Square Enix's Murata Talks Crystal Tools, Unreal Engine Initiatives

Square Enix's Murata Talks Crystal Tools, Unreal Engine Initiatives.

WhiteEngine is the middleware of SquareEnix, that was unveiled in GDC. Many developers pay attention to MT Framework and WhiteEngine, because the video game industry of Japan did not have used "Engine" well. But, CAPCOM made MT Framework for DEAD RISING, LOST PLANET, DEVIL MAY CRY 4 and RESIDENT EVIL 5. These title is optimized for each platform, so many developers think that MT Framework has good quality and Japanese developers became able to use "Engine" well. Also WhiteEngine is multi platform engine for video game development. MT Framework is applied to PC, Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. WhiteEngine is applied to PC, Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and Wii. The flagship title of the engine will be FinalFantasy XIII.



And, WhiteEngine was renamed to CrystalTools. "Crystal" is important word for SquareEnix. "Tools" shows that this is not an engine. Perhaps, that is toolset for content-pipe-line and libraries.

BTW, when I heard this news, I thought that a name of CrystalTools is similar to CrystalSpace. CrystalSpace is also engine for video game development. What did they feel?