Dead or Alive 4... for the XB360?

[A Black Falcon]

That's a bit of a misunderstanding. The engines for various 3D computer games, mostly FPS games, but some adventure games too, did in fact use the same original game's engine, but not all, not by a long shot. And no, I don't mean the ones that looked aweful. I mean the ones that actually looked just as good but used a unique engine, simply so they had control over it. Nintendo won't be using the new unreal engine for sure, though games will likely look just as good as it, or better.

I know, you can use an engine and make a very different game out of it... look at Anachronox made from the Quake II engine, for instance. But you can only do so much unless you completely redo the engine... engines are best at doing specific things. Like Prey is using the Doom III engine. The Doom III engine is best at doing encounters with small numbers of very highly detailed enemies. You could make it do crowds, but it's just not as good as that... like how Quake II struggled with outdoor areas and had size limitations.

Oh, and yes, you're right, lots of games don't use the big engines, but a lot do. The three Quake games have powered a LOT of games... there are some games that use new engines, but a significant number use already-existing engines. It's a lot easier.