical issues developing for the PlayStation 3 that have taken more time to finalise than we expected.
"These include... making sure that the framerate, networking, and graphical features are at parity between the platforms."
There's light on the horizon, however, with Zucker adding, "We do believe that these technical issues are now complete at a core level in our engine. Looking ahead to 2008, we expect the PS3 versions of our titles to ship day and date with the Xbox 360 and other SKUs."
Other companies that have mentioned problems (to varying degrees) with the Unreal Engine include THQ, darkSector developer Digital Extremes and Silicon Knights, which is taking its grievances all the way to court.
We're glad Midway's not that miffed, of course, since it is publishing Epic's Unreal Tournament 3.
One other thing that crept up in the call was reference to an "ambitious open-world game" due to be announced shortly. Keep your eyes on SPOnG for more details as they emerge.
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