Potomac Computer Systems (1991–1992) Potomac Computer Systems was founded by
Tim Sweeney in 1991. At the time, Sweeney was studying
mechanical engineering and living in a dorm at the
University of Maryland. He frequently visited his parents, who lived in nearby
Potomac, Maryland, where his
personal computer, used for both work and leisure, was situated. It was only with the unexpected success of
ZZT, caused in most part by the easy modifiability of the game using Sweeney's custom ZZT-oop programming language, that made Sweeney consider turning Potomac Computer Systems into a video game company. The game sold several thousand copies as of May 2009, and Paul Sweeney still lived at the former Potomac Computer Systems address at the time, fulfilling all orders that eventually came by mail. Among them was the 17-year old
Cliff Bleszinski, who joined the company after submitting his game
Dare to Dream to Sweeney. The following year, it had over 30 employees. In 1996, Epic MegaGames produced a shareware isometric shooter called
Fire Fight, developed by Polish studio Chaos Works. It was published by
Electronic Arts. By 1997, Epic MegaGames had 50 people working for it worldwide. 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) Unreal and personal computer games (1999–2006) In February 1999, Epic MegaGames announced that it had moved its headquarters to a new location in
Cary, North Carolina, and would henceforth be known as simply Epic Games. Rein explained that "
Unreal was first created by developers who were scattered across the world, eventually, the team came together to finish the game and that's when the real magic started. The move to North Carolina centralizes Epic, bringing all of the company's talented developers under one roof." at which point the studio had 13 employees. The company launched the
Make Something Unreal competition in 2004, aiming to reward video game developers who create
mods using the
Unreal game engine.
Tripwire Interactive won US$80,000 in cash and computer hardware prizes over the course of the contest in the first contest in 2004.
Gears of War and console games (2006–2012) Around 2006, the personal computer video game market was struggling with
copyright infringement in the form of software piracy, and it became difficult to make single-player games, elements that had been part of Epic's business model to that point. The company decided to shift focus into developing console systems, a move which Sweeney called the start of the third major iteration of the company, "Epic 3.0". In 2008, Epic Games released
Gears of War 2, selling over three million copies within the first month of its release. Epic Games released
Epic Citadel on September 1, 2010 as a
tech demo to demonstrate the
Unreal Engine 3 running on
Apple iOS, within
Adobe Flash Player Stage3D and using
HTML5 WebGL technologies. It was also released for
Android on January 29, 2013. Epic Games worked on an
iOS game,
Infinity Blade, which was released on December 9, 2010. The third game in the series,
Gears of War 3, came out in 2011. In 2011, Epic's subsidiary
Titan Studios was dissolved. At the 2011
Spike Video Game Awards, Epic Games announced its new game
Fortnite. In March 2012, Epic Games China became independent from Epic as Ying Pei Games (), developing
Mercenary Ops at the time
, while Epic still retained a minority stake. In June 2012, Epic announced that it was opening up a new studio, Epic Baltimore, made up of members of
38 Studios'
Big Huge Games. Epic Baltimore was renamed to Impossible Studios in August 2012. However, the studio ended up closing its doors in February 2013. Epic fully acquired People Can Fly in August 2012, rebranding it as Epic Games Poland in November 2013 as it began work on
Fortnite alongside Epic. Epic alongside People Can Fly made one last game in the
Gears of War series that served as a prequel to the other games,
Gears of War: Judgement, which was released in 2013. At this point, Epic had considered developing a fourth main title for
Gears of War, but estimated that its budget would be at least . In exchange for Tencent's help, Tencent acquired approximately 48.4% of Epic then issued share capital, equating to 40% of total Epic – inclusive of both stock and employee stock options, for $330 million in June 2012. Tencent Holdings has the right to nominate directors to the board of Epic Games and thus counts as an associate of the Group. •
Cliff Bleszinski, then the design director, announced he was leaving Epic Games in October 2012 after 20 years with the company. His official reason was "It's time for a much-needed break". Bleszinski later stated that he had become "jaded" about the gaming industry in the lead-up to Tencent's involvement. After Tencent's investment, Bleszinski attempted to renegotiate his contract but failed to come to terms, making him think about retirement instead. He opted to stop coming to work, spending his time at his beach house, eventually leading Sweeney to come down and have a heart-to-heart discussion with Bleszinski on the new direction Epic was going, and asking him to make a firm decision regarding his commitment to Epic. Bleszinski opted to write his resignation letter the next day. After about two years, Bleszinski started
Boss Key Productions in 2014. • President
Mike Capps announced his retirement in December 2012, and cited as reasons the birth of a baby boy he was having with his wife and his plans to be a
stay-at-home dad. He subsequently announced quitting his advisory role as well as his affiliation with the company in March 2013. •
Rod Fergusson, who had been a lead developer for the
Gears of War series, left Epic in August 2012. Fergusson stated that he had seen the direction that the Tencent acquisition would have taken the company, and was not interested in the free-to-play style of games but instead wanted to continue developing a "AAA, big-narrative, big-story, big-impact game". Fergusson briefly joined
Irrational Games, owned by
2K Games, to help complete
BioShock Infinite. While there, Fergusson talked with 2K about potentially continuing the
Gears of War series, leading to talks between 2K Games, Epic, and Microsoft. •
Adrian Chmielarz, the founder of People Can Fly, who joined Epic when his studio was acquired earlier in 2012, decided to leave after Tencent's acquisition, stating that he and other former People Can Fly members did not believe the free-to-play games as a service direction fit their own personal vision or direction they wanted to go. Chmielarz and these others left Epic in late 2012 to form
The Astronauts. and the free-to-play
multiplayer online battle arena game
Paragon, launched in 2016 for
Microsoft Windows and
PlayStation 4. Epic also released a remastered version of
Shadow Complex for newer consoles and computers in 2015, and its first foray into
virtual reality with the release of
Robo Recall for the
Oculus Rift. The investment infusion from Tencent allowed Epic Games to relicense the Unreal Engine 4 engine in March 2015 to be free for all users to develop with, with Epic taking 5% royalties on games developed with the engine. In June 2015, Epic agreed to allow Epic Games Poland's departure from the company and sold its shares in the studio; the studio reverted to its former name, People Can Fly. The
Bulletstorm IP was retained by People Can Fly who has since launched a remastered version called
Bulletstorm: Full Clip Edition on April 7, 2017, published by
Gearbox Software.
