Epic Games Rules Out Unreal Engine 4 For Wii U

Why not just make the engine scale-able so that it can be used on more than just PC/Ps4/Nextbox?

One of the great things about UE3 was that it could be used on pretty much every device, even phones.

More like: Nintendo rules out epic games

YEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAA

UE4 will most likely be run on mobile devices so why not Wii U? Also, why is Wii U the same generation as PS3 and XBOX? It isn't. Does Mark fully understand what he is saying here? Also, the Games Industry seems to have some of the worst PR out there. Someone need to have a little word with Mark on how he made the statement in the first place and later had to backtrack. As bad as some poor Politicians out there eh.

Geez. Now were gonna get a bunch of 'I told you so' comments. What happened to it being scalable like they said earlier?
Unreal Engine in general just needs to be called Unreal Engine and let the consoles do the talking. I'm thinking Wii U can at least run a Unreal Engine 3.5 type build, how the heck is Unreal Engine 3 supposed to do that? Round up the number, and you got 4. What's the difference without 4K right?

I just went on the Unreal Engine website and it says Unreal Engine 4 is "scalable and accessible" on low spec PC. I guess we'll just have to figure out what a high spec computer really is then.

So, he is saying that Mario is made with the Unreal 3 engine?
Not impressed at all about Unreal 4 engine and what the video shows, what kind of PC did they use for that?

Sounds like he has the poops with nintendo in general.

@Kohaku
No, this is mostky for 3rd parties. There's other engines besides UE, and Nintendo always uses their own dev supplies.

The problem with this is if Unreal Engine 4 is scalable to mobiles but they don't support a Wii U version it means that it artificially limits publishers. I don't think Wii U/PS4/720 games would be common anyway but if a developer wants to use Unreal Engine 4 it means they don't even have the choice.

Unreal wasn't as good as Quake... Actually they both ended up being crappy to the point where they no longer exist

Epic should go back to their last good property - Jazz Jackrabbit.

Bad news for Nintendo. But this was expected.

@SCAR392 I think he was merely ridiculing the "The best games on Wii U are made on our technology" part.

'disappointing — but predictable'

It does seem a little odd to claim it supports low-end PCs though - how low?

Nintendo should just pay them to do it, even if its a 3.5 type version as ,mentioned before

EA's new Frostbite 3 engine (powering Battlefield 4, etc.) will also not run on the Wii U. This is really bad news for Nintendo because many third party developers are going to start using the Unreal 4 engine for PS4/Xbox 360 games, making ports to the Wii U much more difficult.

This shouldn't be a surprise to anyone. It's been clear for a long, long time that the Wii U is closer to the 360 and PS3 than it is to their successors. I didn't really follow any of the Wii U announcements, but did Nintendo say something to make so many of their fans assume they were going to be closer in power this time?

To me, Nintendo doesn't need to have the same power as the the other consoles. They'll make their games based on what their hardware can do and they will be great games. No issue there. A whole lot of people seem to be setting themselves up for disappointment if they think the Wii U is going to be getting all the usual multi platform stuff this time though.

I think Western Dev's have a vendetta against Nintendo and are doing their best to sabotage them at every turn. Screw them I'm sure Retro's Wii U game engine will look pretty damn amazing.

Im not sure why this is dissapointing to people. Unless you bought the Wii U not for nintendo games. Reading all the comments from Epic im convinced the Wii U doesnt need UE4 rather it optimizes performance of UE3. I think thats great because the Wii U is not stocked with current high end graphics chips, obviously.

The games will still look really good with a great leap from Wii. Isnt that what most people expect from a new nintendo console?

I buy Nintendo consoles to play Nintendo games and really don't care about all those boring FPS games.

@Mk_II Exactly, I want to buy a wii u when nintendo launches the new yoshi game, mario kart 8 u, super smash bros u, super mario 3d u, the new zelda, pikmin 3, a new metroid game, donkey kong country returns 2, paper mario 5, etc etc etc etc. That's what I want a wii u for, not some generic fps that either takes place in space or in a semi WWII environment, that's what the 360 is for.

as a long time nintendo fan im starting to fear for the wii u its all getting predictable now i dont want to just play nintendo games only,mk u nsmb u etc anyone feel the same?

