Epic Games is capable of transporting us to the dystopian future-past of Planet Sera in Gears of War, as well as making numbers and words literally fly directly out of people's heads in the highly anticipated Bulletstorm. There still remains one necromantic skill they have yet to master: predicting the videogame graphics landscape for the next generation of consoles.

On the subject of the Unreal Engine 4 and its future, Epic Games' President Mike Capps told Edge:

"Looking at the next generation, it's really murky compared to last time, I'm sure you've heard just as many rumours about when it's going to happen and they all get overturned every year. Three more months, I always think, until I'm going to know for sure what the platform is - and I think I could find you an e-mail from three years ago saying just that. So we're all a little nervous, and I think the jump to next generation's going to be another really big one, which is great for tech guys. Most likely, you're not going to want to make that massive investment yourself, you're going to come to a company like Epic. That's our hope, to be ahead of the game."

I'm sure that if Microsoft were to let any developer in the world know of their next-generations plans, Mike Capps' number would be at the top of their phone list. However, providing game content in advance of the physical hardware has always been a tough jump for developers to make. It usually involves a serious investment of time, money, and company restructuring in order for any developer to make the leap into next generation game-creation.

In this respect Capps' concerns are totally understandable. When you consider that Epic Games has so far been the defacto Engine-maker for this generation of consoles, how they perceive the future requirements of this industry of ours is perhaps more important than that of any other company out there.

My solution to this problem has always been the same: Simply throw money and exotic sports cars at Tim Sweeney until you are rich. What do you guys think? Does Epic really have anything to worry about here?

Source: CVG