May 9th, 2012

A little less hope for Unreal Engine 4 on the Wii U

52 Comments

We’re hoping the Wii U will run Unreal Engine 4. Tim Sweeney of Epic Games, however, has said that they’re “aiming very high” and “the intended platforms this is aimed at haven’t even been announced”. Now, obviously, the Wii U has been announced, which means Unreal Engine 4 isn’t one of these intended platforms. It doesn’t mean it won’t happen at all. The support for the Wii U may have been more of an after-thought. But it’s a layer of ambivalence that’s probably going to hang in the air until E3 2012 rolls around.

Update: As Bluewolf notes in the comments:

…his comment could of meant “we haven’t announced the intended platforms that will support UE4″

That makes a lot of sense. As per usual, I’ll be perfectly happy for my interpretation to be wrong.

(via mynintendonews.com)

  • J.P

    doesnt surprise me….Wii U wont be a powerhouse.

    It will be better than current gen, but it wont be leaps and bounds…

    • Ice Climbers

      But it will be powerful enough to compete with the Next Xbox and PS4. Sony can’t afford to make the PS4 tech-heavy like the PS3, the losses would be too much. Microsoft has shifted all of their focus on the casual crowd, so they aren’t going to make the next Xbox tech-heavy.

    • NOT A REPLY

      ^ this

      Its true ,, Sony has atleast ($5.6 b something) of loss in straight 4 years I think ,, If Sony invests to make a power house ,, they might lost it ,, if games dont come to Vita , Sony’s fucked up

  • http://wiiublog.com waka_waka

    first comment yeahhhhh….. i feel u reading this comment. now stop thinking this is stupid and lisitin up.

    On topic: should i be worried i mean i really dont understand wats the problem can some one Explain it for me.

    • http://wiiublog.com waka_waka

      damnt i was supposed to be first when did u gert here

    • http://wiiublog.com waka_waka

      *Get to J.P

    • Csaw

      Don’t start the whole first thing here this isn’t YouTube.

      On topic: this is concerning. Unreal engine is a really popular and powerful engine that is used to make some great games. Current gen can only run enreal engine 3 (including the wiiu) but next gen will most likely be focused on unreal engine 4. If the wiiu can’t run the engine then any games running on the engine will either have to be downgraded (like current wiiu ports) or skipped on the platform all together.

  • Pac-Man1096

    The specs of the Wii U aren’t yet final and the system itself hasn’t been properly annouced…

  • Bluewolf

    If people haven’t noticed his comment could of meant “we haven’t announced the intended platforms that will support UE4″

    Which sounds a lot like that,

    • David

      That’s actually a really good point. I’ll update the post.

  • Hylianhero64

    Since so many third-party companies use this engine, I think it’d be in Nintendo’s best interest to strive to accommodate it. Unless the requirements for it are something utterly ridiculous that even the NextBox or PS4 couldn’t handle, in which case I suppose it won’t really matter as much. From the sound of it, those won’t be leaps and bounds over the current generation of consoles, anyway.

  • Luis

    This statement says that the platforms havent been announced.With that been said, there is no clear evidence of the unreal engine 4 not
    arrive on Wii U.

  • uriel

    not surprised at all. god there is alot of optimistic people for wii u specs . i guess an enhanced unreal engine 3 combined with the amazing developement team from nintendo will be good enough next gen …wait thats all i need to purchase …. unless i see what the next box or ps4/orbis can do …if its like wii to ps3 (unlikely that high but will be noticible) then ill just sell my wii u ….i dont want to suffer with a wii situation again. but so far third party support is good …but we wont know if wii u is a great console until next gen arrives. then the true console war begins because wii u is definitely better than ps3 or 360.

  • D2K

    If CryEngine 3 can run on the Wii U, and Frostbite 2 can run on Wii U in makes absolutely no sense to suggest that Unreal Engine 4 cannot run on the Wii U because it is not ‘powerful’ enough, especially when execs from Epic have suggested it can. The only way it ‘wouldn’t’ is if they refuse to design it to do so. That will be THEIR loss, not Nintendo.

    • D2K

      @Post Edit: That’s better.

