Joystiq

Watch this space, Epic Games plans to double in size

Jason Dobson — Mon, 14 Jan 2008 11:30:00 EST

Filed under: PC, Business

Having tired of rubbing actual elbows with fellow teammates, Epic Games' always verbose VP Mark Rein has confessed that he and his squad of developers have "pretty much run out of space" in the company's North Carolina base of operations, and that plans are well underway for an expansion to "at least" double the facility's current size. According to a report by North Carolina's News Observer, the devs coughed up a cool $1.57 million for the new office space, which will be positioned on a five-acre lot adjacent to Epic's current 31,000-square foot HQ.

Headcount at Epic currently stands at 94, with current growth of around one new employee a month expected to continue for the next couple of years. So with all of this added space, will the developers get to spread out, and maybe quit knocking over each others' Mt. Dew as they reach for their mouse? Unlikely, as the report notes that the new facility will instead be largely used to house the numerous play testers that visit Epic, rather than have to rent out space down the street. We understand the need completely, though until the devs get additional space of their own we'd suggest judicious application of lids.

Watch this space, Epic Games plans to double in size originally appeared on Joystiq on Mon, 14 Jan 2008 11:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Epic's Mark Rein: No Gears of War 2 at Min-E3

Alexander Sliwinski — Tue, 19 Jun 2007 13:28:00 EST

Filed under: Microsoft Xbox 360, Action

If you're one of the thousands, nay millions, hoping that a Gears of War sequel is on the plate for Microsoft's super-secret Min-E3 plans ... you're just going to have to wait longer.

Mark Rein, VP of Epic Games, tells BeyondUnreal.com that they are not announcing a sequel to Gears this year at E3. He writes to them, "Did you see the update we just did for Gears of War last week? We're still working on the first one." Rein has been saying since GDC that there are no plans to announce a sequel, even though it's been no secret that many will eventually be released. This is the year of Halo for Microsoft, however next year...

Epic's Mark Rein: No Gears of War 2 at Min-E3 originally appeared on Joystiq on Tue, 19 Jun 2007 13:28:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Rumorong: Rein says Gears of War on PS3 is 'bull****'

Alexander Sliwinski — Mon, 04 Jun 2007 17:30:00 EST

Filed under: Sony PlayStation 3, Microsoft Xbox 360, Business

Following rumors of Gears of War heading to the PS3, Epic Games came out with a statement shooting the whole thing down. Quite succinctly, Mark Rein, VP of Epic Games says, "This story is complete bull****. I emailed the site and asked them to take it down. We're very happy with our relationship with Microsoft. If it weren't for them Gears wouldn't be the huge hit it has become."

Mark Rein has said it before and he'll probably have to say it again. In conversations we've had with Rein here at Joystiq, he says that Epic is very happy with their Microsoft relationship. Do they disagree about marketplace transaction fees? Yes. But, like Rein has said in the past, it's Microsoft's store. Seriously, don't expect to see Gears on PS3.

Rumorong: Rein says Gears of War on PS3 is 'bull****' originally appeared on Joystiq on Mon, 04 Jun 2007 17:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Next Gears update will bring more achievements

Dustin Burg — Fri, 25 May 2007 13:15:00 EST

Filed under: News, Gears of War

Epic's Mark Rein hopped on the official Gears forums to tell everyone that they are working hard on the next auto update and that they've included a few unexpected goodies. Not only are they tweaking the roadie run as promised, but they are adding some glorious NEW achievements to both the Annex gametype and the Hidden Fronts DLC, taking advantage of the new Gamerscore policy. Rein also goes on to say that the update will take care of random exploits and general housekeeping, but that they do not have a firm release date for the update yet.

Brand new Gears achievements simply rocks! It's something that I have been vocal about and to my surprise is going to happen. Now, for those of us who've earned the Seriously achievement, we can milk Gears for even more Gamerscore points. Dreamy isn't it? It's almost as if the Gears of War angels (Epic Games) have flown down from the heavens and blessed us once again.

