In an interview with Joystiq, Epic Games' Cliff Bleszinski, Lead
Designer of the Xbox 360 title Gears of War, commented on Nintendo's
next-generation console, Wii, and how his studio is in talks with the
Kyoto-based publisher.
Epic Games Vice President Mark Rein has
made various comments about Nintendo's new home console before,
expressing his concern that many third-parties might treat the Wii
controller as a gimmick, as well as his studio's interest in developing
for the machine should the Wii hardware contain sufficient processing
power to handle Epic Games' middleware engines.
When asked for
an update regarding Epic Games' stance towards developing for Wii,
Bleszinski responded, "We're currently talking with Nintendo. It's not
really my department to pontificate on other people's system and
comments that the wonderful Mark Rein will make occasionally to upset
the fans. Again, I reserve judgment of the Wii until I get hands on
with it. I was very judgmental about the DS until I actually got to
play hands-on with it and I love Trauma Center and stuff like that."
"You
know what, Nintendo is zigging while everyone else is zagging and
they'll be just for it. I give them props for doing something
different," Bleszinski continued. "My advice to anybody developing a
first-person shooter for the [Wii] is: even though you have a new way
to control and make a new FPS you still need a cool, compelling FPS
underneath that. [Control] is only one of five things that you need.
Give us a Half-Life 2 with those controls and I'll be first in line to
buy it."
Gears of War and Unreal Tournament 2007, exclusive to
Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, respectively, are the titles Epic Games is
currently developing. In addition, a number of studios are utilizing
the Epic Games' Unreal Engine 3 for their next-generation projects.
The full interview with Cliff Bleszinski can be found here.
Stay with The Wiire for more news from Epic Games and their plans for Wii.