Nintendo doesn't need them, they can manage with their own resources, that's for sure. I've always considered the games that epic handles as a pretty damn hot chick: her looks are amazing but sadly, she has no brains or anything special besides her looks, and the ones that nintendo launches as the woman that you choose to marry: almost complete in all aspects, and reminds you how lucky you are to have her, sure, she doesn't have the hollywood looks as the hot chick, but she doesn't need them, she has that beauty you fell for in the first place.

@gigoloaunt7 my dear friend, does your nickname reflects one of the best songs syd barrett ever composed?

I don't think Nintendo has ever needed Unreal Engine for its games.

Once the Wii U sells exponentially coming this Christmas, our friend over there at Epic will reconsider for financial reasons. Then I'll be the one to say "Haha!! I guess money called you back!!"

We need to understand that third-parties are unreliable and only go for the money. Once it will be here, they'll start chilling down with us. And with Miiverse, we'll make sure to thrash them if they don't come up with a legitimate excuse.

@Peach64 I agree. We knew from the get go that the Wii U wasn't going to be a powerhouse, and is more on line with current gen systems, mainly the X360 and PS3, then the next gen systems.

I don't buy Nintendo systems for their online or graphics; that's why I have a 360, and a PS3, and hopefully a PS4 when it launches. I buy Nintendo systems for the IP that Nintendo holds, and in rare cases, some 3rd party titles. That's about it.

@LEGEND_MARIOID
don't tell ME about poor politicians... I'm italian... Anyway I think publishers are going to port future (and past) games for wii u when the console will have a really large install base and that is going to happen with the relase of high caliber 1st party games and... why not, wii u fit and wii u sports. I actually played and liked them and I know a lot of people who started playing zelda, metroid and mario after buying wii for family entertainment.

@FOURSIDE_BOY nice metaphor.

Well, now it's official. WiiU is the new generations Wii
Thank you Epic Basta*** for the final coffin.

Nintendo games are my favorite but once in a while it's nice to play some third party kick-ass games.

@Ricube Thanks man.

The UE3 was ruled out for the PS3 for years because it didnt work on it. They developed it further and now it runs. Its all a matter of time. But to be honest, the WiiU simply doesnt use "next next gen" hardware. If the UE4 is specially made for that kind of hardware, than its simply out of the question.
But look at it that way: Its the same as with capcoms MT Frameworks. They developed MT mobile specially for handhelds and now, both engines (and games made with it) are more or less interchangeable.
I dont think that UE4 games are completely out of reach in the future. They wont have all the new features that come with the new engine, but they will eventually be backwards scalable, im pretty sure.

@DarkCoolEdge That would not be bad. Wii had a great success and really cool games! Let's hope it's not going to be the new gamecube...

@FOURSIDE_BOY U are welcome!

@FOURSIDE_BOY hi yes it certainly is mate.....syd forever!

@gigoloaunt7:

I feel the same way but I also have additional consoles that I can play these other games on.

@gigoloaunt7 certainly, syd forever!!!! the piper at the gates of dawn remains my favorite album of all time!!!!

@MANIAC911 me too i dragged my 360 down from the loft for my son but im itching for the same game experience on the wii u but im not feeling it.were going to double dip with nfs mw for wii u but i have it on 360 with all the dlc.......so whats the point?? i suspect a lot of people feel the same way.

@FOURSIDE_BOY piper is a brilliant album a truely amazing songwriter his solo work is mind blowing,he sadly missed.

@FOURSIDE_BOY It's very difficult to sell a console in large numbers if the only games it gets are from a single developer. For a platform to be successful, it needs a thriving ecosystem.

With no easy to sell gimmick this time around I really can't see Wii U selling to many beyond the ultra hard core Nintendo fans. The casuals have all moved to the iPad, and regular gamers have the PS4 and Durango. Where does that leave Nintendo? In a very, very distant third place.

I'd honestly be surprised if the Wii U lasts longer than 3 years.

