Square Enix Licenses Unreal 3 Engine

In the, "wow, this is the first time ever" news category today: Square Enix has licensed the Unreal 3 Engine for its next-gen game development.

Tokyo, Japan, (Jan. 25, 2007) - Square Enix Co., Ltd. today announced a licensing agreement with Epic Games that enables Square Enix to introduce Epic's Unreal Engine 3 middleware into its next-generation game development process.

Square Enix has built its highly successful franchises such as FINAL FANTASY®, DRAGON QUEST® and KINGDOM HEARTS by pushing game consoles to their limits and providing unparalleled user experiences for more than 20 years. This was achieved through the company's proprietary technologies, which were mostly optimized for each game given the limited resources of game consoles. However, in order to ensure both game quality and development efficiency for next-generation game systems including consoles, PCs and network titles, Square Enix is now building a technology platform to be used throughout the company utilizing proprietary technologies as well as introducing third-party solutions such as Unreal Engine 3.