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Unreal Engine 4 won't be coming to current-gen smartphones and tablets

Missing in action

Unreal Engine 4 won't be coming to current-gen smartphones and tablets
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Alan Willer, Epic Games's senior technical artist, has stated that the next iteration of his company's Unreal Engine, Unreal Engine 4, won't be appearing on current-gen smartphones and tablets.

"I'm sure at some point mobile will be a major consideration, but not the current generation of iOS devices right now," Willer told Digital Spy in a recent interview.

"We're definitely going to be very aggressive about what platforms we put it on, but there's definitely going to be a minimum spec in which, okay, this is our entry level for Unreal Engine 4."

"Unreal Engine 3 is obviously working very well for us on [the] current generation of mobile devices and probably going forward for quite a while," Willer added.

Overlap

Miller said that when the forthcoming engine does eventually make it to mobile devices, there's bound to be a "period of overlap".

"If all we're looking at is support for more rendering features and speed, then UE3 will continue to work on those [devices], you just won't have all the tools that UE4 has. Or you can do UE4, and have a set of limits on what you can do, and have access to those tools. I don't know if there's going to be a hard fast, 'You must change over here'," he commented.

"For a while it obviously makes sense to just ship using UE3, then we'll sort out what our mobile plans are that will become part of the UE4 suite of abilities."

Anthony Usher
Anthony Usher
Anthony is a Liverpool, UK-based writer who fell in love with gaming while playing Super Mario World on his SNES back in the early '90s. When he isn't busy grooming his beard, you can find him replaying Resident Evil or Final Fantasy VII for the umpteenth time. Aside from gaming, Anthony likes hiking, MMA, and pretending he’s a Viking.