Mark Rein is a key figure behind one of the most successful and prevalent engines in our industry, so when he likes a new bit of tech – say, the PS Vita, or the Wii U – it’s time to pay attention.
“The Vita blew me away. I was shocked at how badly I wanted to take one of those home with me,” the Epic Games executive and co-founder told Joystiq.
Commenting that he’d “love” to do games for the system, Rein said Vita is an entirely new kind of device.
“The PSP was never that kind of a device,” he said, adding “People are worried about where Vita lives in the world of iPod Touch and iPhone, but it’s a completely different device.
“It’s hard until the device is in the market and people know how users are gonna respond, but I came away really lusting for one.”
Rein was also enthusiastic about Nintendo’s new hardware.
“I can tell you that I got to see it at E3 and it was what I expected of course. We were very excited to play some of their demos, see how good the feel of the hardware was – it’s a very impressive system and I think it’s gonna do quite well,” he said.
“‘If Nintendo made a system that could run our engine, we’d be on it like water on fish,'” Rein then quoted himself from earlier in the year, concluding, “And so when someone asked me what I thought about the Wii U, I said, ‘Water, meet fish.'”
All in all, the Epic weathervane is pointing towards optimism.
“I thought E3 was really good – I thought the industry looked good,” Rein said.
“The quality of games on display was extremely high.
“It’s definitely a boom or bust mentality now … there was definitely more boom than bust”.
Epic’s next game is Gears of War 3, due on Xbox 360 in September. The latest iteration of Unreal Engine was demoed at GDC this year.
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