Epic’s dreams for Gears of War were one of the main reasons Microsoft ended up putting more RAM into the Xbox 360 than originally planned. Now, the developer is pushing both Microsoft and Sony to have their next consoles bring the power.

In an extensive behind the scenes look at Epic’s Unreal Engine 4 posted by Wired magazine, Epic Games founder Tim Sweeney and company design director Cliff Bleszinski talk about the role they hope Epic can play in convincing Microsoft and Sony to give gamers hardware that’ll meet the needs of the next generation of titles.

“There is a huge responsibility on the shoulders of our engine team and our studio to drag this industry into the next generation,” Bleszinski told Wired. “It is up to Epic, and Tim Sweeney in particular, to motivate Sony and Microsoft not to phone in what these next consoles are going to be. It needs to be a quantum leap. They need to damn near render Avatar in real time, because I want it and gamers want it—even if they don’t know they want it.”

Wired notes that apparently Epic is fully aware of what the specs for the next PlayStation and Xbox consoles are, and is “actively lobbying” the two companies based on those spec lists.

“We’re much more in sync with the console makers than any other developer is,” Sweeney adds in speaking to Wired. “That means we can give detailed recommendations with a complete understanding of what is going to be commercially possible.”

For the full—and extensive—look at Epic Games and what they’re doing with the Unreal Engine, hit the link below.

Source: Wired