Epic Games has announced that Adobe Flash now supports Unreal Engine 3, with CTO Tim Sweeney showing Unreal Tournament III running in a Flash-based environment during his keynote address at Adobe Max 11 in Los Angeles yesterday.
The move means games of similar graphical quality to some of the current console generation's biggest blockbusters will be playable in web browsers, on internet-connected TVs and social networks, and goes a long way to ensure Flash's longevity despite HTML5 being touted as the future of videogames on the web.
It's made possible by Adobe Flash Player 11, its hardware-accelerated APIs allowing it to render 2D and 3D graphics 1000 times faster than its predecessor Flash 10.
"With UE3 and Flash, games built for high-end consoles can now run on the web or as Facebook apps, reaching an enormous userbase," Sweeney said. "This totally changes the playing field for developers who want to widely deploy and monetise their games."
Emmy Huang, group product manager at Adobe Gaming Solutions, added: "We're excited that Epic Games is tapping into the latest capabilities in Adobe Flash Player 11 to power its Unreal Engine 3.
"As the console of the web, Flash is delivering immersive gaming experiences across screens and we're thrilled to have Epic Games using Flash Player to deliver its blockbuster, premier 3D games on the web."
Existing Unreal Engine 3 licensees will automatically be given access to the new feature, with Epic pointing interested parties to the UE3 website. Epic co-founder Mark Rein announced yesterday that the free Unreal Development Kit had passed one million unique installs.