Rein, Bleszinski, Dyack, Jaffe, Molyneux - STFU!

Every year E3 comes and goes and we wind up with the same people being quoted over and over again. Is it because we respect their position in the games industry, or is it simply because they won't stop flapping their gums for five minutes to let anyone else get a word in? Crispy Gamer has gathered the most obnoxiously vociferous members of the gaming business together into a little feature they call "The 10 People We Hope Will Shut the F*** Up at This Year's E3". I'm not sure whether I agree with their choices or not...not because they are dubious or anything...it's just I'm not sure which of these guys I could take in a fight, and E3 is next week. Nintendo's Reggie has those crazy eyes going for him, and Clifford "The Big Red" Bleszinski could easily be hiding Wolverine-like scrappiness under his cool, collected demeanor. Peter Moore is chiseled from granite...hmmm. I bet I could take the founders of Gamecock, but only by exploiting their penchant for wearing capes.

The best part of the article comes at the end, where they mention the people they want to hear more from. They need to just sit Tim Shafer down in front of a PA system and have him deliver a running commentary for the entire length of the show.

The 10 People We Hope Will Shut the F*** Up at This Year's E3 [Crispy Gamer]

Epic STILL Not Interested In Making Wii Games

Lots of people have the Nintendo Wii. For example, I have a Nintendo Wii and, yes, maybe you do too! With such a high install base, making Wii games would seem like a valuable part of any developer's arsenal. Not Epic's, no sir-ey. The developer has stated in the past that it has no intentions of making Wii games, and Epic honcho Mark Rein still is sticking with his nothanks.jpg for Wii development:

No we don't have any plans to make something for the Wii. That's like asking a sculptor when he's going to start painting. That's just not our medium. That's not our area of expertise — our area of expertise is the more high-end consoles and things that push technology higher. That's what we do — there's a lot more water in that well for us, when that runs dry then maybe we'd have to think of doing something else but I don't think that well is going to run dry anytime soon.

What, no Gears of War party games? Epic, you guys are just turning your backs on heaps of money. Elsewhere in that same interview, Rein says using the stereoscopic 3D Ubisoft is exploring with James Cameron's Avatar is "dumb" — even though Unreal has been able to run stereoscopic 3D "for a long time." The reason being is that it costs so much to buy a stereoscopic monitor. Guess that would make it "expensive" and not "dumb", then...

Using 3D technology is "dumb", says Rein [Games Industry] [Pic]

Rein: Big Publishers Will Run Digital Distribution, Too

Has digital distribution made games cheaper? Uh, no. But lots of people thought it would. That's not the only myth surrounding the digital delivery of games: the idea persists that selling your games online will be a way to get around the dominance currently enjoyed by big publishers in the bricks-n-mortar retail sector. Well, according to Mark Rein, that's all a load of codswallop:

Digital distribution is not a replacement for a publisher...They'll be paying for marketing just like they do for positioning in a store. The big publishers are going to own the front of those online stores.

Some Publisher Contracts "Borderline Illegal" [Next-Gen]

Mark Rein Working To Make Xbox 360 UT3 Mods Happen

We're still trying. We're working with Microsoft to try to figure out how to support it, but regardless of what happens, mods will play a part somewhere along the line. We'll make sure we get a fair share of mods working. We'll figure that out.

Mark Rein Still Has Gears of War 2 Stuff To Show You

Awesome... I've had a chance to read the Game Informer story now and I think when people get a chance to read it they'll see that [Gears 2 is] really good. And we told the Game Informer guys just a tidbit about the game. We showed them some stuff, obviously, but we're keeping a lot of information back that will make people go, 'It's even better than this.' As good as they say it is, and they really, really like it, there's still a lot of story to open up between now and when the game ships in November... I think people will really enjoy this game.

Mark Rein "Blown Away" By New 50 Cent Game

When we heard he was coming we were like 'oh no, we're gonna get killed!' But he was over the moon, we're chuffed about it... We're obviously an Unreal Engine 3 licensee and he just came in for a visit and said 'oh my god, I can't believe you're working on this, it looks phenomenal'. That was it; it wasn't anything particularly formal, he came in to say hello to his licensees and was blown away by it. That was great for us.

Chocolate Rein Gets The Cliffster Back On-Message Re: PC Gaming

MR: We want all these people buying laptops and reasonably priced PCs, to at least be able to be exposed to gaming. They can go out later and upgrade to something better, but let's at least give them a baseline experience."

Epic Aren't Worth $1bn...They're Worth At LEAST $2bn!

I have not seen the actual GamePro article but if they're going to make predictions about us selling Epic we would prefer if they started at $2 billion. Because we don't want anyone thinking that we're cheap.