    • http://fffffff josh

      u are right most of these peps are ps3 and xbox fan boys there is no evidence that it won’t come to wiiu and there is no evidence it will but y would nintendo not bring it to wiiu

    • Deuce

      Just because it can run CryEngine 3 and Frostbite 2, does not mean it can run Unreal 4. You can even say that Unreal 4 is so powerful that even if the device can run Cry 3 and Frost 2, it still might not be powerful enough to run Unreal 4.

      Welcome to the next gen.

    • D2K

      Any advantage that Unreal Engine 4 has over Frostbite and or Cry Engine 3 is infinitesimal. It’ll be better because it is newer. It’s not about the hardware, it’s about what developers can do with it. I can give a person whom has never drawn anything before a Cintiq Wacom tablet and Adobe Photoshop CS5. Chances are not much is going to happen. I can give an established artist like Joe Madeureira a number 2 pencil and a sketch pad and he can make a masterpiece.

      The point is that gaming engines can and always have been scaled up or down to accommodate whatever console it is being used for. Yes, just because Wii U easily runs CryEngine 3 and Frostbite doesn’t no mean it can run Unreal Engine 4. If we are going to play semantics, I can just as easily say that it doesn’t mean it can’t either.

      There is no reason assume that it cannot. Epic hasn’t said it couldn’t. No reason for them not to. If it doesn’t it doesn’t. Why lie about it? Nintendo hasn’t said it couldn’t. Apparently Epic was responsible for the Japanese Garden Demo and the developers stated that both that and the Zelda HD demo could NOT be done on the 360 and PS3. Since Unreal Engine 3 already runs on the 360 and PS3 it makes sense to surmise the the Japanese Garden Demo either ran Unreal Engine 3 at a level that 360 and PS3 cannot reach, or it ran on Unreal Engine 4 and Mark Rein has stated that Unreal Engine 4 is already running on next-gen systems.

      So there is a preponderance of evidence to support that it will support Unreal Engine 4 and a smattering of information suggesting that it won’t based on misinterpretations on quotes make from executives and biased opinions.

    • D2K

      …….and once again for those whom have not seen it or are thick in the head and still need to be house-broken, here are the Wii U hardware specs explained.

    • D2K
    • Ice Climbers

      @D2K Not to mention those are the older specs, not the final specs. So Wii U is more powerful now.

    • http://wiiublog.com Jared

      D2K sheding light on the situation again!!!

  • Trulaw

    Bluewolf Makes a good point and even if the Wii U isn’t an intended platform, that doesn’t necessarily mean that it couldn’t theoretically run it to some degree.

  • NoTheMama

    Well that U4 tech video is one of the ugliest things ive seen, so they can keep it!

    • Wildman

      The U4 engine hasn’t been shown off to the public yet.
      What you were seeing was Unreal Engine 3.9 (Samaritan Demo)

  • Captain N

    This was taken out of context and spread throughout the day…….all he meant was the platforms for Unreal Engine 4 have not been announced……..not that the actual platforms haven’t been announced yet. This was interpreted the wrong way ! He prob wouldn’t be allowed to say if Wii-U can run it anyway due to NDA’s !

  • sam765

    I would be more than happy if the WiiU could run UE3+ at 60fps…

    • D2K

      Me too. I think all first party Nintendo stuff will all run natively at 60 FPS. Even first party Wii games did that. That’s why Super Mario Galaxy looks HD quality by just upscaling it to 1080p resolution.

  • Drew

    Wii U is dead it feels like without UE4 sad…..

    • uPadWatcher

      How in the blue HECK do you think the Wii U is dead? It haven’t been released worldwide yet so don’t be such a freaking worry wart.

  • Wildman

    HEY DAVID!!
    BioShock Infinite has been delayed ’till February 2013.
    here’s the link:

    http://www.ign.com/articles/2012/05/09/bioshock-infinite-delayed-to-2013

    • http://fffffff josh

      nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo. i have a wii i don’t care :D

    • Captain Falcon

      Josh, you should consider getting a different console.

  • Okami

    We’re aiming very high, and the intended platforms this is aimed at haven’t even been announced.” really doesn’t sound like they mean they themselves haven’t announced the platforms yet.

