The two devices are the result of big performance increases

May 10, 2013 00:41 GMT  ·  By

One of the leading developers working at Epic Games believes that both Sony and Microsoft are justified in their choice to wait for more than five years before revealing the PlayStation 4 and the Xbox 720.

Mark Rein, the vice president of Epic Games, is quoted by VG247 as saying during the Game Horizon event that, “here you are looking at 16 times the memory in new consoles than we had before. That will enable new kinds of gameplay experiences.”

He adds, “think the days of them subsidizing the hardware with massive R&D expenses have disappeared. I think that happened when they started buying more – I’m not going to say commodity parts because they are still custom GPUS – but more commoditized parts.”

Sony revealed the PlayStation 4 in late February and during the event talked about the way the architecture of the device was close to that of the PC, allowing for teams to seamlessly move between the two platforms.

Microsoft is expected to make an official announcement on May 21 and rumors suggest that its device will also use core X86 features.

Rein says that the two companies can deliver hardware that will impress both developer and gamers on launch.

Both the Xbox 720 and the PlayStation 4 are expected to be launched before the end of the year, although some sources suggest that the Microsoft device might be delayed because of licensing problems.

At the moment, Epic Games is putting the finishing touches on Unreal Engine 4, which is designed to use the unique features of next-generation devices.

The team has delivered a number of impressive demos for the new technology and is also working on a title, called Fortnite, which will showcase its core concepts.

Rumors also suggest that once Unreal Engine 4 is complete, Epic will exit the video game development business and will focus on technology development.