Epic Games has announced Unreal Engine 3 support for Sony’s upcoming Next Generation Portable (NGP) entertainment system. Developers may now license Epic’s award-winning engine technology for the upcoming NGP. Epic Games’ founder Tim Sweeney presented a real-time preview of a large, outdoor environment running on NGP at PlayStation Meeting 2011 last month in Tokyo, demonstrating a sweeping panorama full of particle systems, animating characters and atmospheric lighting effects.

‘We see NGP as a true game-changer with a perfect combination of performance, innovative controls and gamer appeal that make it truly a high-end console in your pocket,’ said Sweeney. ‘We were very proud to be onstage with SCE to give the world just a taste of what Unreal Engine 3 can do on NGP,’ said Mark Rein, vice president of Epic Games. ‘NGP raises the bar for the performance of handheld platforms with its multi-core GPU and shader-based, multi-core CPU. This makes Unreal Engine 3 a particularly advantageous fit for NGP. Furthermore, multiple UE3 licensees are already working with NGP, some of which have indicated they intend to release their games for the platform’s launch.’

The NGP is to be released later this year, during the holiday season.