Warner to Make More Games with Epic’s Unreal Engine 3

After the large critical success of Arkham Asylum and the much anticipated release of Arkham City, Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment is announcing that they will continue to use the Unreal 3 engine as they making an unprecedented deal with Epic Games to use the Unreal 3 Engine studio wide until 2014.

Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment today announced a long-term studio-wide license agreement with Epic Games to use the award-winning Unreal Engine 3.

The development software will be available for any team developing a Warner-published game across PC, console and mobile platforms and, through 2014, will be the exclusive game engine used on projects being developed by Rocksteady Studios who are currently working on Batman: Arkham City and developed the critically acclaimed hit Batman: Arkham Asylum for WBIE/DC Entertainment, and NetherRealm Studios, the team behind award-winning Mortal Kombat franchise for WBIE.

“Unreal Engine 3 is one of the leading development tools available for today’s creative teams and it is a perfect fit for both NetherRealm and Rocksteady,” said Samantha Ryan, Senior Vice President, Production and Development, Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment. “Mortal Kombat and Batman: Arkham City use the engine’s state-of-the-art capabilities to provide the important foundation in bringing gamers the experience they are looking for.”

“We’re very excited that the talented production teams at NetherRealm and Rocksteady will continue to make Unreal Engine 3 their exclusive core technology for the next few years to create the exceptional titles they are so known for,” said Mark Rein, Vice President, Epic Games. “We look forward to seeing how the engine will contribute to the upcoming games from these teams and potentially other Warner teams and external developers who develop or publish with Warner.”

While it is expected that Studios such as NetherRealm and Rocksteady to continue using the technology they are familiar with, it will be interesting to see how this decision will effect other studios under the Warner Bros. banner. It is not mentioned in the press release if this deal would include any access to the upcoming Unreal 4 engine, which might be held off for more powerful multi-core systems in the next generation of consoles. However this deal highlights a strong partnership between Warner Bros. Interactive and Epic Games.