@moroboshi While I agree that the task to sell it that way is very difficult, nintendo has proved that they can do it with or without the support of third party support. Look at the 3ds, almost all masterpieces are nintendo software with very few exceptions: street fighter 4, castlevania mirror of fate, etc. The wii ran almost entirely on first party games nintendo themselves developed and while I admit they no longer have the motion controls gimmick, I'm pretty sure the wii u gamepad will unleash its true potential over time. Also, motion controls weren't very used on the best games for the wii except for a few ones: super mario galaxy 1 and 2, metroid prime trilogy and the legend of zelda skyward sword and that's about it.

Sounding like a Wii situation with lack of third party games every single day...

As a longtime fan of both Epic Games and Nintendo the whole situation really saddens me. Especially the stupid comments from some Nintendo fans, who probably never played Unreal Tournament or the like. Mark Rein can be a jerk, we all know that, but he's just saying the truth.

The Wii U is not next gen. The CPU is in fact much weaker than the ones on Xbox360 and PS3. It goes so far that some developers had problems porting their years old games to the Wii U. The GPU is more powerful, yes, but not suitable for the multicore technology the UE4 is aiming at... the UE4 is an entirely different beast. Wii U is best suited for UE3.

If you want to develop a game for Wii U, why should you want to use a downscaled UE4, when UE3 is much more suitable and cheaper? Rein has a point here. He would be a real jerk if he tried to sell the UE4 to developers who want to make Wii U games.

The engine might be downscalable to a point, where it runs on the Wii U... but will this change anything? Do you really expect many UE4 ports on the Wii U? As if all the UE3 ports changed anything... the Wii U is not a lucrative system as of now and some half-hearted UE4 ports won't change this. Only Nintendo can change this. With good Nintendo games. The Wii did fine without UE3 and the Wii U can do fine without UE4. This is entirely in Nintendo's hands. So don't blame Epic.

@DarkCoolEdge Well, now it's official. WiiU is the new generations Wii

Yep... and looking at my Wii library, that also ensures i won't be buying one for a very long time.

Btw, i found some interesting quotes from Iwata regarding third party support:

"Nintendo tends to release too many titles at the launch of a hardware system and as a result suffers a drop in new games for quite some time after launch, and for the Wii U launch, we are being very careful not to let it happen,"
"Fortunately, third-party publishers overseas are launching many titles for us this time, and we were able to push back the release of some of the titles that we had originally intended to release as launch titles until next year."

That's pretty embarrassing after witnessing the reality, lol.. Nintendo are in dire need of new leadership.

I don't give a sh!t about epic, but it annoys me how laughable it is to them. Also, despite what you are saying on here, Nintendo can't survive with 1st party releases only =(

@Doma I think what he said made total sense. To often Nintendo will bring out a game and then the third parties don't have a chance to compete for your money. That just shows the quality of most Nintendo games and unfortunately the fact that most people only have Nintendo products for Nintendo made games only. It did seem to back fire against them this time though. However I still don't see the first party games coming out to save the day yet either. They must've thought they had more time to make Pikmon3 an even better game as It appeared to be ready for launch

@Ricube - I'ld rather it be the new Gamecube, it had a lot better games, I don't care how it sold.

Had a long discussion in the car with my kids yesterday about how the Gamecube brought us new good games like Luigi's Mansion, Starfox Adventures, Metroid Prime and Pikmin while the Wii just gave us mini-game dance and exercise collections and NPC versions of old games. I'ld love to feel as excited for any new Wii U game as I did for Rogue Squadron 2.

Nintendo doesn't need UE4, it needs some new "game" ideas. Super Mario Galaxy and SSBB looked just fine on the Wii, anything they do in HD will look fine as well.

Nothing to stop cinematic cutscenes made with that engine from being featured though.

@Peach64
Yes, there were various comments from Iwata about how they recognised they needed more third-party support in the next generation if they were to bring back what video gamers they had lost, referencing multi-plat titles specifically. Sadly, I bought it.

@Mk_II
Please don't trot out that sad FPS line. I don't like FPS games either but you know as well as I do that not all games on the other systems are FPS. To pretend they are is childish.

Nothing wrong with Unreal Engine 3.

