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   BioWare, Midway, NCsoft, Spellborn, 10tacle, Atari, Trilogy Studios, Mistwalker, THQ, Gearbox, Sony Online, Electronic Arts, NetDevil, even the US Army: these are just some of the developers and publishers currently using Epic's Unreal Engine 3 technology to carve the future of gaming. And even though there are still very few games to show for, the big names just keep on signing Epic's next-gen engine, hoping to reduce development costs by making an early, hefty investment for a neat pre-coded engine.

   We obviously can't blame them, since many of their projects are shaping up to become the very best(-looking) games in 2007 and 2008. And when a name like Square Enix comes along and jumps on the Unreal Engine 3 bandwagon, we can only open our eyes wide and hold them like that, until something stunningly beautiful comes along. Because something will, we're sure of it!

   Indeed, Square Enix is now one of the many companies using Epic's technology, as freshly announced in a press-release issued by the Japanese giant, and discussed on Gamasutra. This licensing may come as a bit of a surprise, since Square Enix has already shown what their proprietary White Engine is capable of (think Final Fantasy XIII). But apparently they were too technologically-challenged by the implications of HD graphics and multi-core parallel processing, which is why they resorted to "building a combined technology platform to use throughout the company, utilizing proprietary technologies as well as third-party solutions such as Unreal Engine 3".

   We're not quite sure what this change of development tactics will mean for the likes of Final Fantasy XIII and FF Versus XIII, but we're wishing them a speedy adaptation.

UPDATE: Cel mai puţin surprinzător zvon, de la ultima amânare a lui Duke Nukem Forever încoace, e că FF XIII nu va apărea în 2007 - de parcă ar fi crezut cineva altfel!