The spectacular tech behind the Unreal Engine 4 demo shown off during E3 will start powering playable games next year, Epic Games vice president Mark Rein tells Joystiq.

The spectacular tech behind the Unreal Engine 4 demo shown off during E3 will start powering playable games next year, Epic Games vice president Mark Rein tells Joystiq.

Asked when the first Unreal Engine 4 game will ship Rein said he didn't know exactly, adding:

"For sure something next year, I just don't know exactly when," Rein told Joystiq in a video interview partially transcribed by CVG. "Until we're really clear on when the game is going to be finished, when the partner wants to put in the sand and market it, we don't really have those kind of dates."

We've reached out to Rein to see if he can shed any more light on the early uses of the new engine, like which platform we might see that first game showing up on.