This is a surprising headline, bearing in mind Epic’s own Mark Rein has previously gone on record stating the exact opposite. That doesn’t appear to have phased Ubisoft though, who not only claim that the Unreal Engine can run on a 3DS, but that they have actually managed it.

Splinter Cell 3DS producer, Fabrice Cuny, had the following to say:

“The 3DS is powerful, and we are able to run the Unreal engine on this console, which is pretty impressive for a handheld machine, and the 3D doesn’t affect the performance (thanks to my amazing programmers). The architecture is different compared to a Wii or some other platforms that we had to work with here at Ubisoft Montreal.

The 3DS can be much more comparable to a platform between a DSi and a Wii. We are able to create games anywhere from a puzzle game to very high-end game such as Splinter Cell 3D. The tools on the 3DS were brand new, and with every development phase, we had some tools with bugs and crashes. But with version after version, Nintendo provided us a set of tools and the support to help us debug and optimize the game.”

Whilst it obviously won’t be able to go toe to toe with the NGP, it’s nice to hear that there is a bit of grunt under that shiny bonnet. We look forward to see what the 3DS is really capable of once the initial wave of launch games and ports have passed.

source: http://www.thesixthaxis.com/2011/03/24/ubisoft-able-to-run-the-unreal-engine-on-the-3ds/

Epic remind me of Infinity Ward's "we don't hate Nintendo, it's simply that Modern Warfare can't be done on the Wii" excuse,  where later, surprise surprise, Treyarch managed very nicely.

I guess Epic is filled with lowsy coders if they failed to manage it where Ubisoft succeded. Their company name "Epic" is also the nerdiest name for a videogame company in existence. "Epic" is one of those words that English speaking nerds like to use a lot, up there with "hardcore", "leet", "trilogy", and "uber".

lol.. epic could run it on a iphone 3gs.. the 3DS shouldn't be harder..  they just don't think the investment is worthwile..

Epic is anti-Nintendo. Mark Rein himself said  "Why do people keep asking about the platforms we don't love?. Also Mark said that 3DS couldn't run Unreal3 and if it could they'd be all over it. Is SplinterCell:3D using Unreal3 or is it using Unreal2 or Unreal?

UbiSoft Montreal has used all the Unreal engines and are very familiar with them. I'd suspect that they could have used an older version then modified it. Is it confirmed that the engine they are using is Unreal3?

Also for that matter did their I-Phone games use the Unreal3 engine as well? Or did they use a special version built for the I-Phone or a past version modified for the I-Phone?

It's the Unreal engine 3.. the developer kit got an update to support the iPhone and Android Tegraa 2 devices..

probably they are using an heavy modified version of the 2.5 unreal engine, the same used for the first 3 Spliter Cell and Red Steel on the Wii. but i don't doubt that with a little bit of tweaking even UE3 can run on the 3DS. Epic games are plain lazy.

You guys realise that it would be ridiculous for epic to use an older build of unreal engine? Which unreal engine is splinter cell running on? Cause Bioshock 1 and 2 both run on UE 2.5 and that's ancient, its the same engine that was used for splinter celll chaos theory.

Epic will always use their newest engine to show off its abilities.

Yep they don't know what they are doing. Stupid studio name, Unreal Tournament series sucks and Gears of War is the most overrated game ever. /sarcasm

Its most likely Unreal Engine 2.5 because that is what Splinter Cell was run on as mentioned above. Epic isn't going to waste their time unless they can use their new features in Unreal engine 3.5 and for anyone to think that Epic doesn't know how to code their own engine is idiotic. They do Unreal Engine twice as good as anyone else. No game using Unreal Engine will come close to Gears 3. Mass Effect 3 may be the only one in the ballpark.