Guardian Unlimited had the chance to speak to Mark Rein, the co-founder of Epic Games and industry pioneer with the Unreal Tournament series and the Unreal Engine. They discuss the company, its games, the Unreal engine as well as mods for UT3 and the current situation between them and Microsoft, but one thing strikes out most: Rein’s comments on consoles.

He offers up a statement, reflecting on how consoles like the PS3 and Xbox 360 have ‘stolen’ away hardcore gamers. Here is his outlook on the matter: “I’m a real fan of the PC, but yes, consoles are definitely stealing a lot of hardcore gamers from the PC. When Call of Duty 4 came out, I heard some of our guys sitting around talking about the great game they’d had last night and I’m like, ‘Hey guys, what server are you playing on? I’d love to come and join you,’ and they said, ‘Just send us a friends request,’ It was at that point I realized they were all playing it on console. Plus, the sales of the console versions are something like ten times the sales of the PC versions.”

The consumers just prefer convenience. Personally I’d go for the Xbox 360 version of the game, knowing that all I have to do is pop it in, sit back, enjoy the graphics and not worry about connecting to servers. Whereas on the PC, I’d have to worry about GPU upgrades, installing the game, and many other hassles.