For those who haven't been following the saga of the UE3 or the much shorter story of iD's new tech5 engine, I think the new engine could be great news for the PS3. With all the tangled complications that seem to have occured with the UE3 engine on the PS3, it's interesting to note that iD's new engine apparently allows identical code to run on a 360, PC, Mac... or PS3. While I'm sure this is part advertisement and self-propoganda, I also have a good deal of respect for Carmack, and expect that this could be a much easier solution for PS3 developers in the future.

Any thoughts?  

Well, it may be good for multiplatforming (cool word), but I think there's a proverb that says something like "when you can do lot of things, you won't be good for any of them" (I don't know how it goes in english).

What I mean is, if a game is done in... let's say 360. Then you port it to PS3... but the code won't be optimized to use of the SPE's... and the Cell without use of multiple SPE's is useless. So the PS3 version won't be as good or won't use the potential of the console.

@ Fazz

This will only work wit, first party.

Jack of all trades, master of none.

That's what's said in the UK anyway.

There is no reason if an engine is done properly - that the identical assets/code couldn't work on all of these platforms. If anyone can pull it off - it would be ID.

Not sure it would be "good" for Sony though - in this situation, the owner of the higher install base usually benefits. And considering that its PC & MAC as well - its just great for gamers :)

(hoping to buy a new iMac sometime in the future, and looking forward to maybe playing some of these games on it...).

Id say its bad news for wii.

why make a wii game if you cam make a PS3/360/PC/Mac game with one engine, cost effective while hitting a massive user base.

No its not bad news for wii, just like ps2 development cost is low and its easy to make games for it they arent using the same engine on the 360 for the wii it would kill the game.

from what i have read about Tech5 the core code is the same, then when it is time to compile the executable, there are "check boxes" that say build this game for:

360
ps3
pc
mac

then when the compiling is done, the core Code is the same, just the executable is set for each system. so if they did the engine RIGHT, the 360 is optimized for its cores, the ps3 for ITS spe's, etc...