NEWS - Friday, February 23, 2007
Activision Licenses Epic Games Unreal Engine 3
Activision, Inc. (Nasdaq: ATVI) announced today that it has entered into an agreement to license the Unreal® Engine 3 from Epic Games, Inc., for an upcoming as-yet-unannounced action game. "The Unreal Engine is one of the most technically advanced engines on the market and is a perfect fit for our upcoming action game," said Laird Malamed, head of production for Activision. "The engine's robust suite of programming tools will enable our development team to deliver what is sure to be an amazing game experience." "We're extremely excited to be working with Activision" said Mark Rein, vice president of Epic Games, Inc. "We've admired them for a long time and we're pleased that they've chosen to use Unreal Engine 3 and we're confident they're going to make a great game with it." About Unreal Engine 3 The award-winning Unreal Engine is known for cutting-edge graphics and a best-of-breed toolset. Unreal Engine 3 is expected to maintain those features while adding massive world support, multi-processor support, next-generation console optimizations, and one of the most mature tool pipelines in the industry. Unreal Engine 3's new toolset is designed specifically to accelerate developers' productivity for ultra-complex, next-generation content. Additional information on Unreal Engine can be obtained at www.unrealtechnology.com. About Epic Games Epic Games, Inc., based in Cary, NC and established in 1991, develops cutting-edge games and game engine technology for PC and console. The company has created multiple million-selling, award-winning titles in their Unreal® series and their latest game, Gears of War®, broke sales records on Xbox 360 selling more than 3 million copies worldwide in the first ten weeks and awarded overall Game of the Year for 2006 by multiple media outlets including Gamespot and Gamepro. Epic is also responsible for the Unreal Engine, which is the underlying technology for a wide range of games including, Console Game of the Year winner, "Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell ™" by Ubi Soft; PC Gamer's Game of the Year, "Deus Ex" from Ion Storm/Eidos; "America's Army: Special Forces," by the United States Army, and "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone" (PC) by Electronic Arts. Epic's Unreal Engine 3 is the current holder, and three-time consecutive winner, of Game Developer magazine's Front Line award for Best Game Engine. Epic Games was also awarded Studio of the Year at the 2006 Spike TV Video Game Awards and Developer of the Year by Official Xbox Magazine. Additional information about Epic can be obtained through Epic's Web site at http://www.epicgames.com.Source: http://www.next-gen.biz/