He said Unreal Egine 4 is for the next gen consoles so is that a secret way of saying the Wii U is not next gen?

Probably I'll get a scold from some of you for saying this, but...
Am I really the only one that's not imppressed at all with that video, tech demo or whatever?
Anyway like most of you I also don't have a single game on my collection that uses UE, so I can live just fine without it and so does Nintendo. That jerk can laugh how much he wants, when the industry finally collapses we'll see if is still laughing when Nintendo is still around and the others aren't.

Edit* I just wanted to rectify one thing. I actually have a game that uses Unreal Engine and that's Batman Arkham City. Oooops!! My bad.

I dunno why but I got this feeling that wii u will come out swinging, and all these nay sayers will be eating their words.

The night is always darkest before the dawn.

Wow, Nintendolife left out the most important part of the interview:

I figured I'd ask straight-out, so during the Q&A with Rein, I did. "Will UE4 run on the Wii U?"

"Hahaha no." Rein said, with expert comedic timing. The room erupted with laughter. As the laughs died down, Rein continued: "I mean, sorry, it's not really a correct answer. We're not… we have Unreal Engine 3 for the Wii U. Right? And Unreal Engine 3 is powering all kinds of amazing games, still lots of games are being made with Unreal Engine 3. We announced today about a new Unreal Engine 3 license. Unreal Engine 3 doesn't disappear because of Unreal Engine 4. But our goal for Unreal Engine 4 console-wise is next-gen consoles. That's really what our energies are focused on. If you want to make a Wii U game, we have Unreal Engine 3, and it's powering some of the best games on the Wii U already.

So, in other words, the cool kids point their fingers and laugh at the Wii U. Everyone knows the Wii U is the kiddie console, right? So, making fun of the WiiU is great for laughs.

I already knew that the Wii U wouldn't support Unreal Engine 4 anyway so this doesn't surprise me. I am getting pretty tired of developers assuming the Wii U isn't next gen just because it won't be as powerful as the other consoles. That is a pretty silly notion since there is more to next gen than just power. I would of thought that they knew that. I guess they don't.

Wow, they sound cocky.

Gee. Not good news, but we still have Retro's.
New games such as Mario, Mario Kart U and my predictable games such as Metroid Prime 4, Super Mario Galaxy Trilogy, Star Fox U( a something like Star Fox 64 2 with more levels, hi-def graphics and all ) and... Paper Mario 5, like someone said. All these games may be developed by the Retro Studios game engine. And one more thing, Wii U is next gen, no matter what anyone says!

I guess no one remembers this:

The Wii U is capable of running Epic Games' Unreal Engine 4, according to company Vice President Marc Rein. He goes on to say, though, that Epic has no plans to port the engine themselves, but that developers would be able to port games using that engine to the system.

@Ricube I have A LOT of Wii games and really like the console but I'm sure that some of them wouldn't be in my gaming library if other had been available.

And gamecube had a better game library than Wii.

http://www.videogamer.com/news/unreal_engine_4_games_could_be_ported_to_wii_u_epic.html

So, what is it? They aren't supporting the engine for the Wii U but developers can still port it if they want? Since this engine is said it can run even on mobile phones, I see no reason not to run on the Wii U.

Already knew this was going to happen. Not surprised.

This guy seems a bit off or something. In the past he said that UE4 was so scalable it could work on everything from smartphones to high end PC's, and now he says "next gen" hardware is the focus? It's very clear that the engine was made not specifically for high powered systems, but for the widest possible range of systems. He needs to get his statements together.

I don't really car much about Epic at this point anyway, though. Not since major players like Cliff left.

@Ravyu Epic Games isn't the only company the uses the Unreal engine.

I agree with Wildfire. Impressive, no. :/

@OverturePT

This is really old news. Epic said that the Wii U could run Unreal 4 last year (June or July), but that they weren't going to support Unreal 4 on the Wii U. That doesn't mean a developer couldn't use it on the Wii U, just that they wouldn't.

Read the whole interview. The really troubling part is that he was laughing at the Wii U and everyone else in the room was too. Nintendo has a big perception issue. It seems that the "core" gamers have decided that the Wii U is a kiddie console even before they've actually tired one.

