One of the most important (and controversial) pieces of game development technology of this generation is Epic's Unreal Engine 3. While the licensees include Capcom, Sega, Square Enix, Activision, VU Games and EA in a list that goes on and on, it hasn't been without its critics. Gearbox Software CEO and president Randy Pitchford has come out publicly in support of Unreal Engine 3 in an interview with Videogamer.com.

"We love Unreal Engine. It's an outstanding piece of technology. Where we've used it as it's come, it's been solid and secure for us. It's great multiplatform technology, so we can run on the PS3, Xbox 360 and PC," said Pitchford, whose company is currently working on the next-gen Brothers In Arms: Hell's Highway. "I've seen some of the stuff on the internet about the problems and I don't know if these developers are maybe new, or not used to using other people's technology or if they've gotten too many inexperienced developers or they're just cry-babies. I just don't know."

"If I were going to do that technology myself I'd have to spend another two years on my game and spend a lot more time and money, and that's bad, and that's not good for gamers," he added. "That's a nice advantage of what licensees of the technology can have; they can piggyback on what Epic have done and even push it further."

The wave of negativity towards Unreal Engine 3 began when Silicon Knights sued Epic over breach of contract over the middleware. Midway also recently mentioned that problems with Unreal Engine 3 had caused delays of the PS3 versions of Stranglehold and Blacksite: Area 51.