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[sonycowboy]

Seems the EPIC signing had to do with more than just publishing the Unreal games. Mortal Kombat had used the Renderware middleware among other Midway titles.

Wednesday February 2, 8:30 am ET
Epic Games' Unreal(R) Engine 3 Technology and Tools set to be Development Base for Midway's Next Generation Console and PC Games

CHICAGO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Feb. 2, 2005-- Midway Games Inc. (NYSE:MWY - News), a leading developer and publisher of interactive entertainment software, today announced a multi-year licensing agreement with Epic Games giving Midway use of Epic's Unreal Engine 3 technology and tools for next generation console and PC game development. Unreal Engine 3 technology and tools are now in use at Midway's internal studios including: Midway's Chicago studio, the makers of NBA Ballers and the Mortal Kombat franchise; Midway's Austin studio, developers of Area 51; and Surreal Software, the creators of The Suffering.

This agreement with Epic furthers Midway's strategy to align itself with the top development technology and talent in the industry. The relationship also allows Midway to build on Unreal Engine 3 technology to create specific tools and assets that will be utilized across all Midway internal studios. This studio-wide effort is expected to be instrumental in the development and progression of major franchises as well as the creation of new game properties. The agreement also underscores Midway's commitment to the premium PC games market.

"Great next generation games will be defined by how far they push the envelope in terms of graphical prowess, evolved artificial intelligence and revolutionary online functionality beyond what gamers are currently experiencing," said David F. Zucker, president and chief executive officer of Midway. "Our obtaining the use of Unreal Engine 3 empowers us to begin today to produce great next generation content. Our internal studios are already in the process of creating incredible products with the Unreal Engine 3 technology in multiple genres."

Mark Rein, vice president of Epic Games agrees, "We are especially gratified that Midway, a major publisher committed to developing high quality games for both next generation console and PC platforms, in numerous styles and genres, came to us seeking the right to use Unreal Engine 3 as a basis technology for its enterprise."

"This relationship with Epic is key in our continued efforts to build Midway into a world class development organization," said Matt Booty, senior vice president of product development, Midway. "We want all of our studios to focus on creating great content and not on creating multiple technologies from scratch. The Unreal Engine 3 technology is a critical step towards this goal and combined with our own internal systems and additions, will allow Midway to maintain its leadership in quality development as we head into the next generation."

 

[Ghost]

smooth move by midway.

 

[MightyHedgehog]

Yup. Soon, almost everyone will jump off of the Renderware wagon, leaving EA (and its subsidiaries) as pretty much the lone user.

 

[open_mouth_]

I wish when some companies make great technology (like the Unreal Engines, Doom Engines, Half-Life Engines, and even the Halo engine) that they should license that tech out to other companies so more quality products can be released even quicker.

 

[The Bookerman]

Guess that Ea's strategy of standardizing the industry won't work. :lol


Good move by midway.

 

[Funky Papa]

I've heard from several developers that Epic provides the best tech support for your money in the market. It's a smart move, lots of $$$ are plunged when developing with middleware because of bad documentation or unreliable support and with EA messing around you don't know what to expect.

 

[sonycowboy]

I've heard from several developers that Epic provides the best tech support for your money in the market. It's a smart move, lots of $$$ are plunged when developing with middleware because of bad documentation or unreliable support and with EA messing around you don't know what to expect.

Renderware is the best OVERALL middleware out there by a pretty wide margin. It's really done a great job encapsulating the audio engine, graphics engine, I/O access (including Network), and developer tools out there. However, it's only middle of the pack in terms of pure graphics engine processing.

 

[gofreak]

This would help explain Epic's inclusion of PS3 in their discussion about UE3 and next-gen games. If they're to contend as a serious console middleware provider - which, let's face it, is where most of the money is - they'll have to provide for PS3 too (and eventually Revolution).

 

[Funky Papa]

Renderware is the best OVERALL middleware out there by a pretty wide margin...

I was talking more over the lines of graphic engines (not full solutions) and their expenses.