It doesn't matter how good it looks anymore to me - it's the same coat of paint on every recycled FPS they shovel out to the masses. Does anyone notice how these games have no longevity? Once the sequels come out (and do they ever!) the old ones are forgotten and they no longer have any value. I can only be wooed so much by another gun selection, another explosion and all the brilliant particle effects and lighting effects that bring them to life. Since my days of playing Quake and Unreal on the PC 16 years ago, the formula hasn't changed much. My best days gaming have been because of Nintendo. It's sad they've become a running joke among an elitist group of gamers that have limited imagination.

As always theres a lot of stupid people here. For starters; Unreal Engine is not only for Unreal Tournament, nor just for FPS games. Many RPGs have used the Unreal Engine.

@Warnerdan Well done for one of the most pathetic fanboy comments in the thread. "i'm very happy with this news". Why on Earth would you be happy about less support? Dumb.

Also to those who are surprised about the suggestion that Wii U is not next gen...why? Why are you surprised? The Wii U is ONLY next-gen in terms of it's release date. Nintendo shot themselves in the foot once again. This isn't me claiming the imminent death of Nintendo like some would; but they've alienated their console once again and therefore screwed their fans out of multiplatforms once again. Good job guys.

A long while Epic said the Unreal 4 could be scaled to work across virtually any device, but they also said they themselves would not be doing that themselves.
They also said they would leave it to other developers if the wished to modify unreal 4 to work on platforms or devices it was not designed to operate on by default.

So this is not new news really, just a reiteration of whats already been said. Thats not to say Unreal4 wont end up running some WiiU games, it will depend on who much the Unreal4 engine will need to be scaled back and what benifits it provides over the unreal3 engine.

Its worth remembering on 360/ps3 unreal 3 engine wasn't running at full-spec, and some devs still used the unreal 2 engine.

Whoa whoa...I've seen the wiiu push out some amazing looking visuals. It is obviously stronger than current gen. To say otherwise is idiotic. Now....if this is all true. I'm expecting the ps4 to run BF4 almost PC quality. Because thats how some people are making the gap out to be.

This is a problem whether you like Unreal Engine games or not. 'Cause less 3rd party support means less games, and less games means less people buying system for said games, which ultimately affects Nintendo.

BUT personally I don't care all that much... one of my biggest annoyances of this past gen was how so many games used UE3 that ended up looking kind of the same. Doesn't have to be this way: Shadow Complex used it to great effect. But too many devs leaned on the same tired assets which gave everything a blah feel, at least to me.

Since my most anticipated game right now is Game & Wario, clearly the lack of UE4 isn't my biggest concern. But for the overall health of the Wii U, it's another strike.

The fact that a room full of developers laughed along with Rein is arguably the bigger problem. I wonder how many of those same people would love to have their game on a Nintendo system, though, but just go along with the groupthink of "Wii U is dumb underpowered kiddie stuff." It cracks me up so many are so eager to dismiss Nintendo, when time and again they've proven to outmaneuver the latest tech with ingenuity, polish and charm. This holiday season gonna be veeeery interesting....

It's more like they decided to rule it out, when the Wii U hadn't been released they said the engine was scalable and could run on it. Now they see sales and laugh at it.

I find it very insulting that he laughs at the Wii U for being considered next gen. The Wii was considered same gen as the PS3 and Xbox360 FGS! It's more just because it released a year early that they're making that point.

Also, I believe if a dev wants, they can downscale it to run on Wii U, just that they wont care to see how that works out.

I love how most of you blame Epic for not supporting Wii U when Nintendo made a weak console.

Ouch. And we have another reason for our dear third parties to spew when asked why their game would be skipping the Wii U. Graphics mean very little to me, so the UE4 tech demo was not all impressive. It's pretty, yes, but in the long run, games will ultimately stand out because of their spectacular gameplay. The news disappoints me nonetheless, because now there'd be more negative press about the Wii U.

