CCP Licenses Epic Games' Unreal Engine 3 to Power Dust 514 ™

SHANGHAI, CHINA--(Marketwire - March 10, 2010) -  CCP, creator of EVE Online, today announced an agreement with Epic Games China to license Unreal Engine 3 for use in the development of DUST 514™. The genre-defining, console MMO First-Person Shooter is set within the same universe as EVE Online, the award-winning science-fiction MMO for the PC platform.

CCP also announced it has entered a joint development agreement with Geomerics to integrate Geomerics' Enlighten real-time radiosity lighting product with Unreal technology. Currently in development at CCP's Shanghai studio, DUST 514 is the first scheduled console game to combine the use of Enlighten with Unreal Engine 3 to produce fully dynamic lighting for console platforms.

"The dynamic large-scale battlefields of DUST 514 presented an interesting challenge for us," said Hilmar Petursson, CEO of CCP. "We determined Unreal Engine 3 to be the perfect solution because its tremendous flexibility allows us to easily integrate new technology and produce stunning results."

"In DUST 514, CCP is creating the very first game of its kind, and thus requires an engine versatile enough to handle these new demands," said Paul Meegan, CEO Epic Games China. "Unreal Engine 3 will enable DUST 514 to build upon the standards of visual excellence that CCP achieved in EVE Online. We're avid fans of CCP and their games. The results will be spectacular."

Standardizing on Unreal Engine 3 gives CCP's development team the time and flexibility to focus on extensions such as Enlighten, and to perfect the optimal client-side engine and pipeline to fully realize CCP's vision for creative and artistic excellence. With its own core technology platform, CCP can provide a fully scalable and persistent online gaming experience that meets both the visual, technical and creative demands for DUST 514.

Thanks to their joint work with CCP, Geomerics' cutting-edge middleware lighting technology is now fully integrated with DUST 514. The only genuine real-time radiosity product for gaming, Enlighten enables artists to enhance mood and atmosphere through lighting design at minimal cost.

"Having already produced stunning real-time radiosity results with Geomeric's Enlighten technology on the PC platform, we entered into a partnership with them to integrate their technology with Unreal Engine 3. The results knocked my socks off," said Hilmar Petursson, CEO of CCP. "Additionally, we now have rapid iteration on the lighting which is crucial to achieve the high bar we have set for Dust 514." 

"Our advanced lighting technology will help players immerse themselves in the incredible universe CCP is creating," said Gary Lewis, CEO Geomerics. "We look forward to seeing how CCP will take advantage of the integration between Unreal Engine 3 and Enlighten in this new category of videogame."

About CCP
CCP is a privately held company that specializes in the creation, development and distribution of massively multiplayer online games (MMOG). Founded in 1997, CCP is recognized internationally as a pioneer in the single-server persistent universe concept of the MMOG genre. CCP is headquartered in Reykjavík, Iceland.

About Unreal Engine 3 
The award-winning Unreal Engine is known for cutting-edge graphics and its best-of-breed toolset. Unreal Engine 3 maintains those features in addition to multi-core processor support, Xbox 360® and PLAYSTATION®3 optimizations, massive world support, and a highly mature tool pipeline. Unreal Engine 3's consistently evolving toolset is designed to accelerate developers' productivity for PC and console games, visualization applications, training simulations, and linear animated content. Additional information on Unreal Engine can be obtained through the Unreal Technology Web site at www.unrealtechnology.com.

About Epic Games
Epic Games, Inc., based in Cary, NC and established in 1991, develops cutting-edge games and cross-platform game engine technology. The company has created multiple million-selling, award-winning titles in its "Unreal" series, including "Unreal Tournament 3" for PC, PLAYSTATION®3 and Xbox 360®. Epic's "Gears of War" won over 30 Game of the Year awards, and the sales of "Gears of War" and "Gears of War 2" have eclipsed 11 million units. Epic's Unreal Engine 3 is the three-time consecutive winner of Game Developer magazine's Best Engine Front Line Award, was the 2008 Hall of Fame inductee and won Best Engine again in 2009. Unreal Engine 3 has also been recognized as the number one game engine by Develop magazine. Additional information about Epic can be obtained through the Epic Games Web site at www.epicgames.com. 

Epic, Epic Games, Gears of War, Gears of War 2, Unreal, Unreal Engine and Unreal Tournament are trademarks or registered trademarks of Epic Games, Inc. in the United States of America and elsewhere. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

About Geomerics
Geomerics is an innovation-led company specializing in graphics software for the games industry. It is built on a combination of advanced in-house IP, a world-class research team, and strong management experience. The company's first product is Enlighten. Enlighten radically transforms the way that lighting is handled in computer games. Instead of pre-baking the effects of global illumination into the scene they can now be computed at run time, allowing for fully dynamic lighting. This dramatically enhances realism as well as opening up a new world of creative possibilities for designers and artists. Further information can be found on www.geomerics.com, or see us on the Intel and NVIDIA booths at GDC 2010.