Epic Disses Crytek, Claims Engine Dominance
Epic's Mike Capps doesn't understand why everyone takes Crytek so seriously.
Epic Games president Mike Capps, the biggest driving force behind the company's push to license its Unreal Engine to developers, recently questioned the hype surrounding Crytek's competing gaming engine, CryEngine 3. At the same time, Capps believes that Unreal Engine 4, when released, will be the market-leading development engine for upcoming PC games and next-generation console titles.
But although a little mud-slinging is expected between rival companies, what's his big beef against Crytek? In a nutshell, he's surprised anyone takes the studio seriously since the previous engine--CryEngine 2--didn't appear on the consoles as originally planned.
"It’s difficult for us to know what their position is," he said in a recent interview. "They’ve positioned themselves strongly as the 'we're gonna be on console, push one button and it’s great on all three platforms' engine. Warhead was going to come out in 2008 and was going to be their first big console game, and then they just cut console development from CryEngine 2 entirely, and suddenly we had a new engine. So, they’ve yet to ship an Xbox 360 game and we’re five years in. It surprises me that people take them seriously as a cross-platform engine company. We don’t know how to compete against a company that hasn’t shipped yet. It’s all potential, so we’ll see.”
As for the Unreal Engine 4, the outlook for the next generation is somewhat murky compared to the last round, leaving the team rather nervous. Still, Capps seemed rather excited on the PC front. "If you look at what’s happening in the PC market--Larrabee and all that--it’s really taking off, and I think the jump to next generation’s going to be another really big one, which is great for tech guys. Most likely, you’re not going to want to make that massive investment yourself, you’re going to look to come to a company like Epic."
Yep, despite all the console love, Epic still seems to care about the PC gamers. Now is a good time to bring out Unreal 3, no?
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Kevin Parrish has over a decade of experience as a writer, editor, and product tester. His work focused on computer hardware, networking equipment, smartphones, tablets, gaming consoles, and other internet-connected devices. His work has appeared in Tom's Hardware, Tom's Guide, Maximum PC, Digital Trends, Android Authority, How-To Geek, Lifewire, and others.
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AMW1011 Sounds like he is getting worried, a new major engine in to run with UR4 would definitely be nice, especially if the Cryengine 3 can produce the same amazing graphics and good physics much more efficiently than Cryengine2.Reply -
RipperjackAU ... but does Unreal play Crysis?Reply
You have to ask, given the nature of the story, compairing one to the other. -
warezme the guy sounds like a moron, "Larrabee and all--its really taking off" ???? WTF & Whatever. New Unreal engine? Talk about the pot calling the kettle black.Reply -
BoxBabaX RipperjackAU... but does Unreal play Crysis?You have to ask, given the nature of the story, compairing one to the other.Reply
hahahaha :) -
I will admit that I like UT3's graphics more than Crysis', regardless of how `technically better` CryEngine may be. It will definitely be interesting to compare the two engines whenever products utilizing them are available.Reply
As for Unreal 3, if it's anything like Unreal 2, then heck no. I'd rather play the first Unreal again. -
Kelavarus What? Larrabee? Someone hasn't been reading the news.Reply
At "Does Unreal play Crysis", check out the demo map from the newest version of UDK. :) Not quite there yet, but it's getting close. I think the biggest downfall of Unreal Engine 3.5 right now is probably lack of antialiasing.
It will be interesting to see what happens with Unreal 4, though this kind of annoys me. Last we heard, they were angling towards consoles, now they seem to flipping and talking about PCs. Perhaps the rage of the PC Gamers is getting to them. -
maigo CryEngine looks nice but it doesn't work as well and it sure as hell isn't proven like UnrealReply -
mlopinto2k1 It sounds like maybe he shouldn't have been quoted for the whole world to see his words. Sounds more like a personal conversation he would have had to someone in his level. People talk like this all the time. Why would he publicly bash another game developer? Just doesn't make sense. Who cares. Let Crytek do their thing and focus on your own damn development. His comments remind me of some of the comments here on Tom's... way too opinionated.Reply