It seems pretty sad to see western developers treat Nintendo as if they're irrelevant, ignoring the fact that they've been around a lot longer than most. I really hope the newer releases will turn things around for the Wii U in the west, I wouldn't want Nintendo off the western market. :/

Unreal Engine doesn't only power FPS games, as I own quite a few UE3 games on my PC that use it for all kinds of things. Currently enjoying the graphical punch UE3 provides to Dungeon Defenders, an excellent co-op tower defense game.

The Wii U not getting UE4 is horrible news, and shows just how badly Nintendo needs to rethink their console design plans in terms of price vs. power. If people really just want an average quality experience at a lower price, there's a whole host of older consoles for that.

so does this mean that any game released on the PS4 and Nextbox that was made with Unreal 4 if there is a WiiU version it would have to be remade in Unreal 3

if so i can see a lot of developers not bothering making a WiiU version then because it would just add time and cost to the project

things are looking worse for third party games on the WiiU all the time, it's a good job nintendo do so well on their first party games

@PokeTune Hit it right on the head

The good news: The Wii U library is less likely to be filled with awful, generic-looking graphics. I really hate how almost every game that uses the Unreal engine looks similar.

The best thing about not being a fanboy, is that I never have to lose out on anything.

It looks good and all but it doesn't seem like too much of a step up. I'm sure amazing things can be done with it but Unreal 3 is very good also so if that's all Wii U gets, so be it. It's one engine. There plenty of others available to use.

They laugh at nintendo ?.......epic can only dream of making the games nintendo have and still are making.

ninty are very quiet at the moment, but I can feel the ground rumbling, and theres gonna be a boom.

you carry on making your GOW games, lets see how long it can last before you run out of ideas on what to do with the series.

we have seen em come, and we have seen em go. another dark brown shooter, that although enjoyable, is stupidly overrated.

Did anybody watch the game bafta's ? I saw a football mobile fone game with nes graphics, beat the latest fifa, a mega budget football game vs a game that some ginger dude made in his home.

the one thing that is certain is that nothing is certain.

Laugh it up

Well the Wii U isn't next-gen graphics, so there's no surprise here. I'm sure they could make like an Unreal Engine 3.5 to scale down their Unreal Engine 4 games just for the Wii U, but I highly doubt they would invest in such a thing.

Nintendo made the decision to stay behind in graphics for another generation, this is what's going to happen.

Would had been something awesome if it could produce something ground-breaking but all it does is make games look more like a film. I don't care how many version of Unreal Engine they make, if it doesn't add anything new to the graphics or visuals, it's not worth bringing to Nintendo console anyways. Rayman Legends and Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate already look better without this Unreal Engine 4 thing.

On a positive note, while Epic won't port their engine to the Wii U, it doesn't stop developers from porting it themselves, as mentioned by Epic. In fact, what if Nintendo got their license to use UE4, and they ported the engine, allowing other licensed developers to use that modified version to port their UE4 games to the Wii U without having to port it themselves?

@Lopezdm i agree, this is the key problem in the industry right now, budget stability. AAA games ( like tomb raider) are turning 3.4 million units in one months time with still very unsatisfactory profits. if nintendos approach with "lower tech" , which it really gives devs strong tech with the ability to really push old/cheaper engines in new ways, works , it can be very benefical.

Nintendo use their own graphical engines. They certainly don't need an engine from this stuck up dude's company. Besides, with the rise of propriety engines and Unity, as well as the increased costs of developing with UE4, Rein would do well to remember that he who laughs last, laughs the hardest

End bullying now!

Why this may not be a problem to Nintendo, it is a problem for future possible developers. After the Wii having to get the cruddy ports of third parties for its lack of power.

That said, Nintendo will to some point have another Wii situation in the long run.

Sad, but true.

I'd be far more concerned if Epic hadn't strongly implied that the engine is hard to work with and they'll charge companies through the nose to use it. They've stated themselves that costs of using the engine will be several times higher, and that their 5 minute demos take months to build (and that full games would take much, much longer). If what they say is true, no dev in their right mind will use the engine.

I've grown so tired of how elitist and stuck up the western video game industry is. Yes, Nintendo could have made the Wii U more capable of handling such new graphics engines; however, it is not a necessity by any means whatsoever.

