DigitalNoob

When I was in high school, the allure of the Unreal Engine was undeniable. At the time, Unreal Tournament had come out and had thoroughly impressed anyone within a stones throw away, and the tools included with the game showed just how powerful the Unreal Engine was, even to the newbiest of newbs. My friends and I spent hours playing around with the Unreal Editor, creating all sorts of weird maps to play around on, and while it never amounted to much, it was pretty cool. Then the Unreal Engine started showing up everywhere; in lots of games, big and small, and I became acutely aware of my assessment of the Unreal Engine years earlier and how spot on it was.

The latest feather in the cap for the U.S.-based Epic Games is that one of the giants of the Japanese games world has licensed the Unreal Engine for use in future games. In a way, it is a giant paradigm shift from ten years ago, where Japan was still on top of the gaming world and U.S. developers were on the outside looking in. Square-Enix is one of the best known companies in gaming, mostly for the Final Fantasy series, and they have now decided to go forward with a license to use the Unreal Engine 3 and Unreal Engine 4 in the development of future games.