Usually Epic’s Unreal Engine technology is used by other third parties for their products. But this time around, Epic Games has announced that they have gotten into an agreement to incorporate GameSpy’s suite of online technology into their Unreal Engine 3.
Also, GameSpy will join Epic’s esteemed Integrated Partners Program, and its technology will be straight away available to any publishers or developers that license Epic Games’ Unreal Engine technology. This partnership will cover the PS3 as well as the PC. It will allow cross-platform gameplay and feature communication tools and competition applications.
Here is the list of features of GameSpy technologies that will be available to license immediately:
Jamie Berger is the senior vice president of consumer products and technology for IGN Entertainment. He said, “Epic and the Unreal Engine 3 are on the leading edge of next-generation and multi-platform gaming, and we are very happy to join the Integrated Partners Program. GameSpy is committed to working together with Epic to address a broad range of needs for the connected gamer, including multiplayer matchmaking, in-game and out-of-game messaging, persistent player communities, and competition systems. Over the past months we have fully integrated a broad suite of GameSpy online technology in Unreal Engine 3 and have built a fantastic working relationship with Epic. We look forward to extending that relationship with a number of new technologies customized for Unreal Engine 3 to be introduced over the next 12 months.”
Mark Rein, Vice President of Epic Games quoted, “We’re very excited to welcome GameSpy into the Integrated Partners Program. GameSpy is the leader in multiplayer gaming technology and has a vast amount of experience in developing rich and sophisticated multiplayer systems with community and commerce features that Epic and its Unreal Engine 3 licensees can directly benefit from. Having GameSpy integrate their technology into our engine and provide direct support for our licensees is a huge value-add for Unreal Engine 3.”
As we mentioned before, GameSpy will also get on board of Epic Games’ Integrated Partners Program (IPP), which will provide them continuous Unreal Engine 3 source code access and full technical support. Well, it seems that Epic is doing its best to make UT 3 one of the best games around to have a robust multiplayer!