Unreal monopoly

     i just got my copy of Konami's Getsufumaden remake. It is made in the Unreal

Engine. A 2D, action RPG roguelike that has more in common with Risk of Rain or Mercenary Kings than it does Fortnite. So why did they make it in Unreal?

    The simple answer is talent development.  Konami wants to build talented Unreal developers. They start them in simple projects then move to more complicated projects. They are building script libraries and sacrificing efficiency to do it. Getsufumaden runs terribly for what it is. It is neither in quality or performance mode on the Nintendo Switch. It isn't running complex lighting or heavy physics, but the Sakura blossoms struggle to render at lower resolutions, leaving that lovely waffle effect that so many Unreal games have on the Nintendo Switch.

      It really speaks to a problem with the middleware industry. Unreal has such a grip on the high-end engine market that they can force their inefficent, non-competetive engine into the lower-end markets. Getsufumaden could have been made in Godot or Unity. Unity is almost a joke, but it is an option. That is how poorly regulated the middleware market is. There aren't enough choices.

     If it were any other market, Epic would be forced to split their business. Either they would be forced to separate Unreal and Fortnite incomes/budgets, or they would be forced to split Unreal into separate engines. Currently, Epic is very quickly becoming the Microsoft of video games. As a business productivity tool, Unreal is becoming the next Microsoft Office. That is a bad thing for the video game industry.

     If we look at office Software, it is Microsoft Office, then freeware alternatives. I haven't been in a business that seriously uses Libre, or Apache, or even Google. It is still Microsoft Office, 100%, 365. Office productivity software has stagnated. I can't build Visio workflows on virtual whiteboards with predictive drawing. SQL is still nowhere as simple or intuitive as Excel. Excel is still a visual mess that requires tremendous amounts of manual formatting. SQL still requires tremendous amounts of training to use. Microsoft is so large and anti-competetive that they keep users from getting the features they didn't know they wanted.

    Epic is that anti-competetive monster. Developers are getting stuck with featureless engines that don't have the things they really need. Epic will discourage investors from entering an investment war. Video games will get worse. If Unity has taught us anything, it is that Epic is unsustainable without a near-monopoly.