Unreal Engine 4 will be "everywhere" by early next year

The big news for console gamers today was that Microsoft acquired the rights for Gears of War from Epic Games, but that's not all the news the developer had to share. Speaking with Edge , Epic Game's EU territory manager Mike Gamble said that the first major titles built in the company's Unreal Engine 4 will release on PC as soon Christmas 2014, with more coming in the first quarter of 2015.

Unreal Engine 3 powered a huge amount of games we've played in the past few years, and according to Gamble, UE4 will power many more games for years to come. “There haven't really been any announcements of the games still under wraps [that use UE4]—as soon as they start going live, then you'll suddenly see that we're everywhere again,” he told Edge. “You'll be thoroughly sick of us!”

“It'll happen this year, toward the Christmas period,” said Gamble. “Knowing the games that are in development, there are some crackers. The first quarter of 2015 is also where a lot of them seem to be aiming."

We should start hearing about these games at the Game Developers Conference 2014, which kicks off March 17.

Gamble also talked about the benefits of PC gaming, saying that Valve's Steam Machines and the Oculus Rift reinforce the importance of the platform. Epic already announced that UE4 will support the Oculus Rift , but didn't say that it's working on a game designed from the ground up for the device.