BioWare and Epic Games today announced an agreement, whereby BioWare will license Epic's Unreal Engine 3.0. "We're very happy to license Epic's advanced Unreal Engine 3 technology," said Dr. Ray Muzyka, Joint CEO of BioWare Corp. "One of our development teams will now focus on using Unreal Engine 3 to help us create a great gaming experience in a timely manner. The Unreal Engine has powered some of our favorite games, and we're looking forward to upholding the great history of this engine with an awesome game from BioWare".

"We're thrilled that BioWare has chosen to work with Unreal Engine 3." said Tim Sweeney, CEO and Founder of Epic Games Inc. "BioWare's decision reinforces that Unreal Engine 3 is not only a next generation, multi-genre game engine but also that it can work well for all developers, from small teams to world-class, technologically-savvy companies like BioWare."

This agreement marks the first time that Epic and Bioware have teamed up. This collaboration should not be taken as an indication that BioWare is getting out of making their own game engines (they are developing the game technology for both Jade Empire and Dragon Age). Dr. Greg Zeschuk, Joint CEO of BioWare Corp. said, "Meanwhile, BioWare will continue to independently develop our own cutting-edge engine technology for future titles!"

Unfortunately, BioWare remains elusive as to what the Unreal Engine 3.0 will be used for, stating only that it will be "an as-yet unannounced title which features BioWare's third new intellectual property". While BioWare is one of the most famous CRPG makers on the planet (Baldur's Gate, Knights of the Old Republic), they developed action titles in the past (MDK 2, Shattered Steel) and KotOR and Jade Empire are RPGs with a definite action bent, so anything is possible.