Edit: See blimblim's reply.

 

[Blimblim]

Renderware is the best OVERALL middleware out there by a pretty wide margin. It's really done a great job encapsulating the audio engine, graphics engine, I/O access (including Network), and developer tools out there. However, it's only middle of the pack in terms of pure graphics engine processing.

Some friends working in game developement told me that Renderware was also a very buggy mess, and that they often did not know if a bug was in their code, or in renderware's. That seemed to be a very big issue for them.

 

[CaptainABAB]

I wish when some companies make great technology (like the Unreal Engines, Doom Engines, Half-Life Engines, and even the Halo engine) that they should license that tech out to other companies so more quality products can be released even quicker.

They already do - it's probably the main business at Id (Doom, Quake) . Not sure about Valve and I don't think the Halo engine is available.

 

[vesuvious]

So let me get this straight...EA, bought Criterion out(along with Renderware) so they could license it to other companies, thus making money off of third parties as well? My understanding of that whole deal between EA and Criterion was that they bought them so they could keep Criterion and the Renderware tech all to themselves.


Anyway, its good news for Midway that they are going to use U3E for all their next gen games. I have a feeling Midway games aren't going to look average anymore. Midway, has steadily increased their quality over the past few years, and this deal will further improve the quality of their products. Good move Midway!

 

[sonycowboy]

Some friends working in game developement told me that Renderware was also a very buggy mess, and that they often did not know if a bug was in their code, or in renderware's. That seemed to be a very big issue for them.

Not to argue, but I've heard the much more of that regarding the Unreal / Quake / Lithtech engines out there. They have pretty constant revisions and are quite a bit more skimpy on documentation and full QA testing. They are technically cutting edge, though, and you do get access to some really, really smart folks.

Renderware is more of a packaged product, with regular and steady updates, and from what I've heard is quite a bit easier to make a product around.

But, it's all about specific dev teams and what they've already designed as to what parts of Renderware they're going to use. Almost nobody uses all of Renderware for a project, they pick and choose various engines based on their own resources.

 

[sprsk]

Roll that beautiful unreal 3 footage.

 

[vesuvious]

Roll that beautiful unreal 3 footage.

LOL, you sound like the Bush Baked Beans guy now.

 

[Apharmd Battler]

Good to see that the relationship that started with Unreal Championship 2 is blossoming into something fantatic. Midway is realyll coming back in the game in a major way. I used to think of them as one step above Acclaim in terms of publishing and development. But after Psi-Ops, they had my full attention. Imagine a next-gen Psi-ops sequel with Unreal 3 power behind it.

 

[vesuvious]

Good to see that the relationship that started with Unreal Championship 2 is blossoming into something fantatic. Midway is realyll coming back in the game in a major way. I used to think of them as one step above Acclaim in terms of publishing and development. But after Psi-Ops, they had my full attention. Imagine a next-gen Psi-ops sequel with Unreal 3 power behind it.

I was just trying to imagine what they could do with there Rush game franchise now that they have the U3E tech. I bet it would be amazing. Also, speaking of Acclaim, when is someone going to buy out specific properties such as Turok that were left lying in the dust when Acclaim went out of business? I think this license would work good with Midway along with the U3E tech. Nintendo seems to be partnering with all kinds of third parties these days too, so I think Nintendo should look to Midway for expanding their presence in the western market. At one time Nintendo actually partnered with Midway in the N64 days, so I think its high time that they do some more dealings with each other.

 

[Vark]

Some friends working in game developement told me that Renderware was also a very buggy mess, and that they often did not know if a bug was in their code, or in renderware's. That seemed to be a very big issue for them.

That basically sums up all middleware

 

[Matlock]

Kinda saw this coming--what, with Midway grabbing up the Unreal franchise back about six months or so ago.

'course, this means only one thing to me...

PSI-OPS IN UNREAL 3 ENGINE LOVE

 

[Mrbob]

Midway publishing UC2.

