Epic vice president Mark Rein has said in the past that Epic's Unreal Engine 3 won't work on the Wii, but he's not giving up on Nintendo altogether. In fact, Rein says he wants to see the next console Nintendo is going to bring.
In an interview with Cubed3, Rein said:
"You know if Nintendo comes out with a Wii 2 or a Wii HD, and it's got a couple more processors and a little more memory and better graphics, then yes we'll be on it. I'm not saying there's no interest in being on as many platforms as possible, but it's just that you have to be on the ones you're good at. We're a very high-end engine, and we have the best tools and awesome visuals and great physics. It's more likely the platform will rise up to meet us than we'll go down."
Rein and Epic are going to be waiting awhile, I'd guess, since the Wii still seems to be selling really well, even without the extra processing power it needs to run the Unreal Engine. But it is interesting to consider whether Nintendo's next move will be to increase the power of the Wii.
It doesn't seem like the relatively underpowered nature of Nintendo's machine has hurt it in terms of sales, but it has hurt the company a lot in the minds of many hardcore gamers. If Nintendo continues to alienate the core fan base, I wonder if the next console will be a much less successful affair than the Wii.
