“The amount of technology put into them would not have been a big enough leap to make a difference to people. I don’t think you can do the console business the same as you do tablets.”

Citing Apple’s example of refreshing hardware each year, he stated, “I don’t think you can do that with consoles because they have a longer design cycle, and they are more expensive. I mean, here you are looking at 16 times the memory in new consoles than we had before. That will enable new kinds of gameplay experiences.

“I think the manufacturers had to wait until they could put something together. I think the days of them subsidizing the hardware with massive R&D expenses have disappeared. I think that happened when they started buying more – I’m not going to say commodity parts because they are still custom GPUS – but more commoditzed parts.

“They’re using Intel architecture now, and they’re using more off the shelf type of GPUs so now they are better able to build a much better PC if you will, to put inside that box.

“I think the timing [on new hardware] is just what it is because they are trying to make a big difference.”

Among the next-gen consoles, Sony will be releasing its PlayStation 4 during the Holiday season, while Microsoft is set to unveil its next Xbox, codenamed Infinity, on May 21st.

Source: VG247

Mark Rein from Epic Games has stated that Fortnite may be their best game. In case you don’t know what that is, they announced the game last year and it was supposed to be something that was created to give a break to the team from making Gears of War games.

The game “might be the best thing we’ve ever done” Rein said and “It’s so good that I pulled all Fortnite content from this engine demo three weeks ago.”

“All of the Unreal demos we were going to do [at GDC] were all going to use Fortnite content. You saw in the tools demos – the rooms, the globes, the animations… that was all created after I said, ‘Fortnite is too good to ruin in this demo.’ And by ruin I meant showing people a little, tiny bit of it – a little streak of world.”

Minecraft was supposed to be an inspiration for Fortnite and the game contains no dudebro.

Tell us what you think in the comments section below.

“I think it’s a very smart move on Sony’s behalf to build this sort of enhanced PC architecture and then put so much in it,” he said CVG at GDC. “Let’s not forget it has 16 times the memory we had in PlayStation 3 – that’s not insignificant. Knowing that every machine has that, we can do crazy, ridiculous stuff with that.

“The other exciting thing is that when you think about Windows, even Windows for most people is tied to about 2GB of addressable memory space. This really opens up beyond what most PCs can do, because most PCs are running a 32-bit version of Windows. It’s like giving you the world’s best PC.”

He also likes some of the features of the system.

“The kind of stuff that they announced that they’re doing, the level of convenience and things like that – they’re making a really perfect gaming PC,” he said.

“I’ve always said that the things in the next-generation that aren’t just brute force hardware are all about the service and simplicity of the experience – the things that make it as fun and easy to get a PS4 game as it is to get a game on your iPad.”

Tell us what you think in the comments section below.

He tweeted about the same, stating that he can’t wait to see what Microsoft has in store to combat the PS4.

. @jasonventer thanks! I really am excited. 8GB of super-fast RAM – holy cow! Can’t wait to see what Microsoft has in store to combat this!

— Mark Rein (@MarkRein) February 21, 2013

It’s funny because Epic Games has long been a supporter of Microsoft’s console, with the console-exclusive Gears of War series providing enough revenue and recognition to the Xbox 360. In fact, the upcoming Gears of War: Judgment is due to release shortly for the same.

Still, it’s good to see developers so excited for the console – anything to help forget about the PS3’s nightmarish processes, right? Hopefully we’ll get to see some gameplay soon, now that the hype generated by the tech demos has passed.

Also as reported by Kotaku, Epic Games vice president Mark Rein, referring to a demo showing a blob of liquid metal, asked the audience at GDC: “Remember last year we had the meat cube? …This is the mercury cube”

Another demo showed what the updated Unreal Engine was really capable of.  An Epic representative playing a demo, quickly zipped through a city, indicating how quickly the buidlings and the huge city can be easily rendered by the engine.

Mark Rein added: “One day we’ll show you what we’re doing with this. When you see what we’re doing with this, it’s going to blow your mind.”

Here are some of the images that have been rendered in real time using the engine. Click to see them in full screen:

Images courtesy: Kotaku