"We don't spend too much time thinking about Epic" - Steve Nix

Epic Games' Unreal Engine 3 may be the choice for a large number of PS3 and Xbox 360 developers, but id Software's Steve Nix claims that when it comes to engines id keeps its eyes straight ahead.

"I don't spend much time looking at Epic's current offering or what their product line is - we've always just done our own thing at id, so we don't spend too much time thinking about them," Nix, id's business development director, tells GamesIndustry.biz in an interview published today.

Nix says that id Tech 5 - the developer's current offering - faces "a number of competitors", not the least of which is developers deciding to develop their own technology, but that its virtualised texture solution was a "paradigm shift" that will catch people's attention.

He also argues that id's is the cleanest multi-platform implementation. "What's really unique is that when an artist builds an asset they don't know what they're building it for. They build the exact same model, the exact same level, and it doesn't matter what platform they're putting it on. That's a huge breakthrough," he explains. id Tech 5 supports PC, PS3, 360 and Mac.

Nix also dismisses suggestions that id will be forced to undercut Epic's technology pricing to compete. "The only reason we haven't been very public about id Tech 5 pricing is because honestly we haven't developed our final plan there," he says. "[I expect] that we're not going to lose business based on price."

Read the full Steve Nix interview elsewhere on GamesIndustry.biz.