Examiner

 Last night, Epic Games showcased the latest version of their massively successful “unreal” engine: Unreal Engine 4. Unreal Engine 3 has been used in countless games on platforms ranging from the PC to the Xbox 360 and iPhone. To say this next version is something of importance for the “next generation” of gaming is an understatement. 

It’s pretty much expected that Nintendo’s next console won’t be a powerhouse in terms of hardware. There have been rumors claiming it to be “just above” current consoles.  Epic Games going on record saying “the platforms we designed ‘Unreal Engine 4’ for have not been announced yet” solidifies that rumor. But what about Microsoft and Sony’s next generation of home consoles? They surely have the horsepower to push Epic Games next engine, right? Tim Sweeny, the founder of Epic Games, may think otherwise. In an interview with Eurogamer, Sweeny had this to say in regards to the next generation Microsoft and Sony platforms:

"There is a huge responsibility on the shoulders of our engine team and our studio to drag this industry into the next generation," said Gears of War design director Cliff Bleszinski. "It is up to Epic, and Tim Sweeney in particular, to motivate Sony and Microsoft not to phone in what these next consoles are going to be. It needs to be a quantum leap. They need to damn near render Avatar in real time, because I want it and gamers want it - even if they don't know they want it."

Sweeney added: "We're much more in sync with the console makers than any other developer is. That means we can give detailed recommendations with a complete understanding of what is going to be commercially possible."

Apparently Epic has seen the specs of both Microsoft and Sony’s next consoles, and are "actively lobbying" for them to be more powerful. We have heard this argument from Epic before, most notably during the development of the current generation of consoles 7 years ago. With the success of Unreal Engine 3, it’s clear that their argument was invalid back then. 

But what if it’s not this time? If you haven’t read the news, Sony’s not doing too well at the moment, so they may not be able to “afford” a power house of a console. With Nintendo playing it safe (cheap), that leaves the ball in Microsoft’s court. With Microsoft having zero incentives to push any real hardware numbers due to limited competition, we could be left with Epic Games’ biggest fear: an underpowered next generation of consoles.

http://www.examiner.com/article/epic-games-actively-lobbying-for-more-power-next-gen-consoles

If Epic wants to put their money where their mouth is and help fund this monstrosity of a console that they have in mind (not to mention that 95% of games for it would barely push the hardware), then they can be my guest.

Until they have to deal with the reality of power vs cost, especially in such a volatile global economy that we're currently in, they can "actively lobby" all they want, because it's not going to change a thing.

And regarding the Wii U... would anyone really be disappointed if the majority of games for it looked "ONLY" as good as the latest current gen titles like Uncharted 3 or Battlefield 3?

Meaning that all three are not the super-gigantic leap some of you think they will be and are more inline with my comparison thread based off of the latest rumors.

Oh yes please Epic, force higher specs for the next console generation so you can screw over third parties with your shitty Unreal Engine license for said consoles. Eugh.

Unreal Engine?

More like COCAINE ENGINE, yeah?

Cliffy B is right. We gamers want a powerful next gen.

Gameplay comes first, I am a strong supporter of good gameplay before bells and whistles, but when it's such a long time between console generations I want it to show in graphics, because essentially the tech is the only reason you should switch to a new generation at all.

Also I want next gen HD consoles to be powerful to repeat the wonderful multiplat sitation we had in this gen on consoles versus PC. In this gen console games still don't look outdated compared to the PC versions, while at this point in time in last gen, consoles were ridicilously much behind PC graphics.

It does 't matter that Cliffy B talks in his own business interest. We gamers must unite behind this and force Sony and Microsoft to put strongest possible hardware into their next gen consoles.

Unite!

Avatar in real time??? No.

There are economic realities that EPIC doesn't have to face that console manufacturers will. Not to mention their vested interest in seeing that UE4 grows their market for engine licensing. And also isn't the Silicon Knights vs Epic trial coming to a head soon too?

Nah, sorry, not buying this threat.

Yes they have a ulterior motive in that they want the hardware to be as cutting edge as possible, because they are the high end engine maker, and if the ground is middling that will allow other engine makers to catch up to them. That said it isn't necessarily contrary to the best interest of gamers. Engines do more then just make games shiny, If the hardware sees a significant improvement then all game aspects will improve like collision detection, load times, artificial intelligence, and game hosting.

A small jump would only have a small potential for game innovation. While a big jump would have big potential. The latter would allow game developers to be more bold about what they are trying to do. Which will make the world of gaming more exciting. It would almost be tragic if the next generation weren't a proverbial quantum leap over the current generation.

Damn it I want to be able to host twelve man parties in a game like Skyrim, and I want to stream a playlist in the background to all my friends. Hell how fun would it be to just be able to drop in and out of games on the fly. Am I the only one who really wishes for this feature, because it would stop online handicapping in competitive play. I want the experience to seem fresh and exciting as compared to just a little better.

If in the end it is all of just a little better, and basically the same old. Then I probably won't be there on day one. I will probably just wait a couple years to pay what the hardware is genuinely worth. As far as I am concerned just a little better means I should just pay a little bit more. I have to agree with him there isn't any point in buying new hardware if it is already over five years outdated. I expect hardware to become severely outdated, but I shouldn't expect it to start out that way.

Avatar in real time... That's a stretch. Would it be possible, though, for next gen graphics to reach such a point that the differences wouldn't much matter? Is it possible for the consoles to do most of the grunt work while using streaming (kinda like how OnLive does it) to push graphics ever higher? I don't know much about technology but would this be feasible?

IIRC, MS increased the 360's RAM to 512 after Epic poked them over it. I don't understand why people would get mad over unreal engine and others though; some of the best looking games run on UE and these engines lower the bar for market entry, enabling designers to concentrate on games rather than re-inventing the wheel.