Unreal Engine 3 Gets Serious

Virtual Heroes Inc., a developer of serious games for training and simulation purposes, has licensed Epic's Unreal Engine 3 for its upcoming titles.

The folks behind Too Human may not have been too thrilled with Epic’s Unreal Engine 3, but that hasn’t stopped a software developer with a different mission from picking it up for its latest games. Virtual Heroes Inc. announced Tuesday that it will adopt Epic’s latest engine for its serious games, which put players into the shoes of soldiers, doctors and even astronauts.

The Serious Games Initiative, an industry organization, claims the market for games with a purpose is booming, currently worth $100M and growing. “This is exciting news, when one of the companies every gamer respects is seeing bottom line potential in the serious games field” said Ben Sawyer, co-founder of the Serious Games Initiative, in a statement. “Epic’s Unreal Engine and games like Gears of War and Unreal Tournament are part of what amazes people about commercial games and drives them to want to use games for purposes beyond entertainment.”

Virtual Heroes plans to further develop the Unreal Engine 3 with Dynamic Virtual Human Technology, which will play a major role in its HumanSim line of medical games. According to the company, the humans it creates using the engine will be the most photorealistic ever seen in a simulation.