[Via GamingTalkHQ]

Next Gears update will bring more achievements originally appeared on Joystiq on Fri, 25 May 2007 13:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Gears of War COG tag videos are the new horse armor

Alexander Sliwinski — Thu, 26 Apr 2007 02:30:00 EST

Filed under: Microsoft Xbox 360, Business

We are not amused. We are not amused, at all! Horse armor was ridiculous, Need for Speed irked us further, but these have clearly been replaced with the five videos on the Xbox Live marketplace, available for 100 MS points each ($1.25 USD), showing the locations of all the COG tags in Gears of War. With free resources like GameFAQS and YouTube already doling out this information to the masses, this is nothing but an unadulterated grab for cash, and because P.T. Barnum was right about suckers, there will be plenty of people who pay for these videos.

Although Mark Rein of Epic Games previously told us that it's Microsoft's store and they can do what they want, in all seriousness, this is insulting to gamers, legitimizes the belief that marketplace is continuing to test the limits of micro-softly-raping-payments and hurts the reputation of Epic. Although these videos are produced by Brady Games, the average consumer is just going to blame Epic and Microsoft. This is exactly what the marketplace should never be used for.

Gears of War COG tag videos are the new horse armor originally appeared on Joystiq on Thu, 26 Apr 2007 02:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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CliffyB will executive produce Gears of War film

Ross Miller — Thu, 22 Mar 2007 19:00:00 EST

Filed under: Microsoft Xbox 360, First Person Shooters, Business

Gears of War creator CliffyB will serve as an executive producer to the film adaptation, according to Mark Rein, Vice President of Epic Games. Speaking to Game Invasion at Midway's Gamer Day, Rein also explained that it was Jay Wilbur, the other Epic Game VP, who worked with Creative Artists Agency to negotiate the deal.

Having the creator of the franchise in such a prominent position is sure to satiate purists to the game, but so far we have seen only minimal plot that could not be stretched to a feature length. And CliffyB's production role may not give him too much influence, for better or worse -- after serving as executive producer for the latest film adaptation of his work, Frank Miller has decided to serve as director on his roles from now on.

No director has been announced, but the treatment was done by Stuart Beattie, scribe of Collateral, which bodes well. New Line won the rights to create the film, but we're still hesitant to call it will still come to fruition or fall through the cracks like Halo did.

[Thanks, Frank]

CliffyB will executive produce Gears of War film originally appeared on Joystiq on Thu, 22 Mar 2007 19:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Epic retracts Gears sequel statement

David Dreger — Tue, 13 Mar 2007 12:45:00 EST

Filed under: News, Gears of War

In our report on Cliffy B's take on Jazz Jackrabbit and its potential for Xbox Live Arcade, he made a tongue-in-cheek remark about "potential sequels" for the Gears of War franchise. Some people took this and ran with it as confirmation that there "ToTAlLY iz a GEars sequaL!1!!". Mark Rein made an appearance on the official Gears of War forum and stated that Cliffy in no way confirmed the development of a sequel. Mark has also said that if popularity and room for innovation was still there, he saw no reasons to stop at three games. So, not that we're suggesting anything, but if there was enough story and progression in the gameplay mechanics, how far can you see the Gears franchise going?

[Via Eurogamer]

Epic retracts Gears sequel statement originally appeared on Joystiq on Tue, 13 Mar 2007 12:45:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Mark Rein apologizes for Epic's lawyers attacking artist

Alexander Sliwinski — Sun, 11 Mar 2007 13:00:00 EST

Filed under: Culture, Microsoft Xbox 360, Action, Adventure, Business

While Mark Rein was away, the lawyers did play. During last week's GDC a cease and desist order was sent to Emilio Lopez over a very well done one-time piece of Gears of War art. Lopez had created the Munny doll for his cousin. The lawyers requested all Gears of War trademarks be removed -- even though the assets used to create the doll were taken from a fansite pack Epic released. Epic's VP Mark Rein apparently got back to the office after hearing about this and typed out a statement of apology and clarification.

Rein says on the Epic website, "Ugh. Our lawyers are trying to do their job and protect our trademarks but I guess they didn't realize this wasn't a commercial project and they fired off a standard form letter ... What we need to do is come up with some sort of permission letter for things like these so that we're properly protecting our future commercial rights but not stopping people from doing cool fan art like this. On behalf of Epic I apologize to Emilio and anyone who was offended by this."

