Epic Games

Epic Games, Inc.
Private
Industry Video game development
Interactive entertainment
Founded Rockville, Maryland (1991)
Founder Tim Sweeney
Mark Rein
Headquarters Cary, North Carolina
Area served
 Worldwide
Key people
  • Tim Sweeney (CEO)
  • Mark Rein (Vice President)
  • Cliff Bleszinski (Design Director, 1992-2012)
Products
Owner Tim Sweeney, Mark Rein (51%+)
Tencent (48.4%)
Number of employees
 160 (2012)[1]
Subsidiaries Epic Games Poland (formerly People Can Fly)
Chair Entertainment
Yingpei Games (formerly Epic Games China)[2]
Epic Games Japan
Epic Games Korea
Epic Games UK
Website www.epicgames.com

Epic Games, Inc., also known as Epic and formerly Epic MegaGames, is an American video game development company based in Cary, North Carolina, now associate of Chinese Tencent Holdings.[3] They are well known for their Unreal Engine technology, which has powered their popular in-house Unreal series of first-person shooters, and the Gears of War series for the Xbox 360.

It is the parent company of game developers Chair Entertainment and People Can Fly. It has also set up studios in Shanghai, Seoul and Tokyo. Key developers at Epic Games include chairman, CEO and technical director Tim Sweeney, and lead programmer Steve Polge. Jerry O'Flaherty was the studio art director from 2003 to 2007. Chris Perna has been the art director since O'Flaherty's departure from the company. Cliff Bleszinski, Epic's design director, announced his departure on October 3, 2012.

History

Epic MegaGames (1991–1999)

Epic Games was initially founded under the name of 'Potomac Computer Systems' in 1991 by Tim Sweeney in Rockville, Maryland, releasing its flagship product, ZZT, the same year. During the latter portion of ZZT‍‍ '​‍s life span, the company became known as Epic MegaGames and subsequently released numerous popular shareware games, including Overkill, Tyrian, Epic Pinball, Brix, Dare to Dream, Jill of the Jungle, Kiloblaster, Xargon, Solar Winds, Ken's Labyrinth, Jazz Jackrabbit, Radix: Beyond the Void, and One Must Fall: 2097. During this time, Epic also published and sold games developed by other developers such as those by Safari Software and also XLand's Robbo, Heartlight, and Electro Man; and Renaissance's Zone 66.

In 1996, Epic MegaGames produced a shareware isometric shooter called Fire Fight, developed by Polish Chaos Works.[4] It was later released commercially by Electronic Arts.

In 1997, Safari Software was acquired in whole by Epic MegaGames and some of their titles as well as other pre-1998 games were sold under the Epic Classics brand until late 2012.

In 1998, Epic MegaGames released Unreal, a 3D first-person shooter co-developed with Digital Extremes, which expanded into a series of Unreal games. The company also began to license the core technology, the Unreal Engine, to other game developers.

Epic Games (1999–present)

In 1999, the company changed its name to Epic Games and moved its offices, including its Rockville headquarters, to Cary, North Carolina. In 2006, Epic released the Xbox 360 and PC bestseller Gears of War and completed work on Unreal Tournament 3 for PC, PS3, and Xbox 360.

In summer 2009, Epic released the Chair developed Shadow Complex on Xbox Live Arcade. On November 7, 2008, Epic Games released Gears of War 2, the sequel to their bestselling game Gears of War, which continues the story of humanity's struggle against the Locust Horde.

Epic worked on an iOS game Infinity Blade[5] which was released on December 9, 2010.[6] They also released Gears of War 3, the third game in the Gears of War series on September 20, 2011.[7]

In 2011, Epic's subsidiary Titan Studios was dissolved.[8]

At the 2011 Spike Video Game Awards, Epic Games announced their new game Fortnite.

In June 2012, Epic announced that they were opening up a new studio, Epic Baltimore, made up of members of 38 Studios' Big Huge Games.[9] Epic Baltimore was renamed to Impossible Studios in August 2012.[10] However, the studio ended up closing its doors in February 2013 [11]

In July 2012, Chinese company Tencent Holdings acquired approximately 48.4% of Epic then issued share capital, equating to 40 percent of total Epic — inclusive of both stock and employee stock options, for $330 million. Tencent Holdings has the right to nominate directors to the board of Epic Games and thus accounted for as an associate of the Group.[3][12][13] A number of high-profile staff left the company months after the deal was announced.[14]

In October 2012, Cliff Bleszinski announced he was leaving Epic Games after 20 years with the company. His official reason was "It’s time for a much needed break".[13][15]

In December 2012, Epic Games president Mike Capps announced his retirement and cite the reasons as the arrival of a baby boy he is having with his wife and his plans to be a stay-at-home-dad.[16] He subsequently announced his departure of his advisory role as well as his affiliation with the company in March 2013.[17][18]

In February 2013, Impossible Studios was closed, less than a year after its opening.[19]

In January 2014, Microsoft acquired the franchise rights to the Gears of War series. The first game since the acquisition will be released by Black Tusk Studios, taking over the development duties from Epic.[20]

On May 8, 2014, Epic Games announced a new Unreal Tournament title. The game will be free, open to modding, and essentially developed alongside fans.[21][22]

Subsidiaries

Technology

Main article: Unreal Engine

Epic is the proprietor of four successful game engines in the video game industry. Each Unreal Engine has a complete feature set of graphical rendering, sound processing, and physics that can be widely adapted to fit the specific needs of a game developer that does not want to code its own engine from scratch. The four engines Epic has created are the Unreal Engine 1, Unreal Engine 2 (including its 2.5 and 2.X releases), Unreal Engine 3, and Unreal Engine 4, Epic's latest release.

