Disappointed with early previews of Devil’s Third? Director Tomonobu Itagaki already shared his take on the quality of the gameplay, but what about the graphics and performance? He’s finally chimed in on that too.
Replying to a post from a fan, Itagaki confirms that Valhalla Game Studios had struggles working with Unreal Engine 3, the final engine they used to make Devil’s Third for the Wii U. It seems Unreal gave them the source code for the engine just for Wii U, and they had to adapt the engine to the system on their own. In the end, they came up with their own binaries, and Itagaki joked about selling the binaries to anyone interested.
As a little background, Epic Games famously stated that while Unreal Engine 4 could be scaled down to Wii U, they had no intention of bringing the game to the platform. Subsequently, Epic pitched Unreal Engine 3 for it instead.
There have been games ported to Wii U on Unreal Engine 3, such as Batman Arkham City and Mass Effect 3. Unlike Devil’s Third, these were not only multiplatform games, but ports of games long released on other platforms. Some fans also argue on that thread that many Unreal Engine 3 games, like Batman Arkham Asylum, Borderlands, and Gears of War, suffered from Unreal Engine 3 and outputted to 30 FPS on consoles.
Therefore, Valhalla’s dilemma in bringing Devil’s Third to Wii U was unique to them, and perhaps with more money and time they could have the game performing up to expectations.
What do you think of Itagaki’s assertion regarding Devil’s Third, Wii U, and Unreal Engine 3? Share your thoughts with us in the comments.
Devil’s Third is releasing in Wii U in the US on Q4 and Europe on August 29. There will also be a PC multiplayer only free-to-play version releasing in September.