[Thanks Frost]

Mark Rein apologizes for Epic's lawyers attacking artist originally appeared on Joystiq on Sun, 11 Mar 2007 13:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Epic apologies for the doll misunderstanding

Dustin Burg — Sun, 11 Mar 2007 04:00:00 EST

Filed under: Fan stuff, Gears of War

The other day we reported that Epic's lawyers were demanding that Emilio Lopez remove all Gears of War related material from his custom Munny doll. You, our fellow fanboys, had varying opinions about the whole thing to whether or not Epic was overacting or if they were within' their rights to send Emilio the letter. Well, we've received some clarity on the situation as Epic's own Mark Rein posted an apology on the official Gears of War forums. Rein acknowledged that their lawyers misunderstood Emilio's work, because they thought it was an actual product for sale using the GoW trademark. Rein went on to say that their lawyers did act over zealously and they now see absolutely no harm in Emilio's Christmas gift, but reinforced that they pursue hundreds of individuals who try captilizing on their trademarks illegally. In the end, no hard feelings and everyone can go their merry way.

We're glad that Epic came clean on this little situation and exposed it for what it was ... a misunderstanding. See, we knew Epic wasn't a corporate machine capable of doing such evil things ... we never doubted them for a second.

Epic apologies for the doll misunderstanding originally appeared on Joystiq on Sun, 11 Mar 2007 04:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Mark Rein says no Unreal Engine 3 for Wii

Alexander Sliwinski — Thu, 08 Mar 2007 19:25:00 EST

Filed under: Nintendo Wii, GDC, Business

The Wii is taking a beating this week at GDC by American developers. Between hushed conversations and public displays, it isn't pretty. Epic's vice president, Mark Rein, has never hid his feelings for the Wii. While discussing Unreal Engine 3 games in development for the Xbox 360, he was asked if they'd develop anything for the Wii's Virtual Console?

"Ummmmm, well, this is kinda a high definition engine. Designed for a certain level of graphics card and certain amount of CPU. You know, I'm sure one of our licensees will squeeze it down into the Wii. The way Ubisoft squeezed Unreal Engine 2 into the PSP," he explained in a little bit more detail exactly why the Wii and Unreal Engine 3 won't become best buddies, "Unreal Engine 3 is designed for a high level shader architecture and the Wii doesn't have that. I mean, you know, it's just not what we've been aiming for, so it's not something we're looking to do or support."

Rein wouldn't go into any details at the number of companies, or cost, to license the Unreal 3 Engine. He says the license is cheap, "We only saw a splinter of the money from Splinter Cell." Epic hopes to sell Unreal 3 mods on Xbox Marketplace. They also said they'd be coming out with a textbook for schools on the Unreal Engine 3.

Mark Rein says no Unreal Engine 3 for Wii originally appeared on Joystiq on Thu, 08 Mar 2007 19:25:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Mark Rein: Gears of War 'eventually' on PC

Ludwig Kietzmann — Wed, 14 Feb 2007 20:00:00 EST

Filed under: PC, Microsoft Xbox 360, Action

It seems that Epic's Mark Rein is finally being affected by the unrelenting repetition of being asked about a PC version of Gears of War every time he agrees to be interviewed. Having given up on traditional non-denials, an interview with Team Xbox has Mr. Rein taking one step forward and admitting that the testosterone epic will "eventually" be ported to PC.

"Yeah, eventually...I don't think that's any great secret that we would like to do it on PC, but for now it's a 360 game. Eventually we'll get around to a PC version. I just don't know when." Mark explains that the "when" will be largely dependent on how long it takes for the market to have enough PCs capable of playing the reconfigured game and thus be economically viable. However, with Unreal Tournament 3 scheduled for release this year, aren't we at that point already?

Perhaps we should stick to our current strategy -- ask Mark about Gears of War on PC until he screams in agony and orders a team to just port the game already.

[Thanks, Jonah]

Mark Rein: Gears of War 'eventually' on PC originally appeared on Joystiq on Wed, 14 Feb 2007 20:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Oblivion: Downgraded for PS3, not happening on Wii [update 1]

Jared Rea — Sat, 10 Feb 2007 11:30:00 EST

Filed under: Sony PlayStation 3, Nintendo Wii, Microsoft Xbox 360, Adventure, RPGs, Business

When we learned that the PS3 version of The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion would not feature the majority of downloadable content found on the Xbox 360 and PC versions of the game, it was a blow to fans of horse armor everywhere. An episode of The 1UP Show (02/02) provides the follow-up hook as 1UP relays a juicy bit of info from Bethesda. As it turns out, it may be due to a memory limitation with the Playstation 3 itself.

