Well it seems that the Unreal Engine by Epic is all but officially confirmed to be coming to Android. Ever since GDC 2010 when it was mentioned that support for the iPhone (now iOS in general) was coming to the UDK (Unreal Developers Kit), eventual Android support was left in the air for all to speculate on as no official word at GDC 2010 was ever mention.
However for some reason which seems to be due to Apple changing it’s developer restrictions, becoming more relaxed on them, iOS support was confirmed via press release and Android support was pretty much confirmed as well although iOS will be taking first priority. Why will it be taking first priority? My guess is simply because they have already started development on it since GDC 2010 if not earlier and that is all. If you were to go by numbers and hardware then Android would be first choice.
Even though Mark Rein, Vice President and Co-founder of Epic, has mentioned a few times over the past couple days that they have demoed Unreal Engine 3 on Android publicly, he is still reluctant to put the official stamp on it. If you are demoing it on Android devices and there are already games being demoed on Android devices that use the Unreal Engine then it’s pretty safe to say it’s on its way.
Seriously just say it is but that it might be a bit before we see Android support since, for whatever reason, iOS has priority right now. I’m not complaining though, just to clear that up. The idea of Unreal Engine games on Android phones and tablets is a very delicious concept to think about even if we have to wait a bit.
So while this news is a bit of a double-edged sword, at least we know it’s on the way even if they won’t put the official stamp on it just yet. Until it is though here is a slightly shaky video of game developers Trendy Entertainment showing off one of their games made with UE3, Dungeon Defenders, on a Android tablet with nVidia Tegra inside.
More people need to work without shoes on.
Quick note: If you are curious, Epic Citadel was released onto the App Store and has broken a million downloads already. While just a test app showing the graphical capabilities, it’s obvious the demand is there and is no less for Android.
Website Referenced: PocketGamer
Developer Website: Epic Unreal Engine 3 and UDK
