Epic Games

Epic Games

Infobox_Company
company_name = Epic Games
company_
company_type = Private
company_slogan =
foundation = Rockville, Maryland (1991)
location = Cary, North Carolina
key_people = Tim Sweeney, Founder/CEO
Mark Rein, Founder/Vice President
Mike Capps, President
Jay Wilbur, Vice President
Cliff Bleszinski, Lead Designer
Steve Polge, Lead Programmer
industry = Video games
num_employees = 96 [cite news
title = Epic Games buys control of Polish company
publisher = Triangle Business Journal
date = 2007-08-21
url = http://triangle.bizjournals.com/triangle/stories/2007/08/20/daily8.html
accessdate = 2007-08-26
]
products = Games
"ZZT"
"Jill of the Jungle"
"Jazz Jackrabbit"
"Epic Pinball"
'
"Unreal series of games"
"Gears of War" and several others.
Game Engines"' : "Unreal Engine"
homepage = http://www.epicgames.com/

Epic Games, also known as Epic and formerly as Epic MegaGames, is a video game development company based in Cary, North Carolina, United States.

History

Epic Games was initially founded under the name of Potomac Computer Systems in 1991 by Tim Sweeney in Rockville, Maryland. Potomac Computer Systems released its flagship product, "ZZT", the same year. During the latter portion of ZZT's life span, the company became known as Epic MegaGames. Gradually, the Epic brand grew with the advent of its shareware games, including "Epic Pinball", "Jill of the Jungle", "Jazz Jackrabbit" and '. 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 1997 Safari Software was acquired in whole by Epic and some of their titles as well as other pre-1998 games are sold under the Epic Classics"' brand.

In 1998, Epic MegaGames released "Unreal", a 3D first-person shooter, which expanded into a series of "Unreal" games. The company also began to license the core technology, or Unreal engine, used for the series to other game developers. In 1999, the company changed its name to Epic Games and moved its offices, including its Rockville headquarters, to Cary. In 2006, Epic released the Xbox 360 (and now PC) bestseller "Gears of War" and has completed working on "Unreal Tournament 3". A port of "Gears of War" for Mac OS X is also in the works.cite web | url = http://www.firingsquad.com/news/newsarticle.asp?searchid=16483 | title = E3 2007: Gears of War PC Impressions | date=2007-07-12 | accessdate=2007-07-12 ] . On August 20th 2007 they acquired a majority shareholding in Polish developer People Can Fly [ [http://www.joystiq.com/2007/08/20/epic-believes-people-can-fly-acquires-majority-stake/ Epic Games buys People can fly studios.] ] .

Key developers at Epic Games include the aforementioned lead programmer Tim Sweeney, game designer Cliff Bleszinski, Erik de Neve and Steve Polge. In 2003, Jerry O'Flaherty was named Studio Art Director.

On 17 March 2008 Epic Games partnered with Valve Corporation and released the whole Unreal series (excluding UT2003) over Steam.

On 19 April 2008 Epic Games' Mike Capps stated that he believes the popularity of the Wii video game console is like a "virus" in that one person thinks it looks cool and buys it, but only plays it for two months; but in that two months friends will see the Wii, think it looks cool, and buy one for themselves, propagating the cycle. When asked whether there would ever be a time when Epic would be forced to give in and create a game for the Wii, Mike Capps said, “no, we go forward, not back. It makes more sense for us to invest in the next-generation tech.”cite web |url=http://xbox360.ign.com/articles/868/868001p4.html |title= IGN: NYCC '08: Talking Gears 2 and So Much More |accessdate=2008-04-20 |last=Ahearn |first=Nate |date=2008-04-19 |publisher=IGN] cite web |url=http://www.megatonik.com/2008/04/20/mike-capps-says-epic-games-wont-ever-make-a-game-for-the-wii-we-go-forward-not-back/ |title= Mike Capps says Epic Games won’t ever make a game for the Wii: “we go forward, not back” |accessdate=2008-04-20 |last=zizzy |first= |date=2008-04-20 |publisher=Megatonik]

On 20 May 2008 Epic Games acquired Chair Entertainment.cite web| author=Brandon Boyer|publisher=GamaSutra|date=2008-05-20|accessdate=2008-05-20|title=Epic Games Acquires Undertow Developer Chair|url=http://www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/news_index.php?story=18727 ]

Awards

Due to the success of "Gears of War", the studio were also awarded with IGN's "Best Developer for Xbox 360", "Official Xbox Magazine"'s "Best Developer of the Year" and "Best Studio of the Year",Fact|date=March 2008 and Spike TV's "Best Studio".cite web | url = http://www.digitaltechnews.com/news/2006/12/vga_spike_tv_20.html | title = VGA - Spike TV 2006 Video Game Awards Winners | publisher = Digital Tech News | date = 2006-12-09 | accessdate = 2008-03-11 ]

Game engines

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 & 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. It has been used in games such as "Mirror's Edge", "Huxley", "BioShock", "Mass Effect", ', ', "Tom Clancy's EndWar", "Lost Odyssey", "Turok", "Unreal Tournament 3", "", "Army of Two", "Gears of War" and "Gears of War 2".

References

External links

* [http://www.epicgames.com/ "Epic Games" official site]
* [http://gearsforums.epicgames.com/ "Epic Games" official forum]
* [http://www.unrealtechnology.com/ "Epic Games" Unreal Engine site]
* [http://udn.epicgames.com/ "Epic Games" Unreal Developer Network site]
* [http://www.mobygames.com/company/epic-games-inc Epic Games Inc.] on MobyGames


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