1UP says that Bethesda simply could not find a way to load every piece of downloadable content without affecting the performance of the game. Considering that the Xbox 360 can pull off this feat without a hitch, that seems quite odd. Bethesda will still be looking into getting that content available for PS3 users, as addressed by their VP of Marketing, Peter Hines, who also comments on the "rumors" regarding the memory issue in an IGN interview.

As for the PS3 version of Oblivion trumping the 360 in the visuals department, it just so happens that the new shader techniques applied to the PS3 will also be worked into the 360 version of the game. And thus, they are equals once more. Unless you want some horse armor. In which case, you're boned.

Finally, Shacknews sat down with Pete Hines and questioned their plans beyond the PC, PS3 and Xbox 360. When it comes to waggling your remote in Oblivion, "It's not really going to run on a Wii for example, but if it could we would put it there. Our philosophy is to make a game and make it available to as many people as possible."

Read - The 1UP Show, Oblivion Expansion Preview (9:40)
Read - IGN Interview with Pete Hines
Read - Shacknews, Interview with Pete Hines

[Update - We swapped out the Mark Rein quote with the more recent IGN interview to pull the feedback away from gritty, armchair analysis of tech specs and back into the content involved. Cleaned up some wording to not sound so definitive on a complex and unresolved issue. Thanks!]
[Thanks, Stephen!]

Oblivion: Downgraded for PS3, not happening on Wii [update 1] originally appeared on Joystiq on Sat, 10 Feb 2007 11:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Gears of War update: more talk, less tagging

Ludwig Kietzmann — Mon, 08 Jan 2007 10:30:00 EST

Filed under: Microsoft Xbox 360, Action

Epic's Mark Rein has divulged a list of issues that will be addressed by tomorrow's Gears of War update. The update, a prelude to Wednesday's new multiplayer maps, promises to fix the problem that left latecomers to a match without an audible voice. The noted aspect ratio bug that occurred with the Xbox 360's VGA cable has also been crushed beneath the weight of improved code. The full list of fixes reads as follows:

Fixed aspect ratio distortion when using VGA cable with 4:3 displays at resolutions higher than 640x480
Fixed voice issue with new players joining Player Match games in progress
Players can now get the Achievement for "Dish Best Served Cold" when using Troika turret to kill RAAM
Fixed rare situation where host could loop countdown and never start match
Fixed rare situation where players could get stuck after chainsawing in multiplayer
Reduced Grenade Tag melee distance
Enabled "Strict" NAT check on host to prevent possible connection issues
Optimized server browser queries to return results more quickly and prevent scroll bars from hiding quality of service icons
Reduced number of possible revives in Execution to match Warzone
Removed host name from Ranked match server browser
Disabled security cameras in Ranked matches
Ranked matches now require balanced teams (3v3 or 4v4)
Increased penalty for quitting a Ranked match to -50 points
Added additional cheat detection code
Additional housekeeping updates

Those that find themselves exploding at an alarming rate should be pleased to learn that grenade tagging will now require more intimacy to be effective. Indeed, the ones closest to you always end up hurting you the most.

Gears of War update: more talk, less tagging originally appeared on Joystiq on Mon, 08 Jan 2007 10:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Gears of War enhancements incoming, trilogy unconfirmed

James Ransom-Wiley — Mon, 27 Nov 2006 13:45:00 EST

Filed under: Microsoft Xbox 360, Action, Adventure, Business

"Why stop at three?" Epic's Mark Rein writes in response to Microsoft's Jeff Bell implying that Gears of War will become a trilogy. While no doubt a success, we're not ready to put Gears in the same league as Final Fantasy, Grand Theft Auto, Mario, or Metal Gear Solid. Nevertheless, Rein points to these franchises' abilities to continue to deliver popular entertainment (beyond the trilogy mark) and suggests, similarly, the Gears universe still has plenty of content to offer fans. Sounds like plot might factor into the sequel -- and here we thought sawdomy* was the only thing this series had going for it.

