In a recent interview, Epic Games head honcho Mark Rein squashed an ongoing myth that the company had abandoned PC games.
But let's be honest here: the so-called "myth" is seemingly backed by Epic's non-existence in the PC market. Although the company's first handful of games were DOS-based (Jazz Jackrabbit, Epic Pinball, Unreal, Unreal Tournament to name a few), Epic hasn't really been a PC-exclusive developer for a very, very long time. It's actual jump into the console arena began as early as 1999 with the release of Unreal Tournament for the PlayStation 2.
So when Mark Rein was asked why the company was a little bit more resistant to the PC of late, naturally he disagreed, adding that the Unreal Development Kit gets an update every single month--updates that are tested on the PC.
"But I think that’s a myth that we’ve abandoned the PC, it’s just not true," he said. "I mean, Bulletstorm is coming out on three platforms; we’ve just been in this situation where our biggest franchise has been published by a console-holder, and was a very console designed-IP. I wouldn’t want people to mistake that for our intentions or our interests, because we’re very much into the PC game business."
He goes on to add that consumers shouldn't label Epic games as a "Gears of War" company. "There’s a tendency to think that because we wanna do one thing really, really well and not a hundred things really poorly or just okay that we’re less committed," he said. "Bulletstorm is PC, PS3 and Xbox 360 and you’ll see when it comes out, it will be a full-blown, oh-my-god amazing PC game. I wouldn’t draw the comparisons there."
Mark Rein and Epic seems to believe that Bulletstorm will establish the company as a continuing big player in the PC gaming arena. Guess we'll find out in Q1 2011.