Things are about to get real in the iPhone gaming world, and just in time too. Epic Citadel has been well received by iPhone gamers since its release at Apple’s September 1st event, but it appears that Epic’s foray into iOS won’t be limited to game creation. They’ll additionally be bringing their Unreal Development Kit to iOS alongside the games they’re developing.
This type of announcement is huge news, considering major development houses have pretty much been experimenting in the mobile sector. Could this be the first move towards turning our mobile phones into a legitimate “hardcore” gaming system? The news of the UDK coming to iOS comes on the heels of Apple’s decision to relax their Developer User Agreement, which had previously stated that developers were restricted from using third-party development tools for their Apps. Was Epic’s UDK the defining factor in Apple relaxing their tight gripe on third-party tools? Steve Jobs himself was pretty impressed with the results of Epic Citadel at the event in September.
What does this mean for the future?
In the immediate future, Epic’s Unreal Developmenet Kit will not be available on the Android platform, and while Mark Rein didn’t close the door to the development kit being available to Android, he made it pretty clear that iOS is their primary focus right now. Could this be the first step in a series of major game publishers picking their device of choice, or is it a matter of heavy hitters in the industry finally starting to realize that iOS is here to stay?
What do you think? No matter how you slice it, this news is pretty exciting if you’re a gamer of any capacity.
Article Via Joystiq