History has shown us that a game console does not have to be the most powerful on the market to sell well. As long as the Wii U exhibits the game experiences that Nintendo uniquely creates, it'll be enough to attract enough consumers. That is, the consumers that are able to look past that "fresh coat of next-gen paint" which masks the same old experiences and polarizes the western masses on a ridiculous level.

@DarkCoolEdge Sure, i just meant that for Nintendo it's better if Wii U sells a lot like wii did. I loved the Gamecube, both games and the incredible controller no one ever used again. My nickname came from gamecube.

(Pause my Need For Speed Most Wanted U for a sec, and here I am back in the temple of depression. Oops, guess I gotta go...)

@Emaan
who did you think caused the game industry to crash that many years ago with bad games like e.t nowadays fps games are the new e.t

Seeing how Nintendos own Engine worked amazingly on the Wii itself, now worries here. Besides other engines that have/are coming to Wii U look just as good.

WOW!! What a doughbag, see these are the kind of people I don't like. Those self-centered pricks that think their better then everyone. He doesn't want to work with Nintendo NOT because the Wii U can't handle it.

NO that's BS because they said it themselfs last year that they had Unreal 4 running on the Wii U I remember that, they just don't want to actually make a version of the engine for the Wii U because they don't think it's cool enough. Just think about it what's gonna make your new fancy engine seem like a superpower house.........hmm putting it on the PS4 and 720 but not the Wii U even though it can run it just fine!!

It's stupid really because I bet you if there wasn't all this confusion about the Wii U's power and if Nintendo actually showed games that showed off it's then we would have unreal 4 but every big game company has their own next-gen engine now so.........who cares.

You wanna know another reason I know this guy in the artcle is full of crap? Just a few years after Unreal 3 was 1st showed off they had a version of it out for freaking SMART PHONES!!

THESE PEOPLE ARE A JOKE!!

Lol this proves WiiU truly isn't "next-gen" (whatever that means.)

Bad news for brodudes that don't even own the WiiU... Good news for real gamers that don't care about 2 hour long cutscenes and generic space marine corridor shooters

@MadAussieBloke Precisely!

I realy must say Nintendo knew about unreal 4 being made a long time ago the thing is why the hell did Nintendo make the wii u knowing it now wont run on a wii u so now we all left out from getting good games that run on next gen so again were dose that put the wii u back on the shelf Nintendo wake up before we all fade out

It sucks because some key innovations coming to the newer engines are about making it easier for developers to accomplish some of the more complex tasks. Lighting, shading, etc. There's an unfortunate break off point here where it becomes a bigger effort to develop a port to the earlier generation which many developers are lumping the Wii U into.

It could create the exact same situation that happened with the Wii where the only good looking games came from Nintendo for the most part and ports were dumbed-down and ugly.

If Epic had been able to scale Unreal Engine 4 to the Wii U it would have meant some automatic cross-platform releases. I guess I was holding out some hope that the memory situation and other differences from 360/PS3 could have made Wii U a candidate. It's really a shame.

How long will it take for people to realize that no matter how hard you fight and bash Nintendo, they're not getting knocked out of the industry anytime soon? This is a bad blow to them, but they've been in business for 125+ yrs and suffered worse than this. They aren't going to leave the industry now.

@triforcepower73 Many feel that with enough bullying, Nintendo will bow out and say, "Hey, everyone, we tried! Here's Mario on Xbox and Playstation. Enjoy."

Not gonna happen. If anything, the bullying makes me less inclined to buy a non-Nintendo console. Wii U is it for me this generation, and I'm already enjoying the piss out of it!

triforcpower73 I now what ur saying its just that Nintendo knew years a go about unreal 4 so why did they not make there wii u to run it so that it could be future proof they have been in the technology company was actually founded in 1889
and the have Market Capitalization of over $85 billion so why

Oh man, all the hype from Nintendrones about 3rd party games on WIIU sure died down lately, Now it's just "I only like Nintendo games anyways!"
Remember when everyone was saying it won't have the same 3rd party issues the Wii had? Yeah.. Same problem again.

