Epic Games's Mark Rein believes Apple will surpass Sony and Microsoft if next-gen consoles aren't 'bleeding edge'

Epic Games's outspoken vice president Mark Rein has revealed in an interview held at this year's Games Developers Conference that he believes "Apple will go right past" Sony and Microsoft if their next-generation consoles aren't "bleeding edge".

"Don't worry. We are absolutely every day [pushing platform holders]," Rein said.

"This is why we did Samaritan and why we're doing a really high-end demo in the room here. We really are pushing these guys, because if they don't, Apple will go right past them."

Back in 2006, Epic Games cost Microsoft $1 billion when it used an impressive Gears of War prototype to convince the Redmond-based company to up the Xbox 360's RAM to 512MB.

A glimpse

"We really like the big screen, home console experience and we really like iPad gaming. We like all these gaming experiences and we don't think consumers want them to go away," Rein continued.

"The only way they're going to go away is if they don't stay true to what they are. The console gaming experience is about delivering something that's way out past the bleeding edge and subsidising it through the software royalty model - just like Apple does with the phones. It's not that much different."

In spite of his comments, however, Rein doesn't actually think home consoles are going anywhere in the near future.

"Now, I don't think that's going to happen - I think the console guys are going to blow us all away."