Epic's Mark Rein Clarifies His Comments on Revolution

""Taken out of context"

Mark Rein is definitely one of the more outspoken figures in our industry, and that can naturally lead to controversy from time to time. His recent comments on the Revolution controller were taken out of context, he claims. The Epic Games VP also clarified his statements on the importance of graphics. More within...

By now most of you have read about the comments made by Epic Games co-founder Mark Rein. Essentially, during an IGN Live next-gen panel, Rein said that the Revolution controller would be nothing more than a "gimmick" that would produce "gimmicky, crappy, cheap, 'I wish I hadn't bought it' games."

From Rev "Basher" to Rev developer?
Apparently, though, those and other comments were taken out of context, says Rein. Speaking to website Eurogamer, Rein said, "I actually said Nintendo's going to make amazing games. I never really passed a judgment on the controller itself. I think the controller's cool!"

He insisted, "I wasn't bashing Nintendo, I wasn't bashing the controller," and he went on to say almost apologetically, "I was really just saying that a byproduct of having a device like this is that people are going to make games that possibly are just there because of the controller, as opposed to being great games of themselves, and I said it badly... I regret that."

[ "People think I said the most important thing in games is graphics, and that's not what I meant to say," Mark Rein, VP & co-founder, Epic Games ]


Rein said that he fully believes that both Nintendo and third parties will make exciting games that utilize the controller well.

He also spoke to Nintendo Europe exec Jim Merrick and "had a long, very good chat." Merrick recently issued Rein a challenge of sorts, after hearing his comments. "... if he'd like to get a dev kit and really dig into it, then I'd be interested to hear what he has to say," said Merrick. Well, now Rein appears to be interested. "I told him we've absolutely love to take him up on that," he said.

Right now Epic and its Unreal Engine 3.0 are devoted to making games on Xbox 360, PC and PS3, but Rein hasn't ruled out the Revolution. "I think Unreal Engine 3 and Nintendo Revolution would be very well suited to each other," he said. "We don't know right now what the machine's capable of or not capable of, and we've built Unreal Engine 3 to a certain specification. If the machine can run the engine, it'd be fantastic to have it on there."" [more]