    The way he says it in one sentence with “the intended platforms” directly after “we’re aiming very high” just sounds like he means that they indeed are aming to make it a engine for future, hight-tech systems to be used for years to come. Like “it’s so future high-tech that the intended platforms haven’t even been announced.”

    However I think the key word here is “intended”. It doesn’t rule out that they optimize it so that it will support Wii U in some ways.

    I don’t think it will though. It really seems like they intend to make it a engine for systems powerful enough, and not compromize to make it scalable to Wii U’s power. Of course, it could be that Wii U will be more powerful than we think. I don’t think so though, based on how Nintendo have talked when it comes to the power of the console.

    But we’ll see at E3 (not specs, but graphical fidellity)

  • http://fffffff josh

    all the wiiu haters need to shut up and remember one thing E3 IS NEXT MONTH !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

    now your playing with power

  • Dark Pit

    Or maybe the Wii U is getting a name change and THAT hasn’t been announced.

    • Ice Climbers

      That’s a possibility. Plus the final system specs aren’t available yet.

    • uriel

      hopefully wii u gets a name change…but that would suck for david and the website….what would they name it? because all the ones people say it should be sound worse than wii u. and yes wii u is a dumb name to recapture the hardcore audience(the theme of wii u) that arent fanboys.

    • Ice Climbers

      Nintendo Nexus isn’t that bad. I like it more than Wii U. But I have to agree, UNES and other names are worse than Wii U. Wii U is a terrible name to recapture the hardcore audience. They will see the word Wii in the name and automatically assume its a crappy console with bad graphics, no real online system, a ton of shovelware, and ment for the casuals when its not. Sad, but true.

  • Tak

    I’m confiden’t that Wii U is at least cabable to run Unreal 4 on tablet only games, which is how I want to play Wii U FPS’s anyway.

    • D2K

      The Wii U controller has the opportunity to redefine FPS gaming and give it the breath of fresh air it sorely needs.

      @Dark Pit: Here’s to hoping that at E3 the system will be revealed as the Ultimate Nintendo Entertainment System.

  • Salance

    I just hope what ever stats the wiiu has compared to the nextbox and ps4 people dont trash it and troll how horrible it is I know my wisheswont come true but people need to backup and look at the full picture not just comparing one system to what ever they have.

  • uPadWatcher

    What happens if Nintendo’s new console becomes the system to have MMORPGs? Although, I’m into sports, franchise games (SMB, SSB, etc.), let us know what you think about MMORPGs on the Big N’s next gen console.

    • Ice Climbers

      MMORPGs would be great. There’s one in particular that would be AMAZING as an MMORPG…. Pokemon. We all want that to happen.

  • ADam

    Who knows, maybe they could add UE5 on the Wii .

  • ADam
    • http://fffffff josh

      not

    • http://MacroManJr.blogspot.com/ Brian L.

      Black is the oldest, most common, and most boring color for a gaming console, in my opinion.

    • leo

      does look cool …looks a little rubbery though..

  • http://fffffff josh

    this guy showed xbox 360, ps3 vs wiiu he used gpu that is supposed to be weak to what the wiiu has and the wiiu beat what the current generation had in graphics and that wasn’t the strongest gpu the wiiu can have the core of the wiiu vs the other system the wiiu has can do 16 things at once

  • http://MacroManJr.blogspot.com/ Brian L.

    I think Sweeney might be in for a surprise if Nintendo might just be one of two choices to support this coming next generation. Sony doesn’t come out with a PS4 (as they said wasn’t coming anytime soon).

    Sweeney suggested that the Unreal Engine 4 would be targeting next-gen consoles more than PCs, but there might be only Nintendo’s Wii U and Microsoft’s next console as “next-gen consoles” for a while. He might have to support Wii U anyways, though with probably a Unreal Engine 3.5, perhaps.

  • leo

    i suppose Sony wont be much of a problem for the Big N but, i am worried about the Xbox720 we have heard lots of crazy rumors about it’s graphics but we have also heard of its used games problem. I consider Nintendo’s Wii u to be at 1 or 2nd place in the next “console war”