Square Enix Becomes First to Officially License Unreal Engine 4, Maybe They’ll Make a Good Game Now

Square Enix has been in something of a rut as of late. The reception for their last couple of flagship video game titles has been mixed leaning toward negative. While both Final Fantasy XIII and Final Fantasy XIII-2 seem to be hovering around an 8.0 on Metacritic, Final Fantasy XIV is sitting at a ridiculously low 4.9. Game reviews tend to skew towards the higher end of things, so an 8.0 isn’t exactly stellar either. Maybe that’s all set to change, though. It’s just been publicly confirmed that Square Enix has licensed Unreal Engine 4 from Epic Games, making them the first to do so officially.

Epic Games, per their press release, seems to be excited about this development:

Epic Games, Inc. announced today an agreement with Square Enix Co. Ltd. granting Square Enix a group-wide license to develop multiple games with Epic’s award-winning Unreal Engine 3 and its breakthrough Unreal Engine 4 technology.

Maybe it’s just all the flowery language of press releases seeping through, but Square Enix being the first to license the technology is probably a good omen. It means they recognize what they need to stay relevant and competitive, especially after a series of fumbles. Maybe they’ll start pumping out games like they did back for the original PlayStation. It’s that or we’ll get yet another Final Fantasy XIII sequel.

(Epic Games via Joystiq, image via Andrew Becraft)

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