Rein did add that Epic's focus is still on the original Gears of War, promising to deliver "some great enhancements you'll hopefully see before too long." Perhaps ranked matches will be tweaked to support team-play after all.

*Use of the chainsaw attachment to defeat your enemy; coined by Penny Arcade.

Gears of War enhancements incoming, trilogy unconfirmed originally appeared on Joystiq on Mon, 27 Nov 2006 13:45:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Epic supports Gears of War updates

Dustin Burg — Wed, 15 Nov 2006 20:30:00 EST

Filed under: News, Xbox Live Marketplace, Gears of War

The oh so dashing Mark Rein posted a heart warming message to Gears fans on the official Gears of War message boards. Simply put, he stated that Epic was "going to support Gears of War and we're going to make improvements and enhancements for it." No dates or timetable was stated, but Epic just wants the fans to know that they are listening to us, hearing our complaints and praise, and will come out with updates and possibly new content in the near future. Now that's a real game developing company, actually caring about their customers and going the extra mile for them. Here's looking at you Electronic Arts, you're still grounded.

Epic supports Gears of War updates originally appeared on Joystiq on Wed, 15 Nov 2006 20:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Serious Games Summit: Epic Games' Mark Rein

Kyle Orland — Mon, 30 Oct 2006 17:25:00 EST

Filed under: PC, Microsoft Xbox 360, Action, First Person Shooters

In advance of the upcoming release of Gears of War, Epic Games' Mark Rein appeared at the Serious Games Summit to promote the Unreal Engine 3 for serious game development. Amid a video demo of the game and the usual PR-speak about how, with the Xbox 360, "the next gen is here now," Rein talked about how Unreal Engine 3 allowed the game to be developed at a fraction of the cost (GOW cost $10 million), time (two years to develop), and manpower (average 30 person team size) of other similar games.

To accentuate this point to the crowd, Rein brought out a developer from Virtual Heroes, a developer of "advanced learning technologies" that's using the engine in their games. He showed off an impressive demo of a full navigable Martian surface, featuring amazing ridges and vistas that were streamed from the hard drive dynamically and constructed using real Martian elevation data from NASA. The demo was thrown together in only four days, according to the developers.

Despite the advantages of the latest Unreal Engine, Rein admitted his team outsourced some art and programming help for Gears of War. Rein noted that with today's games this was practically a necessity: character models that were 3,000 polygons in 2004 have ballooned to nearly 4 million polygons for Unreal Tournament 2007. As Rein himself wryly put it, "Now that's a serious game."

Serious Games Summit: Epic Games' Mark Rein originally appeared on Joystiq on Mon, 30 Oct 2006 17:25:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Gears of War ain't easy, defends Epic

James Ransom-Wiley — Thu, 28 Sep 2006 13:00:00 EST

Filed under: Microsoft Xbox 360, Action

In response to concerns that Gears of War, with frequent checkpoints and regenerating health, is too easy, Epic's Mark Rein has chimed in over on Epic's forums. Rein has clarified that the Gears demo is set to "casual" (easy mode) and implies that first-time players will encounter plenty of challenge on harder difficulties.

Games like Halo 2 and Call of Duty 2 have proved that regenerating health does not impede on our sense of accomplishment when we pwn Legendary or Veteran mode. Here's to hoping Gears follows in their footsteps -- and not down Prey's path.

[Thanks, michael]

Gears of War ain't easy, defends Epic originally appeared on Joystiq on Thu, 28 Sep 2006 13:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Epic's Rein talks Gears, UT2007

Alan Rose — Wed, 20 Sep 2006 13:25:00 EST

Filed under: PC, Sony PlayStation 3, Microsoft Xbox 360, Action, First Person Shooters, Online

Epic Games VP Mark Rein was back in the hot seat in a new interview with CVG. For part one of two, Rein discusses Unreal Tournament 2007's hover board and weapons roster, the UT Kismet scripting language, and why Gears of War isn't really a "shooter".

Regarding the Kismet toolset and UT mod community, Rein had this to say: "Mod makers and designers are going to be able to do things that programmers could barely figure out how to do in the previous generation... you could take Unreal Kismet and build Tetris with it. I mean, without being a really genius programmer you could make a cool puzzle game with it."