Midway wanting to get into PC publishing with some decent developers.

Epic developing UE3.0 with consoles in mind.

It all makes sense.

 

[Enigma]

They already do - it's probably the main business at Id (Doom, Quake) . Not sure about Valve and I don't think the Halo engine is available.

Exactly. They weren't driving those Ferraris at ID because of game sales. This is why ID can take so long and put so much into an engine... because that's where the money is. The Unreal engine has also long been the "Pepsi" to ID's "Coke". This is where the real money is at and the guys at both companies know it.

Edit: Not really pertinent (Because it's only one and it's not a very good engine), but Stubbs the Zombie is using the Halo engine (Though this is probably solely because the founder of the company is the former founder of Bungie).

 

[Inumaru]

And I had heard Midway was retooling their "Cruis'n USA" engine for use in next-gen systems. Now their games will look just like all the other Unreal 3 clones out there.

 

[Mrbob]

And I had heard Midway was retooling their "Cruisin' USA" engine for use in next-gen systems. Now their games will look just like all the other Unreal 3 clones out there.

Ugh....I think you are underestimating the flexibility of UE3.0. Just wait and watch.

 

[IJoel]

PSI-OPS IN UNREAL 3 ENGINE LOVE

PSI-OPS ROX!

I can't wait for a sequel. The physics engine interactivity in Psi-Ops was much more fun than in HL2, imo.

 

[The Bookerman]

So let me get this straight...EA, bought Criterion out(along with Renderware) so they could license it to other companies, thus making money off of third parties as well? My understanding of that whole deal between EA and Criterion was that they bought them so they could keep Criterion and the Renderware tech all to themselves.

No, as I have met a representative of EA in Canadian universities, they bought Criterion for the simple purpose of making the renderware engine THE standard engine in the industry. They want to "ethnically clense" the middleware engine market.


You can see that they are simply copy-pasting the "microsoft" philosophy of the pc market.

 

[Inumaru]

Ugh....I think you are underestimating the flexibility of UE3.0. Just wait and watch.

Oh? Maybe you are underestimating the power of the Cruis'n USA engine. I'd like to see UE3.0 doing 2D and 3D together on screen at the same time. I think Andy Milk (Kenston H.S., OH) said it best:

"Its 2D racing but it seems to be 3D at the same time."

 

[Agent Icebeezy]

So does this mean that Xbox 2 will be the leading SKU for Midway?

 

[Unison]

Can the UE3 do a good racing game, or will all next-gen games be FPS?

 

[lexi]

Can the UE3 do a good racing game, or will all next-gen games be FPS?

Already there exist racing, RTS, sims and basically anything else you could think of, and that's just modding UT2k4 and UE2. The engine is incredibly robost and is in my experience the best performing engine within spec. Next gen will be awesome.

 

[element]

Renderware is the best OVERALL middleware out there by a pretty wide margin. It's really done a great job encapsulating the audio engine, graphics engine, I/O access (including Network), and developer tools out there. However, it's only middle of the pack in terms of pure graphics engine processing.

I've heard the direct opposite from people. While Renderware is a great product, they don't have better support the Epic, and their code is a buggy mess.
The reason why Renderware is so popular is the price and compatablity. It is DIRT cheap compared to the Unreal Engine. I mean DIRT cheap. Also the Unreal Engine was NEVER ported correctly to the PS2. So it wasn't a good selection for many console developed this generation.

Epic provides the best support in the industry, hands down. Their documentation is pretty good.

So let me get this straight...EA, bought Criterion out(along with Renderware) so they could license it to other companies, thus making money off of third parties as well? My understanding of that whole deal between EA and Criterion was that they bought them so they could keep Criterion and the Renderware tech all to themselves.

Well they still plan to license the Renderware engine out to who would like it, but the major reason for EA buying Criterion was to have one platform for all of EA Studios. All games next generation will use Renderware, so the teams can concentrate on content then technology. While the guys at Renderware keep updating the core technology.