For more details on this topic, see List of Unreal Engine games.

In addition to Epic's own franchises, Unreal, Gears of War and Infinity Blade, the Unreal Engine has been used widely in other games.

Awards and recognition

Due to the success of Gears of War, the studio was awarded:

See also

Category:Epic Games games

References

  1. ↑ Kietzmann, Ludwig. "Epic's Mark Rein on UE4, Epic Baltimore and Gears of War: Judgment". Kotaku.
  2. ↑ Gilbert, Ben. "Epic Games China isn't quite part of Epic Games [update: even more info!]". Joystiq.
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 "TENCENT HOLDINGS LIMITED ANNOUNCEMENT OF THE ANNUAL RESULTS FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 DECEMBER 2012". Retrieved 22 March 2013.
  4. ↑ "Fire Fight for Windows (1996)". MobyGames. Retrieved 2014-06-14.
  5. ↑ Levi Buchanan (2010-11-02). "Project Sword now called Infinity Blade". Uk.wireless.ign.com. Retrieved 2010-11-15.
  6. ↑ "Play With The Unreal Engine On Your iPhone With Epic Citadel". Kotaku. 2010-09-01. Retrieved 2010-09-27.
  7. ↑ Jim Reilly (2010-10-01). "Gears of War 3 Delayed to Fall 2011 - Xbox 360 News at IGN". Xbox360.ign.com. Retrieved 2010-11-15.
  8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 "Carbon Games formed by Fat Princess devs". Joystiq. Retrieved 10 July 2011.
  9. ↑ Sliwinski, Alexander. "Big Huge Games members picked up for Epic Baltimore". Joystiq.
  10. ↑ Sliwinksi, Alexander. "Epic Baltimore now Impossible Studios, working on Infinity Blade: Dungeons". Joystiq.
  11. ↑ Alexa Ray Corriea (Feb 8, 2013). "Epic Games is closing Impossible Studios, Infinity Blade Dungeons on hold". Polygon. Retrieved 2014-06-14.
  12. ↑ Sliwinksi, Alexander. "Epic Games sells minority interest to Tencent". Joystiq.
  13. ↑ 13.0 13.1 Tencent's $330M Epic Games investment absorbed 40 percent of developer [Updated. Polygon (2013-03-21). Retrieved on 2013-08-23.
  14. ↑ "Chinese Internet company owns 40 percent of Epic Games". Retrieved 22 March 2013.
  15. ↑ "Cliff Bleszinski Departs Epic". Epicgames.com. 2012-10-03. Retrieved 2014-06-14.
  16. ↑ "Epic Games president retiring". Retrieved 9 December 2012.
  17. ↑ "Former Epic Games president Mike Capps parts ways with studio". Retrieved 21 March 2013.
  18. ↑ "Chinese Internet company owns 40 percent of Epic Games". Gamespot. Retrieved 22 March 2013.
  19. ↑ Moriarty, Colin. "Epic Games Closes Its Newest Studio, Impossible Games". IGN.
  20. ↑ Orland, Kyle (2014-01-27). "Microsoft buys Gears of War franchise from Epic Games". Ars Technica. Retrieved 2014-06-14.
  21. ↑ Dyer, Mitch (8 May 2014). "Epic Games reveals free, crowdsourced Unreal Tournament". IGN. Retrieved 2014-08-25.
  22. ↑ Makuch, Eddie (8 May 2014). "New Unreal Tournament in development, and it'll be absolutely free". GameSpot. Retrieved 2014-08-25.
  23. ↑ Rea, Jared (2007-08-20). "Epic Games buys People can fly studios". Joystiq.com. Retrieved 2010-11-15.
  24. ↑ Brandon Boyer (2008-05-20). "Epic Games Acquires Undertow Developer Chair". GamaSutra. Retrieved 2008-05-20.
  25. ↑ "Epic Games China Company". epicgameschina.com. Retrieved 2010-05-02.
  26. ↑ "Titan Studios". titanstudios.com. Retrieved 2010-05-02.
  27. ↑ "Epic Games, Inc. Opens New Subsidiary in Korea". epicgames.com. 2009-07-29. Retrieved 2011-06-11.
  28. ↑ "Epic Games, Inc. Opens New Subsidiary in Korea". IGN. Retrieved 23 October 2014.
  29. ↑ Karmali, Luke (5 August 2014). "Epic announces Opening of new UK studio Epic Games UK". IGN. Retrieved 2014-08-09.
  30. ↑ Phillips, Tom (5 August 2014). "Epic founds new UK studio, Epic Games UK". Eurogamer. Retrieved 2014-08-09.
  31. ↑ "Epic Games Unided Kingdom". Epic Games. August 2014. Retrieved 2014-08-09.
  32. ↑ "VGA — Spike TV 2006 Video Game Awards Winners". Digital Tech News. 2006-12-09. Retrieved 2008-03-11.

Further reading

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Epic Games.