It seems Capcom has given in and jumped on the next-gen Unreal Engine bandwagon. According to WP, the game giant has licensed the UE technology for an upcoming yet-to-be-announced North American game.

Activision is the latest publisher/developer to move to the Unreal 3.0 Engine for its next-gen games. Activision is apparently working on an unnanounced title which will utilize the Epic software.

Cliffy B and the rest of the Gears of War dev team is going to be playing their game on XBox Live this Saturday against any and all comers. For those who are interested, click read more to find out just what games they will be appearing in.

PRESS RELEASE

UK, February 21st – Xbox and Epic are inviting Xbox Live gamers across Europe to test their skills playing Gears of War against Epic Games, the developer of the game! From 1900 to 2100 GMT on Saturday 24th February, the Epic team, led by Lead Designer Cliffy B and Vice President Mark Rein, will be taking on gamers from the 5 million strong Xbox Live global community.`

Epic Games has announced their official schedule for the Game Developer's Conference 2007. As you can see, many speeches and workshops are planned, as well as a hefty showing of UT. Click read more for the full press info.

PRESS RELEASE

\RALEIGH, NC -- February 20th, 2007 – Epic Games, one of the world’s leading game developers and creator of the award-winning Unreal® Engine, reveals that it will be demonstrating the latest Unreal Engine 3 features at GDC 2007 in closed door presentations, as well as having its usual multiple speaker sessions, dedicated space in the Career Pavilion (CP 1502), special press sessions for the industry’s media and a pre-GDC seminar for Unreal Engine 3 licensees.
Epic will once again demonstrate the latest Unreal Engine 3 features in a private theater within their ExpoSuite, ES 5718, located in the North Hall. Hours for Epic’s Exposuite are Wednesday March 7th 9AM – 6:30PM, Thursday March 8th 9AM-6:30PM and Friday March 9th 9AM-3:00PM.

AT the D.I.C.E. Summit this year, Epic Games has swept the AIAS Awards. "This is incredible," said Epic's CEO Michael Capps, and this was only the excitement over 1 award -- Epic won 7 more! Sales in Japan were not great, as per usual with the foreign gaming market, but they were enough to shore up the numbers in Epic's favor. Capps also promised that Gears Of War is just the tip of the iceberg so to speak.

"We're going to fucking knock your socks off," he promised. "Gears looked good, but that's like the old game on Unreal 3 [engine]. Unreal Tournament looks good."

Cliffy B spoke with IGN about the unbridled success of Gears Of War, and the future of the series. The game is even finding success in Japan, which is great for Epic, and a definite boon to the US game scene's reputation.

Wired news has had the chance to sit down with Epic's vice president, Mark Rein to talk about the future of Gears of War and Unreal. They even go on to mention how the Nintendo Wii will never be able to use the Unreal 3 engine, sorry Nintendo fans! Head on over and check out what's in store for PC/Xbox360 and even the Sony Playstation 3.

In an interview with GameInformer, Ed Boon, the main man behind the MK series, talked a small amount about the next MK game. Most of the article is about the Wii version of Armageddon, but on the last page, he reveals that MKVIII will use the Unreal engine, have a gritty look like Gears of War, no more 3 fighting styles, and have completely different gameplay. Sounds great!

Epic's Jeff Morris spoke with Game Informer about the upcoming Unreal Tournament 3. The game certainly sounds like Epic has another winner on their hands, and it may even include cross-platform live play!

According to CVG, UT3 producer Jeff Morris joked that Epic will likely be the victim of its own success.

"It's funny because I think Gears started after a lot of people were a little fatigued working on UT, and now they're all probably making Gears for the rest of their lives, so the shoe has turned."

(Spoiler ahead) Considering the Gears story was left unfinished, it almost seems certain a sequel, even a trilogy, will be in order.