Well, we've already had Mortal Kombat Tetris, so why not mash up the classic puzzler with a shooter? Using Unreal Engine 3's enhanced particle and shading effects, it would be the best damn looking Tetris game ever!

See also:

Epic's Rein talks Gears, UT2007 originally appeared on Joystiq on Wed, 20 Sep 2006 13:25:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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GOW rumblings: no demo?

Richard Mitchell — Fri, 04 Aug 2006 10:30:00 EST

Filed under: News, Gears of War

Following yesterday's BIG announcement that Gears of War will hit the US on November 12th and in the UK on the 17th of November, comes the news that there will not be a demo released before the game ships, or possibly ever. Speaking with TeamXbox, Epic VP, Mark Rein, had this to say:

"Demos take a long time to create and polish and we can't afford to get derailed like that if we want to have the game in stores by Thanksgiving. Given a choice of the game this year or a demo this year and the game next year I'm sure every one of you would rather have the game this year because you're already planning to buy it. No idea if we'll do a demo or not after the game ships."

Maybe that was the real BIG announcement. Seriously though, we all want a taste of GOW, but is there anyone out there waiting for a demo to make up their minds? If so, tell us why.

[Via Fraggerock]

GOW rumblings: no demo? originally appeared on Joystiq on Fri, 04 Aug 2006 10:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Emergence Day emerges as gasp Nov. 12

Christopher Grant — Thu, 03 Aug 2006 10:57:00 EST

Filed under: Microsoft Xbox 360, Action

The reason viral gaming campaigns bug us is 'cause the hype never matches the delivery. Last Monday Epic's Mark Rein declared, with a theatrical wave of a rather ham-shaped hand, that there would in fact be a "BIG announcement coming next week." At the same time, in another corner of the gamerverse, XBL gamertags using the fictitious names of fictitious characters pleaded with eager (or disinterested) gamers, "We need your help. Can't talk now. Don't know who to trust. Will send more tomorrow."

Codes were delivered, codes were broken, retail sites were apparently updated a little too early and now, on Thursday of the foretold "next week," we know the truth: Gears of War is coming out this fall ... specifically, November 12th! And gone is the Microsoft-published pricepoint of $49.99. This fall, $59.99 (with $69.99 special edition, natch) is the new $49.99. Yay?

You see? It's just not that exciting. We already knew it was coming out this fall and educated guesses would have pegged November, just prior to the Nov. 17th PS3 launch, as a likely candidate. And announcing a higher than expected price isn't usually received very well (just ask Sony). Then again, maybe this isn't the BIG announcement. Maybe this is all part of a cleverly orchestrated plot by this guy to get our hopes up, dash them against the rocks like so many brains, and then, when we've hit bottom, throw a face melting Gears of War demo in our very melt-able, exceedingly cynical faces. Your move, Epic.

Continue reading Emergence Day emerges as *gasp* Nov. 12

Emergence Day emerges as *gasp* Nov. 12 originally appeared on Joystiq on Thu, 03 Aug 2006 10:57:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Rein reckons PS3 "in a better place" for launch than 360

Ludwig Kietzmann — Wed, 26 Jul 2006 21:25:00 EST

Filed under: Sony PlayStation 3, Microsoft Xbox 360, First Person Shooters

In an interview with Eurogamer, Epic's Mark Rein makes an interesting observation in stark contrast to the doom and gloom murmurings (and memes) that have recently surrounded the impending PS3 launch. Rein notes that developers were just receiving final developments kits when E3 rolled around, whereas the Xbox 360 units were not yet available during the expo a year before. "So Sony's actually maybe in a better place vis-a-vis Microsoft in relation to launch."

Coupled with news of 10,000 development kits being shipped off to eager programmers, it would appear that the PS3 is indeed in a good place for developers. Of course, that only amplifies the importance of having companies like Epic use the tools and the time given them to craft excellent experiences. After all, the best place for the PS3 to be in would be someone's living room, and the only way it's going to get there initially is with the aid of some killer launch titles. Where are they?

In Mark Rein's house, apparently. "I know we're getting some great results with it back at our house, so I would expect other developers will be as well." Once Sony announces the PS3's full launch lineup, we'll be in a better position to see how pronounced the development kit advantage really is.

