Unreal Engine 4 Revealed, Looks Amazing (Duh)

The next generation of consoles may be a way off yet, but Epic Games’ has revealed that its latest tech, Unreal Engine 4, is up and running right now. Wired has got the first batch of screenshots, as well as a lengthy interview with Epic’s Tim Sweeny involving a number of subjects, such as the history of Epic, and what sort of effort was involved in building their latest middleware powerhouse.

And a powerhouse it is poised to be, as it may even force Microsoft and Sony to rethink the amount of power they’re putting into their next consoles. They’ll need to at least be fast and powerful enough to run the engine and handle its more demanding properties.

Rampant speculation alert: Way back in 2004, when Epic first revealed Unreal Engine 3, those assets turned out to be from Gears of War, though the game itself had not been announced at the time. It’s likely that these new assets are also from an as-yet-unannounced game that is currently in production. If I were a bettin’ man, I’d wager that the game in question is a new, console specific version of the Infinity Blade franchise which has been so popular on iOS devices.

In any case, with E3 right around the corner, I expect Epic will have even more to say about Unreal Engine 4 very soon.