EA (Charts) will only say it plans to use the Unreal engine on action games. P.J. McNealy, an analyst with American Technology Research, said in a note Monday that the latest "Medal of Honor" game, which was recently delayed to 2007, has made the switch, as well as an unannounced first-person shooter named "Dead Space". (The company declined to comment on the specifics of the report.)

The latest Unreal engine has been in development for four years and cost Epic, a growing force in the gaming world, more than $40 million. The first game to showcase its power will be this winter's "Gears of War" for the Xbox 360 - widely considered to be Microsoft's tent pole game for the holiday season.