Rein reckons PS3 "in a better place" for launch than 360 originally appeared on Joystiq on Wed, 26 Jul 2006 21:25:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Mark Rein of Epic says PS3 is in a better place... for launch

Nick Doerr — Wed, 26 Jul 2006 15:30:00 EST

Filed under: Interviews, News

Master of Epic and one of the bigwigs behind Gears of War, Mark Rein, recently sat down with Eurogamer to say a few words about Microsoft's rival. Since he's behind a large development studio, he commended Sony's attempts to give out the final dev-kits long before launch (around E3): "Developers did not have finished Xbox 360 hardware last year at E3. So Sony's actually maybe in a better place vis-a-vis Microsoft in relation to launch." Straight from the mouth of a big Microsoft developer! Well, not exclusively, but at least all the attention Gears of War is getting isn't making him as close-minded about other consoles as many people have.

Yes, yes, all well and good, but what about the dev-kit itself? Sure, getting it out there is swell and all, but if it's a clunky interface with difficult who-what's-its and doo-dads, that kind of makes it useless. Rein responds thus: "I know we're getting some great results with it back at our house, so I would expect other developers will be as well." Great news! Perhaps other developers are having success with it and those 10,000 kits are making about 200 fantastic games. MS and Sony fans must agree, these words are reassuring to the latter and hard to bash by the former -- or do you not care about Gears of War? You wouldn't want to hurt its feelings, would you?

Mark Rein of Epic says PS3 is in a better place... for launch originally appeared on Joystiq on Wed, 26 Jul 2006 15:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Overheard@Develop: Mark Rein - "I need a stiff drink"

Conrad Quilty-Harper — Wed, 12 Jul 2006 10:45:00 EST

Filed under: Culture, Business

Mark Rein is currently sitting 3 feet away from me, and is heavily immersed in an interview with a journalist. Only five minutes ago I heard him saying "I need a stiff drink" in not-too-subtle tones as he walked past the press area. The reason? Most likely his supposed "heckling" from developers over his strong opinions cited in the opening keynote of the Develop Conference this morning (UK time). One developer went as far as calling Mark "a dinosaur" regarding his views about the industry's direction.

In the keynote this morning he called episodic content a "broken business" and stated that "Episodic games that offer faster turnaround will inevitably be using a lot of recycled content, walking through the same environments and shooting the same enemies with the same weapons." So that's opposed to the refreshing experience that we get from walking through Unreal game after Unreal game?

At least one thing's on the up: Mark seems to have got something to drink, as the picture above illustrates.

Overheard@Develop: Mark Rein - "I need a stiff drink" originally appeared on Joystiq on Wed, 12 Jul 2006 10:45:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Epic's Mark Rein: Intel is killing PC Gaming

Conrad Quilty-Harper — Wed, 12 Jul 2006 08:45:00 EST

Filed under: PC, Business

A couple of hours ago, Epic Vice President Mark Rein opened the Develop Conference in Brighton with a keynote covering topics ranging from the economics of next-generation games, episodic content and middleware (which, incidentally, Epic makes a lot of its money from). The majority of the second half of his keynote took a critical look at Intel's place within gaming; specifically, Mark thinks "Intel is killing PC gaming".

Over several slides on the topic, Mark laid out the reasons he thinks that PC gaming is being harmed by Intel. He pointed the finger at Intel's integrated graphics chips. Integrated chipsets are often incapable of playing the latest (and certainly next-generation) games at any kind of graphics settings. Despite this, they are wildly popular amongst retailers. According to Mark's figures, 80% of laptops and 55% of desktops (note: he failed to cite a source for these figures) feature integrated graphics. That's bad news for companies like Epic, which are investing heavily into extremely demanding next-generation games.

If next-generation games don't run on the vast majority of computers, big-name and -money developers will lose (or have already lost) their bottom end. At the same time, the higher end is getting higher. The last year has produced widespread-SLI adoption within the hardcore PC gaming community and new technologies like Quad-SLI, Quad-CPUs, physics processors and $10,000+ PCs.

Over the next couple of days we'll be exploring this keynote and other seminars from Develop in more depth, but for now we'll ask you the same questions that Mark asked the audience:

Do games like The Sims, World of WarCraft and other low-budget Asian MMOs prove Mark's hypothesis, that PC gaming is going away because of Intel, wrong?
Will console MMOs put the nail in the coffin of PC gaming?
How come big publishers aren't placing big bets on PC gaming? (Mark says that he knows of at least two "major" developers that are considering moving exclusively to console based development, although he failed to elaborate on which ones).
Will the PC market be relegated to only mass-market and casual games?

