We're not sure that Mark Rein really needs an introduction but... Genuinely one of the nicest blokes you could meet and known for not holding back on his opinions, he's vice president at Epic Games, the developer behind Unreal Tournament, Gears of War and the Unreal Engine.
The studio's currently working on Gears of War on PC and Unreal Tournament III for PC, PS3 and Xbox 360, but Rein took time out to fly over to the UK and the Develop conference last week where we caught up with him for a good old chinwag over a glass of Diet Coke and a packet of Skips (we're so decadent)...
Below is part one of a two-part interview. We'll bring you the second part shortly.
We were just talking about this year's E3... Did you see the stuff on the Halo 3 campaign?
Mark Rein: I think that [showing the single-player campaign] hurt Halo 3 at E3. Halo 3 didn't win any game of the show awards that I could see. Well, because they didn't have to show Halo. There was no need.
I'm sure if they'd actually had a big Halo 3 presence, if Microsoft had set up eight machines or 12 or 16 machines so you could sit and play it, it would have won all kinds of awards. But they don't need to because, like me, everyone's already placed their order... So I think that worked against them at E3.
But also I think that was very smart from Microsoft. What they wanted to do was highlight all the other great games that are on Xbox 360 too so people don't just think it's a Halo box. They don't care. They're going to sell eight million of them anyway.
All those records we broke with Gears of War are going down on September 25 (laughs). We've had a nice nine, ten months of being the record holder, and now we're going to get our ass kicked. In a good way.
E3 saw Gears of War on PC finally announced. How come there's no cross-platform support between PC and Xbox 360 for the game?
Rein: The problem is the two code bases aren't actually compatible. It would take a humungous patch on the Xbox 360 side to make that possible, or not using the newer, more optimised code base on the Windows side. It just didn't work out.
What's Epic's view on Games for Windows - Live in general?
Rein: We kind of have mixed views on it. Obviously we'd like it to be free (laughs). But at the same time it's a good service. When you're playing Gears of War, it feels like the only way to play it. For a game likes Gears of War, which is a co-op game and a couple of players at a time, it seemed like the obvious choice.
For a game like Unreal Tournament, where we have a bunch of very high level features - and we've had them for years, the stats and all that other persistent kind of stuff, and the fact that we're shipping the game on PS3 - it just didn't make sense.
And what about the new content you've created for Gears on PC coming to Xbox 360?
Rein: It's the same problem. It's very unlikely because the two code bases aren't compatible. To do that, we would have to patch the 360 version and the size of the patch would probably dwarf all five updates we've done so far. It's just too much work. I can't see it happening.
It's not impossible, it's just very unlikely.
We know people aren't happy about that because they will devour any content we have, and we know that from the downloadable content we've had so far. But it's just a very, very hard job to do that and I don't think we'll be doing that.
Is there any new content in the pipeline for Gears of War on Xbox 360?
Rein: I don't know, we don't plan it that far, right? Right now, the team's busy with the Windows version, so when they've finished that then maybe we'll go back and see if there's more stuff we can do on the 360.
Obviously the success of Gears of War has meant expectations for a sequel are huge...
Rein: If the game's successful, maybe we'll do a sequel.
Well, it's been pretty successful already...
Rein: Not enough yet. It could still do more (laughs).
No sequel plans yet then?
Rein: Nothing we're ready to talk about.
Recent headlines have a cast a shadow over Epic's relationship with licensors of Unreal Engine 3 - can you comment on that?
Rein: No comment. You knew I was going to say that.
Moving swiftly on then... How excited are you about bringing the mod scene to UT III on PS3?
Rein: We're tickled about that, we're really excited. People ask, 'Why PS3?'. That's why we're on PS3, because it's an open network and we love mods - that's what keeps Unreal Tournament alive. We can't wait to see what users to do there. It's going to be fantastic.
What about cross-platform support between PC and PS3 for UT III? Anything decided yet?
Rein: We just don't know. It's a feature that technically works today, but whether we enable it or disable it... is still a question - because on one hand on the PC we can put out an update every three minutes. If we want to test something or make a change to the game it's very easy to just go put out a change, whereas on PS3 and all console platforms you go through a certification process.
So can we maintain compatibility and have updates on the PC in a reasonable time frame? We just don't know yet. And then the next question is, do the users really want it? We don't know. When we read people talking in our forums, it's not a feature they're begging us to have.
I'd love to have it - it's a great marketing feature - but is it at too high a cost for the future?
Do you think console gaming purists realise what it means to have the mod scene come to PS3 in Unreal Tournament III?
Rein: I don't think they realise it yet, but when they get hold of it it's going to take off. It's just like all this free content for your game.
Never got into the mod scene, but I am definately interested in getting involved on the ps3. The game will last for years if you can just download free user made content! This is my most sought after game this xmas, no doubt.
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