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UE3 ON MOBILE | BETA
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an you believe it has only been two years since the iPhone App Store comprehensively upended the games industry status quo? By inspiring an app revolution from the grassroots of developers upwards, Apple's impact on games was swift, if unexpected. The iPhone has made millionaires out of tiny teams almost overnight and changed the perceptions of what mobile gaming can do, all while attracting new audiences. Its wellcurated interface and mostly-free distribution pipe has no doubt given the likes of Microsoft Sony, and Nintendo serious pause for thought. So what an earth is the world’s most popular console game engine firm doing on the most disruptive games platform of all time? Epic Games finally unveiled the iOS version of its popular Unreal Engine 3 last month, showcasing the technological oomph of UE3 on iPhones through free demo download Epic Citadel and upcoming game Project Sword. The company was a centrepiece showcase as part of Apple’s annual September product hooplah – a rare enough occurrence in itself; few in the games industry have been allowed to share the stage with Apple CEO Steve Jobs. And the message couldn’t be clearer: mobile gaming has come of age. CLEAR VISION The sales pitch behind Epic’s move to mobile is obvious. “In the mobile games space maximising productivity is even more essential to being profitable,” says Mark Rein, the Epic Games VP in charge of the firm’s engine business. “You’re going to need technology that can deliver a triple-A quality game, but do it efficiently. That’s the advantage Unreal Engine 3 has compared with other technologies currently out there for making mobile games.” And the factors that have enabled Epic to offer its technology on iOS are just as clear.
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“Console style gaming is going mobile,” says Mark Rein
“Thanks to OpenGL ES2 and powerful hardware we can do things like specular highlighting, bump-mapping, normal mapping and lots of other great techniques you don’t expect to see on a mobile device. The 3GS achieved a large adoption rate, and now iPhone 4, 3rd Gen and 4th Gen iPod touch, and iPad are pushing it even further. So the installed base is there, and it runs our technology well. It just made sense for us to be there.” Rein says that the move is a labour of love as well as a great business move.
We can do things like specular highlighting, bumpmapping and lots of other great techniques you don’t expect to see on a mobile device. Mark Rein, Epic Games “We love gadgets and technology,” he tells Develop – virtually everyone at the studio owns a smartphone devices already. But there really is more to it than Epic and Rein’s usual swagger. The firm is moving onto mobile not just because it makes good business sense and is a technical fit – but because the rate of change is so fast on games-ready mobile devices. Rather than be left behind the way classic format-holders and publishers are, Epic is getting in on the trend early. ITS A SMALL WORLD But hang on. The big headline successes on iPhone are Angry Birds, Flight Control, and Doodle Jump, all sold for just 59p and made by tiny teams.
What place does a company like Epic Games – famed for the powerful Unreal Engine 3, enabler of high-end games with equally high budgets – have in that world? “I love Angry Birds, Flight Control and Doodle Jump but there are lots of successes on the iTunes App Store beyond those types of games,” says Rein. “For a long time, Call of Duty was one of the top iPhone grossing games. It might not have as many users as Angry Birds, but I’m willing to bet it made more money and it proves there’s a market for all kinds of gaming experiences on the platform – there is no right or wrong on these platforms.” Rein says that historically, all media have proven that people are generally willing to pay for higher quality content. “What we’re seeing with the success of Madden, GTA and Call of Duty on iPad and iPhone is that big brands and big marketing, combined with high production values, creates mindshare that lets them stand out in a crowd. It’s a natural evolution. When the audience size and expected sales justify a publisher like Ubisoft to spend $15m on a TV
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