This shouldn't come as much of a surprise since the original Unreal engine was used for Deus Ex, but nonetheless Eidos Interactive and ION Storm Austin have sent out a press release announcing that the companies have licensed Epic's next-generation Unreal technology for their upcoming projects (two of which are Deus Ex 2 and Thief 3). The press release also says that more information on ION Austin's use of the engine will be shown in next month's issue of PC Gamer. Here's an excerpt:

San Francisco, CA. (June 20, 2001) - Eidos Interactive, (NASDAQ: EIDSY), a leading worldwide interactive entertainment publisher, today announced that ION Storm Austin has been granted a license to use Epic Games' next generation Unreal Engine in their upcoming games. ION Storm Austin used an earlier version of the Unreal Engine technology in the creation of the award winning, genre-bending, first person shooter, Deus Ex.

"Everyone at Epic is extremely proud of Deus Ex and the tremendous job the ION Storm team did in creating an innovative and deep gameplay experience using our technology," says Mark Rein, Vice President of Epic Games Inc. "We're excited that they're now developing games with our next generation Unreal Engine technology. ION Storm Austin represents the absolute highest standards in game design and we're thrilled to play a role in their very exciting future."

"The decision to use the original Unreal Engine as the foundation for Deus Ex was one of the best decisions we made," states Warren Spector, project director on Deus Ex and Studio Director for ION Storm Austin. "Unreal, and the Unreal toolset, freed us to focus on design issues rather than technology which, given the response of public and press to the game, seems to have been a good thing! Looking ahead to future projects, the next generation Unreal Engine offers us even more power, even better tools and a multiplatform solution."