Unreal Engine 4 won't support Wii U

Unreal Engine 4 and Wii U are two great tastes, but they won't taste great together. Epic Games VP and co-founder Mark Rein told Kotaku at a GDC panel that his company's latest engine won't support Nintendo's latest system.

"We have Unreal Engine 3 for the Wii U," Rein said. "And Unreal Engine 3 is powering all kinds of amazing games, still lots of games are being made with Unreal Engine 3. We announced today about a new Unreal Engine 3 license. Unreal Engine 3 doesn't disappear because of Unreal Engine 4.

"But our goal for Unreal Engine 4 console-wise is next-gen consoles. That's really what our energies are focused on. If you want to make a Wii U game, we have Unreal Engine 3, and it's powering some of the best games on the Wii U already."

Given that the Wii U's technical power is more comparable to current-gen systems than what we know about PlayStation 4 and the next Xbox, the decision seems reasonable, but it's still a shame--particularly taken with the news that Battlefield 4 and its Frostbite 3 engine are not planned for the console, either.

Epic released another tech demo for Unreal Engine 4 today, which we guess you could watch on Wii U's YouTube app if it's any consolation.