An Epic Rein

Epic Games' VP talks Unreal Engine, Unreal Tournament III, Gears of War and more.
4/23/2008 8:27 PM | 0 Comments | Page 1 of 5

Epic is one busy company. Outside of getting Gears of War 2 ready for this holiday season, it's still supporting Unreal Tournament III for the PlayStation 3 and PC, getting a version ready for the Xbox 360, and doing truckloads of business with its highly popular Unreal Engine 3. Obviously this makes Epic's Mark Rein a pretty happy guy. At Midway's recent Gamers' Day, we caught up with Rein and found out if he still wants to keep the company independent, if he was happy with the lower-than-average sales of Unreal Tournament III, the $1 Million Intel Make Something Unreal Contest and Gears of War 2.

Crispy Gamer: Last time I saw you was at GDC, and the only thing that came out of your mouth was "One billion dollars!" and then you giggled and walked away. What was up with that whole deal?

Mark Rein: Oh, people were saying that we were going to get a billion dollars. It was just kind of stupid.

Crispy Gamer: Do you want to stay independent? Do you like that? Do you like doing your own thing and then partnering with who you want to partner with?

Rein: Is this the stuff we're going to be talking about? I hate these questions. [laughs] We're happy! Business is good! If somebody walked up with a billion dollars, we'd talk to them, but nobody is walking around with a billion dollars. Business is good, and we're really happy with the company and our games, and we've got two great games going on. Everything is good. We've got the guys from People Can Fly in Poland, the stuff in China is going really well, everything is great. No need to change it. Would you change it?

Crispy Gamer: Would I change it? I don't know.

Rein: We just did a huge engine license with EA, right? We did one with Take-Two. I think we've had one or two licensing announcements. It seems like every other week we're announcing a new one, and these guys [ed: Midway] -- I'm blown away. Do you think This Is Vegas looks like Gears of War? Huh? I think that puts an end to the thought that Unreal Engine games have to look like Gears of War, right? It's nice to finally put an end to that.

Crispy Gamer: So the Midway partnership -- one of the main reasons you did it was to get Unreal out there -- to get the big signage and whatnot at E3. Are you guys happy with how that all worked out?

Rein: Sure, Midway has been a great publisher.

Crispy Gamer: Do you think it's going to continue past Unreal Tournament III?

Rein: We signed to do two Unreal Tournament games with Midway. That was announced way back when we did the deal, so we have to. [laughs]

Crispy Gamer: What are your thoughts on the sales of Unreal Tournament III?

Rein: So far, so good. I mean, there are a million copies out there now, and I'm cautiously optimistic that with the Xbox 360 a few users will buy the game. It's good. You know, Unreal Tournament III -- it's not Gears of War, it's not a big story-driven game like Call of Duty 4. It is what it is, right? This one looks like it's going to do great, so we're happy with it.