The whole thing is even worse, when Rein was asked if there would be UE4 support for WiiU, the whole room of devs laughed. Hahaha, no.

all i want to see is battalion wars 3 and a good rts game for the wii u no consoles can never make a good rts game like to see a rts on the wii u and it can do it i see it can do it

Well, you seem to be pretty angry.

@Neram We haven't seen the console at full potential. Stop being such a graphics whore.

It is such a shame that they all just laughed like that. Who do you think built the gaming industry? If Nintendo sucks so badly, why do you steal all of their gameplay ideas? Darksiders is a zelda clone. Most FPS used many ideas from metroid Prime. Many developers have tried to clone mario kart and failed (except for sonic racing transformed, that game is the tits). These western developers may have a few original ideas now and then but most came from Nintendo first. It is like a kid laughing at the present his grandfather made for his birthday.

Suppose it would mean if developers decided to support the WiiU properly it would mean tey wouldn't get as many backhanders from MS/Sony and because of the touchpad controller they might have to get a bit creative rather than churn out generic shooters year in year out.

Unreal4 could be scaled to work on WiiU, Frostbyte would work on WiiU, Cryteks engine works on WiiU... any engine that works or can me made to work on ps3/360 will work either without any reduction or less reduction on WiiU. Any engine that can be scaled down (more or less all of them) will work on WiiU aswell as ps4/nextbox.

This is another in a line of attempts from within the industry to force Nintendo out of the console market.

The fact is, is that it is scalable, but his brain is too set on PS and Xbox which makes him oversee that. I'm not gonna completely say this doesn't matter, because it does somewhat, but it's lies like this that people take to heart when it's actually not true.
They've already stated it would work.
I honestly like some of those 'brodude' games @MadAussieBloke, but only the original and creative ones. Not only 'brodude' games can use this engine.

So Nintendo will forever be brodudeless

@mastersworddude

But even though the wii did not have most of the 3rd party games the others had, the wii enjoyed many quality 3rd party exclusivs that wernt available else where.

people seem to forget that

Once again, my theory of developers/game journalists creating and perpetuating a gaming culture that discourages creativity and innovation in favour of 'moar powr' and the same tired, old concepts is further supported by this atrocious example of 'industry professionals'.

I've always hated Mark Rein and his 'grafix'-obsessed cronies at Epic. Much like id, they are peddlers of mediocre middleware. They are not game designers. All they care about is cramming more and more components into games machines; because power = quality (evidently). Their snickering at Nintendo is utterly embarrassing on their behalf, and reeks of cocksure morons who sit upon their ivory tower, seemingly oblivious to th fact that their attitudes and philosophies regarding power have led to the spiralling costs of game development - as evidenced by the closure of over 120 studios this generation, not to mention the massive losses suffered by Sony and Microsoft.

Rein seems sure of himself about the success of Unreal 4. However, their are now many more engines vying for the attention of developers; we have the CryEngine 3, Luminous Engine, Anvil Next, Frostbite 2, Avalanche Engine 2, Source 2, the Fox Engine (which looks WAY more impressive than UE4 - AND it's on current gen consoles), and of course, the Unity Engine - which is being supported by Nintendo themselves.

http://mynintendonews.com/2012/04/26/warren-spector-scared-of-next-gen-costs-praises-nintendo/

http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2012-11-13-epic-expects-next-gen-game-costs-to-double

Seems like even Epic can't get their own priorities in order...

@Doma Makes you think there were some unexpected issues come up for Nintendo regarding third-party developers, even those on-board. Wonder what happened.

Don't know if this has been noted but according an update on joystiq Rein did follow up that statement by saying that it is totally possible to run unreal engine 4 on Wii U so that's good to hear.

@Kage_88 People forget how many developers and publishers have gone under the past generation with only the biggest or those linked to big game releases getting any press.
Rising development costs on current gen are going to rise massively for ps4/nextbox and this could play well into Nintendo's favour.
Even EA and other non-WiiU-Supportive developers/publishers could be forced into supporting the WiiU. The cheaper development cost means a quicker profit return, which could cover shortfalls in profits on the far higher development costs involved creating games for Ps4/Nextbox.