GDC: Reverb Publishing signs deal with Epic over licensing of Unreal Engine 3

Reverb Publishing has announced that they have entered into a licensing agreement with Epic Games, creators of the popular Unreal Engine 3. The new deal will see Reverb utilizing the engine for those developers that sign publishing agreements with Reverb. This is the first digital publisher to sign an agreement for a specific engine.

Reverb is known best for publishing the hit title Dungeon Defenders, which was built with Unreal Engine 3 by developer Trendy Entertainment. The digital title recently surpassed 1 million paid downloads on PSN, XBLA and PC.

"The Reverb publishing model has always been about allowing developers to make game creation their uninterrupted focus," said Doug Kennedy, president and CEO, Reverb Publishing. "By securing such liberal access to the Unreal Engine, we can now offer our development teams the world's best game engine, coupled with a business model which provides them complete support for their titles, without losing ownership of their intellectual property and without the lopsided deals cut by many of the traditional publishers."

"This license with Reverb ensures more Unreal Engine development teams are supported with the type of launch programs independent studios need to have a successful digital title," said Joe Kreiner, North American licensing manager, Epic Games. "It's important for Epic to do more than simply license our tech; we are always looking for opportunities to help indie developers successfully bring their creations to market."

"This UE3 site license gives Reverb another tool we can add to our menu of services for independent developers," added Katie Morgan, vice president of business development, Reverb Publishing. "In many cases, developers find themselves struggling to provide their title with production, public relations and marketing support from Sony and Microsoft. Reverb offers a program flexible enough for developers of any size, from the indies starting with UDK to mature studios looking to establish more freedom from traditional publishing shackles."

Those developers working with Unreal Engine 3 will be able to work on almost every major platform possible, including the Xbox 360, PS3, PC, iOS devices and Android-enabled smartphones.