Square Enix to use Unreal Engine 3

[Odaisé Gaelach]

Final Fantasy Meets Gears of War
Square Enix to use Unreal Engine 3 for future titles.

January 25, 2007 - In the videogame equivalent of Angelina Jolie hooking up with Brad Pitt, Final Fantasy developer Square Enix will use Epic's Unreal Engine 3 for future next-gen and PC titles. Final Fantasy XIII, exclusive to PS3, is to be the last game to utilize Square's White Engine exclusively.

In an effort to ensure top-quality in its next-gen games, Square Enix is building a "combined technology platform." In a press release issued this morning, Square noted the new platform would be used "throughout the company, utilizing proprietary technologies as well as third-party solutions such as Unreal Engine 3."

http://pc.ign.com/articles/758/758364p1.html

[Erdrick Holmes]

Hey Square, EA called, they want their buisness practices back.

[Mirage]

What's wrong with using one of the best 3D engines out there? It saves them a lot of work, which means they can focus more on other parts of the games.

[Renmiri]

Awww... Does that mean we've seen the last of ATB ?

[Odaisé Gaelach]

Awww... Does that mean we've seen the last of ATB ?

...No...

[Mirage]

Uh. Unreal Engine 3 is a graphics engine. This means it only affects graphics. Logical, no? The Unreal engines are known to be very good, so I don't see how this is a bad thing at all.

[Odaisé Gaelach]

Uh. Unreal Engine 3 is a graphics engine. This means it only affects graphics. Logical, no? The Unreal engines are known to be very good, so I don't see how this is a bad thing at all.

Perhaps it'll be used for physics as well. Does the Unreal Engine 3 handle physics too?

[RiseToFall]

I thought they were using the 'white engine' for all their next gen games, why the change?

[Mirage]

They probably found out they should leave graphics for those who specialize in them ;p.

[JKTrix]

From Joystiq (http://www.joystiq.com/2007/01/25/square-enix-licenses-unreal-engine-3/), apparently quoted from one of the S-E staff.


The complexity of next-generation game systems featuring HD graphics and multi-core parallel processing poses a number of technological challenges to our game development. However, we can expedite our game development process significantly while allowing extra time and resources to be spent on game design and mechanics by establishing an effective technology platform.

[Slicksword45]

I think they are still using the White engine for FFXIII

[Shoeberto]

Judging by this thread's responses, people will probably be flipping out at this announcement. Not because it really means anything bad for the series, but because they don't actually know what's being talked about.

"What, Final Fantasy is going to become and FPS?! You suck, SE!"

[Old Manus]

I think FPS Fantasy could take the series in a new, better direction.

[Ashley Schovitz]

I think FPS Fantasy could take the series in a new, better direction.

You're crazy after what happened with the TPS Dirge of Cerberus!

[LunarWeaver]

If it gets me games faster, then all the more power to it.

[Renmiri]

I admit it, it freaked me out a bit. SE has had some weird decisions. X-2, the FFX after a planetload of Viagara got dumped on the ocean. Mickey and Auron join forces...

OTOH they made some good stuff. Advent Children was good and FFXII was decent enough.

I'll guess we will just have to wait and see.

[Jowy]

Keep in mind, Dawn of Mana runs off the Havok engine and apparently it works rather well for them.

They'll find a way to execute it well, otherwise they wouldn't waste their time trying to do anything with it.

[Nominus Experse]

You will all like it anyways

[Necronopticous]

The new Unreal engine is amazing.

This is bad quality, but a good example of the kind of beautiful shading and lighting effects it is capable of:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PKDXrAE7Ecg

For those of you unclear, the graphics engine does not have anything to do with the type of games that are made on said engine.

In short, this is great news.

[ReloadPsi]

I think FPS Fantasy could take the series in a new, better direction.

You're crazy after what happened with the TPS Dirge of Cerberus!
Sorry, did you want a THPS Dirge of Cerberus? That would be nasty.

[Yew-Yevon]

The offset engine would be way better.
http://www.projectoffset.com/game.html

[Mirage]

How do you know?

[Yew-Yevon]

Check the link and find out.

[Croyles]

I know it has nothing to do with the gameplay, but does this mean that FF's future graphics will resemble Half-life more than say FFX or FFXII?

[Mirage]

No. Even though it is a graphics engine used in FPS games, it does not mean they will be using the same textures 3D models, or viewpoints. The only way they'll "resemble" HL2 is that it is likely to have the same level of realism over it, when it comes to realistic shadows, reflections, and other effects.

And I did download a few videos off that site. I didn't find it dramatically better than HL2 or Unreal engine 3. Sure, it had a fantasy setting, but that can be done with UE3 too.

[Odaisé Gaelach]

The offset engine would be way better.
http://www.projectoffset.com/game.html

Ehhh... We'll have to see when Project Offset is released. The Unreal Engine 3 has already proven itself to be worthy in Gears of War. There's a lot of difference in seeing a bunch of screenshots or a video, and actually using the engine in a game.

[Renmiri]

We called it "Slideware" or "Powerpointware" in my time. Stuff that only exists in vendor demos :D

[RiseToFall]

I know this is a little off topic. But I'm more excited to see what developers can do with Cryteks CryENGINE2. So far, their own game Crysis, looks amazing.

[Odaisé Gaelach]

I know this is a little off topic. But I'm more excited to see what developers can do with Cryteks CryENGINE2. So far, their own game Crysis, looks amazing.

But until we actually see the game in action itself, we won't know what the engine's really capable of.

[Slothy]

I expected stuff like this with the current gen to be honest. Back when people were first started going on about development costs sky rocketing on the 360 and PS3 I knew more companies would start licensing technology, including big names. It only makes sense to use proven, versatile game engines to help companies create. A licensing fee is a lot cheaper than developing an engine from scratch these days, and if it leads to lower costs for developers, as well as faster development time, that's something we can all be happy about.

On a side note, I think quite a few companies are using the Unreal Engine 3 now. I saw a list of them somewhere, but I can't recall where at the moment. I believe there were some rather impressive names on it though.