Epic Games
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| Type | Private |
|---|---|
| Industry | Interactive entertainment |
| Founded | Rockville, Maryland (1991) |
| Founder(s) | Tim Sweeney Mark Rein |
| Headquarters | Cary, North Carolina |
| Area served | Worldwide |
| Key people | Tim Sweeney (CEO) Mark Rein (Vice President) Mike Capps (President) Jay Wilbur (Vice President) Cliff Bleszinski (Design Director) Steve Polge (Lead Programmer) |
| Products | Games Castle of the Winds ZZT Jill of the Jungle Jazz Jackrabbit Epic Pinball Fire Fight One Must Fall: 2097 Unreal series Age of Wonders Gears of War series Shadow Complex Kiloblaster Game engine Unreal Engine Infinity Blade Infinity Blade II |
| Employees | 120 (2011)[1] |
| Subsidiaries | People Can Fly Chair Entertainment Yingpei Games (formerly Epic Games China) Epic Games Korea Epic Games Japan |
| 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. 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, design director Cliff Bleszinski, 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.
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[edit] History
[edit] 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 Epic Pinball, Brix, Jill of the Jungle, Kiloblaster, Solar Winds, Jazz Jackrabbit, 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.[2] 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 are sold under the Epic Classics brand. Epic also released a platformer game in 1993 titled Xargon, created by Allen Pilgrim.
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.
[edit] 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[3] which was released on December 9, 2010.[4] They also released Gears of War 3, the third game in the Gears of War series on September 20, 2011.[5]
In 2011, Epic's subsidiary Titan Studios was dissolved.[6]
At the 2011 Spike Video Game Awards, Epic Games announced their new game Fortnite.
[edit] Awards
Due to the success of Gears of War, the studio was awarded:
- IGN's "Best Developer for Xbox 360"
- Official Xbox Magazine's "Best Developer of the Year"
- Spike TV's[7]
- "Best Studio of the Year"
- "Best Shooter"
- "Best Graphic"
- "Best Multiplayer Game"
[edit] Technology
Epic is the proprietor of three 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 three engines Epic has created are the Unreal Engine, Unreal Engine 2 (including its 2.5 and 2.X releases), and Unreal Engine 3, Epic's latest release.
Unreal Engine 3 has become by far the most commercially used engine of the three. In addition to Epic's own games Bulletstorm, Gears of War, Gears of War 2, Gears of War 3, Unreal Tournament 3 and Shadow Complex, UE3 has been used in widely in other games,
[edit] Subsidiaries
- In 2007, Epic Games acquired a majority shareholding in Polish developer People Can Fly.[8]
- On May 20, 2008, Epic Games acquired Chair Entertainment.[9]
- In 2008, A Chinese division, Epic Games China, was opened in Shanghai.[10] It is through this division that Epic owns Titan Studios.[11] Titan Studios was dissolved in July 2011 and Epic Games China has since been renamed Yingpei Games.[6]
- Another studio, Epic Games Korea, operates in Seoul, South Korea.[12]
- Epic Games Japan, which is based in Tokyo, is used for game engine licensing and support.
[edit] References
- ^ "Epic Games — Company Profile". Linkedin. 2011-02-04. http://www.linkedin.com/companies/epic-games. Retrieved 2011-02-04.
- ^ Fire Fight for Windows (1996) - MobyGames
- ^ Levi Buchanan (2010-11-02). "Project Sword now called Infinity Blade". Uk.wireless.ign.com. http://uk.wireless.ign.com/articles/113/1132020p1.html. Retrieved 2010-11-15.
- ^ "Play With The Unreal Engine On Your iPhone With Epic Citadel". Kotaku. 2010-09-01. http://kotaku.com/5627701/play-with-the-unreal-engine-on-your-iphone-with-epic-citadel. Retrieved 2010-09-27.
- ^ Jim Reilly (2010-10-01). "Gears of War 3 Delayed to Fall 2011 - Xbox 360 News at IGN". Xbox360.ign.com. http://xbox360.ign.com/articles/112/1124698p1.html. Retrieved 2010-11-15.
- ^ a b "Carbon Games formed by Fat Princess devs". Joystiq. http://www.joystiq.com/2011/07/05/carbon-games-formed-by-fat-princess-devs/. Retrieved 10 July 2011.
- ^ "VGA — Spike TV 2006 Video Game Awards Winners". Digital Tech News. 2006-12-09. http://www.digitaltechnews.com/news/2006/12/vga_spike_tv_20.html. Retrieved 2008-03-11.
- ^ Rea, Jared (2007-08-20). "Epic Games buys People can fly studios". Joystiq.com. http://www.joystiq.com/2007/08/20/epic-believes-people-can-fly-acquires-majority-stake/. Retrieved 2010-11-15.
- ^ Brandon Boyer (2008-05-20). "Epic Games Acquires Undertow Developer Chair". GamaSutra. http://www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/news_index.php?story=18727. Retrieved 2008-05-20.
- ^ "Epic Games China Company". epicgameschina.com. http://www.epicgameschina.com/company.html. Retrieved 2010-05-02.
- ^ "Titan Studios". titanstudios.com. http://titanstudios.com/. Retrieved 2010-05-02.
- ^ "Epic Games, Inc. Opens New Subsidiary in Korea". epicgames.com. 2009-07-29. http://www.epicgames.com/news/epic-games-inc.-opens-new-subsidiary-in-korea/. Retrieved 2011-06-11.
[edit] External links
- Epic Games official site
- Epic Games Unreal Engine site
- Epic Games Unreal Development Kit site
- Epic Games Unreal Developer Network site
- Epic Games Inc. on MobyGames
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