14 DAY TRIAL // Probably there are some statistics hidden on the Internet, but for this issue we don't even need them: the Unreal Engine 3 is probably the most licensed engine on the market. As a further proof stands this new announcement from NCsoft which says that the company has licensed Epic's engine for two yet to be announced titles.
All the details we have at the moment are very scarce - we only know that we'll get two "top-tier" MMORPGs and the company's biggest MMO success, Lineage 2 is mentioned in the press release. However, it is quite possible that the developers plan to create some brand new games, not a L3, as some people would really love. But... you never know what to expect from game developers these days!
"Unreal Engine 3 has a well structured rendering pipeline, and its graphical quality is superb thanks to advanced lighting and shadowing systems," said Young-muk Choi, lead programmer, Development Unit, NCsoft. "Tools within the Unreal Editor empower us to instantly produce and optimize our outputs, and we especially love how the engine enables designers to easily prototype concepts without the need for programming."
NCsoft and engines created by Epic are not complete strangers since Exteel, a game developed using the Unreal Engine 2, is going to be launched soon. Of course, we are more interested about these two new titles in development, but we're sure more details will arrive soon. Until then, we only know that we're talking about two MMOs and, having in mind that we're talking about the same company that developed Lineage, we can be excited.
"NCsoft pioneered online game development using Unreal Engine, as evidenced by Lineage II, one of the most commercially successful and enduringly popular online games in history," said Jay Wilbur, vice president of Epic Games. "We are thrilled to take this next step with NCsoft, and are fully committed to supporting their projects. We expect to be completely wowed by what they do with our latest technology."