Epic's Mark Rein: Intel is killing PC Gaming originally appeared on Joystiq on Wed, 12 Jul 2006 08:45:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Heard@GDC: no Unreal Engine 3 on Revolution

Christopher Grant — Tue, 28 Mar 2006 01:00:00 EST

Filed under: Nintendo Wii, First Person Shooters, GDC

During a Q&A session following a demonstration of their new Unreal Engine 3, Epic Games' Mark Rein said, "It won't be easy to take something HD res here to the Revolution," continuing we probably "won't be seeing Unreal Engine 3 on the Revolution."

Although he was clear to say that he has not seen the final hardware for the Revolution, Rein said the existing Unreal Engine 2 would provide more than enough muscle to take full advantage of the Revolution's hardware since it won't require HD resolution.

Naturally, nothing's been announced, so despite the fact this came from Epic's VP, consider it unconfirmed. Any geeks in the house care to pontificate on whether or not UE3 is in fact worth it for Revolution developers?

See also:
Revolution can handle Unreal Engine 3
Mark Rein to consider Unreal Engine 3 for Revolution
Nintendo responds to Epic's Revolution disdain
Epic VP rips on Revolution concept

(UPDATE: To prevent further confusion, I'll attempt to clarify what I think Mr. Rein was saying. The process of porting UE3 games running in HD from platforms like PC, Xbox 360, or PS3 to the Revolution "won't be easy" and therefore, he suspects, won't be done. He elaborated that licensing Unreal Engine 3 for a Revolution game would probably be overkill, since Unreal Engine 2 is already capable of maxing out what they perceive the system to be capable of.

That being said, what about the streamlined scripting and animation tools bundled into Unreal Engine 3's Kismet? Wouldn't some developers gladly pay the increased licensing fees to work in a refined development environment that, according to Epic, could cut their development costs. Furthermore, some developers, like Midway, have purchased studio-wide licenses to develop all their next-gen titles with UE3, presumably their Revolution titles as well.

I think mocax got it right, "Epic's writes software graphics/game engines. Nintendo makes a machine that allows developers to deviate from Epic's core business. Any self-respecting profit-oriented corporation will twitch at Nintendo's disruption." I suspect we will see UE3 on some Revolution titles, but the idea is antithetical to Nintendo's stated ideology and thereby threatening to a company that makes their money selling eye candy.

Heard@GDC: no Unreal Engine 3 on Revolution originally appeared on Joystiq on Tue, 28 Mar 2006 01:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Epic shows off Unreal Engine 3 at GDC

Christopher Grant — Mon, 27 Mar 2006 23:00:00 EST

Filed under: Nintendo GameCube, PC, Sony PlayStation 3, Microsoft Xbox 360, GDC, Business

Epic Games, creators of the gib-tastic pixel-pr0n Unreal Tournament series were showing off the latest version of the tech behind their games at GDC: Unreal Engine 3. So, we all know it's pretty. How pretty? Super duper pretty. It'll make you give up religion and find faith in fragfests, it's so pretty. Beyond it being pretty, what else was there to show off?

Epic showed off Kismet, an advanced scripting system that allowed them to create gameplay elements in a graphical UI that strongly resembled a flowchart. It's this middleware system that they claim will prevent the budgets of next-gen projects using their engine from jumping 200-300%, instead citing a more reasonable 50%.

The ability to simplify many of the core game design elements will theoretically result in increased creativity; it'll be amazing to see what the mod community turns out using these tools.

They showed off the system running on both a high end Dell Renegade and a PS3 dev kit, both of which elicited many oohs and aahs, despite the fact the PS3 version wasn't running on all of the system's SPUs and contained some textures from Unreal Tournament 2004. For a more in-depth look at the demonstrations, check out Gamespot and GamesIndustry.biz.

Read - Epic shows off Unreal tools [Gamespot]
Read - Getting Unreal with Epic's Mark Rein [GamesIndustry.biz]

Epic shows off Unreal Engine 3 at GDC originally appeared on Joystiq on Mon, 27 Mar 2006 23:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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