Unreal Engine 3: A Bad Choice for Midway?
Source: Tom's Guide | Keywords: Midway, Unreal, Engine | Themes: Digital Entertainment
Midway Games is struggling to stay afloat, and a few employees are blaming the company’s financial woes on its use of Epic Games’ Unreal Engine 3.
To Epic’s defense, it doesn’t sound like things went awry with the actual UE3 technology. What ultimately pulled Midway deep into pools of red was the company’s insistence to modify the engine, thus making development time longer than it should. It’s not uncommon for developers to purchase an engine license and then custom tailor the software to meet specific needs. But when a publisher requires multiple development houses to consistently modify one engine for ALL games in production, there’s bound to be trouble.
"The mistake we made was, instead of just taking the base Unreal 3 engine that ’Gears of War’ was made on and building games off of that, we let our tech and product development guys try to really modify the engine to add all these diff things," a Midway ex-employee told Variety. "It was a ton of new technology which they just weren’t capable of doing. It put all the games way behind schedule."
Game delays presented problems for Midway, as that meant an interruption in cash flow; the money well dried up as several quarters went by without releases. Another ex-employee explained that when money becomes tight, decision-making becomes focused on the all-mighty dollar rather than a great, competitive product. Thus, buggy, half-cooked results not only sell less (due to user feedback and press reviews), but creates a negative impression of the company that hinders further sales down the road. "This is a spiral of doom in videogame publishing because you can’t ship compromised titles against the exceptional quality level of competition that is on the shelves," the ex-employee said.
What also didn’t help Midway was the expense and eventual timing of Stranglehold, an original action title co-created by director John Woo. The game was delayed from late 2006 to fall 2007, and ultimately cost the company more than $40 million to make. Midway released Stranglehold just one week before Halo 3 hit store shelves, thus selling a measly 320,000 units in the USA alone. Strapped for quick cash, Midway thus rushed Blacksite: Area 51 through the oven, and it was in such bad shape with it hit store shelves, Harvey Smith, the game’s director, came out two weeks later and apologized.
Currently Midway’s market value is around $37 million, however with the release of Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe, things may not look quite so bleak if the game does well this holiday season. But as it stands, the company may collapse under its current debt despite layoffs, canceling major projects and returning licenses. Was there a lesson learned here? Probably only in understanding that it’s best not to license one engine and throw it into everyone’s lap, expecting miracles. It’s like reading a book: you don’t know what it’s really about unless its read from cover to cover... the process takes time, and in the case of Midway, time and money it apparently couldn’t afford.
But if companies don’t have internal, proprietary engines of their own, what else is there to do other than license third party software and tear it apart? Perhaps the use of Epic’s UE3 software really isn’t the blame here, but the lack of spending time and money researching and developing a unique engine built and customized just for Midway’s use. That’s neither here nor there now, as bankruptcy could be in the company’s immediate future if Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe doesn’t knock out consumers with incredible gameplay over the next month.
Midway says that the UE3-based Wheelman title is expected to ship February 16, 2009.
Related Links
Stranglehold review @ Tom’s Games Blacksite review @ Tom’s Games
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Isn't this the company that tries (or plan to) to sell game ending for $20 instead of including it in the game?
Isn't this the company that tries (or plan to) to sell game ending for $20 instead of including it in the game?
You're referring to Epic Games who had the (probably half-hearted) idea of selling the game ending.
Epic Games developed the Unreal Engine technology, which Midway licensed for its own purposes. Clearly this didn't work out favorably, and Midway doesn't seem to be alone in its problems as other developers, such as Silicon Knights, have also complained about the UE3 technology.
I may actually put mortal kombat on my wishlist for christmas, just to make sure it at least isn't my fault they go away. I played the first mortal kombat on my amiga 500, and bought the second one (first game I bought at full price on release day) as well .... kinda skipped paying for followups ... so perhaps it's time to invest in that company again! Don't want another esteemed developer put up the white flag, or be assimilated by ea and then killed.
Soo many nice games never saw sequels because of developers gambling on the wrong strategies.... dungeon keeper, drago, high octane, super frog ... all those nice titles that could use another version but can't get it because the ip is 'lost'
Well, that's one company I won't be missing. Besides MK (and I'm not even fan of the series), can't remember a single GOOD game this company has made. If they are going down, it´s because the crappy games they make, not the engine they use.
if they go down let em, one shitty developer down the drain no problem there
EPIC FAIL
The same guy who said that (game endings DLC), Capps, also said the Wii is a virus.
lmao.
I don't think the problem is the Unreal 3 Engine. There is a terrific base there. The problem is how poorly Midway utilized it. Do you hear the developers of Assassins Creed, BioShock, or GRID complaining? Ofcourse not because they used the engine well.
Out of all the Shader 4.0 engines, Unreal 3 is probably the easiest to manipulate and work with. Offset and Crytek still suffer from issues that are already addressed in Unreal 3.
I think the blame lies more with the company as many companies would prefer to get a new hire out of college rather then a 5 year veteran. The delays are obvious as they have to train employees, and many out of college lack the dedication to complete a game.
Honestly Unreal had a really great shot being an industry leader. Their first release was literally unreal. Tourny was great too. But I must admit when Unreal2 was released I lost interest in the Unreal products. Shamelessly I held on to hope for Unreal 3. It is obvious from the quality of their products that they operate under conventional buisness practices that the following statment is true. Rather than compete in a market where college students dominate and young blood thrive, both as developers and consumers, that game giants like EA and Midway choses death over profit.
In my experiance the more marketing is involved the lower the quality of the game. Marketing impacts release dates, rushes products to the shelf and drives paying customers to other products.
The best thing that can happen for the gaming industry is for giants to crumble so the competative developers have larger shares of the profit pool and can finance larger operations with the same emphasis on quality and playability.
"Let the economy burn, I'll be here to pick up the peices."
the Wii is a virus.lmao.
It is.
Let's hope we don't end up with all the next gen consoles being underpowered, with gimmicky peripheral laden controllers, where the majority of the games being developed for the consoles are mini-game collections. Not totally Nintendo's fault on this one, but it's a necessary evil if gaming is to survive.
what nintendo needs to do for their next console... is have the gimmicky peripheral laden controllers... and really beef up the graphics... as soon as nintendo delves into TRUE HD quality graphics... they'll constantly be considered the "virus" just imagine COD 5 on the Wii with good graphics... could be absolutely amazing... but then again it might not be
Then Unreal 3 engine does have some glaring problems, you especially see this in Mass Effect. Texture Popping, lights appearing through objects, etc.
The blame is really a mix of engine, developers and the people in charge.
falchard - "Do you hear the developers of Assassins Creed, BioShock, or GRID complaining?"
Actually yes I do. The developer of Bioshock said that it was the worst decision they had made, it was something that cost them too much hassle, time and money.
Grid's a good game - it just runs shitty on older hardware, and there ain't enough stock car action imo.
Well, that's one company I won't be missing. Besides MK (and I'm not even fan of the series), can't remember a single GOOD game this company has made. If they are going down, it´s because the crappy games they make, not the engine they use.
Well many developers are like that u know. Valve only made one good game (series) too, so did bullfrog (gone), berthedesta and a bunch of others. Bluebyte, 3do and a bunch more only made two known game series.
My point is - even if they 'only' make mortal kombat, they deserve to live thru making one mistake. Sierra and electronic arts made many mistakes, but didn't give up either. And one of them is rather big now.
Epic owns