Wii U powered by Unreal Engine 3 tech

A significant step has been made in Nintendo’s new bid to capture a core games market with Wii U.

The innovative new console is being supported by two Unreal Engine games and, Develop believes, the high-end engine tech behind them.

Earlier today Nintendo revealed both Batman Arkham City and Aliens Colonial Marines in production for Wii U.

Both titles are built with Unreal Engine 3, meaning that Epic Games is very likely supporting Wii U with its popular engine.

Epic Games vice president Mark Rein said Develop’s theory on the matter “isn’t an illogical conclusion to make”, but could not comment further.

But he did depart with a jocular hint about Epic’s future.

Last month Rein said “the second Nintendo releases a piece of hardware that can run our engine well, we’ll be on it like water on fish.”

Today he tells Develop: “Water, meet fish!”

The move paves the way for a new rush of externally-developed triple-A games for the platform. Unreal Engine 3 has been the central tech to some of the biggest next-generation games in the past five years.