Epic Shoots Down GamePro's Gears 2 Exclusive

The upcoming GamePro issue hitting newsstands February 12th entices gamers with a "special report" on Epic's Gears of War 2—the game we all know is coming but has yet to be announced to the world. So did GamePro score the scoop? According to Epic's Mark Rein, they did not.

It is complete nonsense. We have not announced a sequel to Gears of War to Gamepro or anyone else for that matter.

Gear Of War 2 [Announced?] In Special Report In Next GamePro [Epic via NextGeneration]

Epic Still Fighting For UT3 Mods on 360

...we're hopeful. Microsoft hasn't said "no" yet, but then they haven't said "yes" either. We need them to say "yes," and we need them to do it soon.

Epic Can't Quit The Shooters

We love making shooters, and I'm certain there are still countless ways we can improve in that genre. We look at Gears of War and we see the pimples, we look at UT3 and think 'we should also do this, we should also try that, if only we had more time and more people, we could have done...' so I think we're continually looking at our own games and thinking there are lots of unfinished puzzles left to solve before we move on to something else... There's still a lot of low hanging fruit in this genre — we need to pick some more of that.

Rein Defends UTIII PC Sales, Crysis Too

It is amazing how people can look at two weeks of sales (in our case) in one single territory in the busiest Xmas sales season the industry has ever seen and come to the conclusion these titles are doing "badly". I don't think either title is doing so badly.

Unreal Engine Invades Kids' Summer Camp

iD Tech Camps, a sort of summer camp for children interesting in game development and computers, announced today that they will be offering classes on using the Unreal Engine 3 tools to make games to six or seven students this year. The instruction sounds like it will be heavy on the modding, but there will also be instruction on creating original games and environments.

"We've partnered with iD Tech Camps because of their reputation for quality game development instruction for teens," said Mark Rein, vice president of Epic Games. "Unreal Tournament 3 delivers unparalleled game quality that gamers have come to know and expect from Epic Games. We are reaching an audience of gaming enthusiasts who play the game as well as learn to design and mod with our deep set of tools."

This seems like a pretty smart move on Epic's part. It's sort of like Apple giving computers to schools to use in their labs. It hooks kids when their young.

UT3 Is Ready For 360, No It's Not

This page article a German gaming magazine (can anyone name it?) claims that the Xbox 360 version of Unreal Tournament 3 is 90% finished, and that it will be released around April 2008. However, Epic's Mark Rein quickly addressed the article to clarify that Epic had not set a release date (which is believable, since UT3 PS3's release wasn't solid until the last possible moment) and that as of right now, their focus is to release the PS3 European version of UT3.

Who out there has been playing a lot of UT3? And is anyone eagerly awaiting the 360 version? Do you still care about the franchise?

Mark Rein: We don't have a solid release date for UT 3 on Xbox 360 [maxconsole]

The Red Mile-developed video game version of Frank Miller's Sin City may very well not suck. It may very well also help Epic Games' Mark Rein sleep better at night, as the game based on the long-running comic book series will absolutely not feature a single bald space marine and will most likely not have that Unreal Engine 3 "look." Oh, did I forget to mention it's using the Unreal Engine? Well, it is, as Red Mile and Epic have announced today, cruelly teasing us with a tiny tidbit of info and failing to include a single screenshot for us to pick apart. Dare I say it? Dare I look forward to Sin City the game?

Mark Rein Explains How UT III Wound Up On The PS3

* But may be arriving in "limited quantities", most likely due to the elves at the PlayStation 3 game processing plant being unprepared for the game's last-minute gold status. The official word—as predicted by Epic Games-smith Mark Rein alongside the good news that Unreal Tournament III will ship in 2007—is that the PS3 first-person shooter will start showing up in stores on December 11th, arriving with a trickle, not a torrent. For those desperate for a copy on day one, a pre-order won't hurt your chances of securing a copy.

Unreal Tournament III PS3 Goes Gold, Saves Christmas

Epic Games' Mark Rein writes on the developer's official forums that the PlayStation 3 version of Unreal Tournament III has finally gone gold and will make it to retailers in time for a 2007 release. While a solid release date most likely won't be confirmed until the expected formal announcement, Rein estimates that "Midway will start shipping the title to North American retailers on Monday December 10th and it could show up in stores as early as December 11th but more likely toward the middle of that week."

Those driven to the brink of insanity by warnings of the UTIII's delay to 2008, which were later semi-scuttled by Rein himself can finally join the rest of us with full mental faculties intact. Welcome back. And yay!

Unreal Tournament 3 for PS3 has gone gold for North America! [Epic]