Check out the picture above. Does that look like an image of a real location? Square Enix is hoping you think so.

At a press conference in Japan this weekend, Square showed off the first tech demos of Luminous Engine, its new next-gen technology that the publisher hopes will help create some of the best-looking games ever for minimal cost and technical problems. Check out the image below to see the shot above compared to a real photo.

While we don't have a ton of solid details on the Luminous Engine and Square has yet to announce any games actually using it, the publisher plans to offer the technology to other companies via something they're calling Luminous Studio. The really surprising part? Despite the high level of detail, Square expects this engine to lower the cost of games.

According to Square Enix chief technical officer Yoshihisa Hashimoto, Luminous Studio will reduce the cost of creating a game by "up to 30 percent" and should make the dev cycle faster. The publisher says Luminous was created to be used for any type of game from a casual title to a full-blown next-gen experience.

Here's hoping we can see a game using this exciting technology soon.

[via Edge]