Fortnite success (2018–present) By July 2017,
Fortnite was finally in a state for public play. Epic launched the title through a paid
early access then, with a full
free-to-play release expected in 2018. Following on the popularity of ''
PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds, a battle royale game released earlier in 2017, Epic developed a variant of Fortnite
called Fortnite Battle Royale, which was released in September 2017 as a free-to-play title across computer, console, and mobile platforms. Fortnite Battle Royale'' quickly gained an audience, amassing over 125 million players by May 2018 with estimates of having earned over by July 2018 through microtransactions, including its
battle pass system. Epic Games, which had been valued at around at the time of Tencent's acquisition, was estimated to be worth in July 2018 due to
Fortnite Battle Royale, and expected to surpass by the end of 2018 with projected growth of the game. Player count continued to expand when Epic broke new ground by convincing Sony to change its stance on
cross-platform play allowing players on any device to compete with each other in
Fortnite Battle Royale.
Fortnite has drawn nearly 250 million players as of March 2019.
Fortnites commercial success enabled Epic to make several changes to its other product offerings. In July 2018, it reduced the revenue cut that it took for assets sold on the Unreal Engine Marketplace from 30% to 12%. Epic launched the
Epic Games Store digital storefront to compete with services like
Steam and
GOG.com, not only taking a 12% cut of revenue compared to the industry standard of 30%, but also eliminated the 5% cut for games using the Unreal engine sold via the storefront. However the company also refocused its development efforts to provide more support for Unreal and
Fortnite by ending support for
Paragon and
Unreal Tournament. The financial success of
Fortnite brought additional investment into Epic Games. Epic Games was one of eleven companies selected to be part of the
Disney Accelerator program in 2017, providing Epic equity investment and access to some of Disney's executives, and potential opportunity to work with Disney in the future. Disney had selected both Epic and
aXiomatic as potential leads in the growing esports arena. Epic's has used its windfall to support its products. In January 2019, following a dispute between
Improbable and
Unity Technologies over changes to the acceptable uses of the Unity game engine, Epic announced it was partnering with Improbable to launch a fund to help bring developers it believes affected by these changes towards solutions that are more open and would have fewer service compatibilities. Epic launched a prize pool in February 2019 for
Fortnite-related esports activities that it plans to run from 2019 onward. To expand its esports initiatives, Epic Games hired Nate Nanzer from
Blizzard Entertainment and its commissioner of the
Overwatch League in May 2019. At the 2019
Game Developers Conference, Epic announced it was launching a MegaGrants initiative, allowing anyone to apply for up to in funding to support game development using the Unreal Engine or for any project, even if not directly games-related, that would benefit the Unreal Engine. One of the first major funded entities under this was the
Blender Foundation in July 2019, having received from the MegaGrants funding, to help it to improve and professionalize its
Blender tools for 3D art creation. Epic Games was given the
British Academy of Film and Television Arts Special Award in June 2019 for its past and continuing developments for the Unreal Engine, a software which also earned it the Engineering Excellence Award from the
Hollywood Professional Association. Epic announced in March 2020 it was establishing a new multi-platform publishing label, Epic Games Publishing. Alongside this, the label had announced three deals with developers
Remedy Entertainment,
Playdead and
GenDesign in which Epic would fully fund development and publishing (including employee salaries, quality assurance, localization, and marketing) of one or more games from each studio, but leaving full creative control and IP rights to the studio, and sharing profits, following Epic's recouping of its investment, 50/50 with the studio. The company expanded its publishing options in October 2021 with
Spry Fox and Eyes Out.
Unreal Engine 5 was announced on May 13, 2020, with plans for an early 2022 release. Alongside this announcement, Epic released its Epic Online Services, a free SDK toolset for online matchmaking and other similar cross-platform play support features based on
Fortnite. Epic further waived all Unreal license fees retroactively for games up through the first in revenue, regardless of how they were published, retroactively starting from January 1, 2020.
Bloomberg reported that Epic was nearing a valuation in June 2020 once it had completed a new investing round from its previous investors and newcomings T. Rowe Price Group Inc. and Baillie Gifford. The company partnered with
Christopher Nolan and
Warner Bros. to acquire distribution rights for
Inception,
Batman Begins and
The Prestige as part of "Movie Nite" on Fortnite's "Party Royale" island. The film live streams were based on a user's country. Across July and August, Epic raised an additional in capital investment, bringing the company's post-money equity valuation to . This included a investment from
Sony, approximately a 1.4% stake in the company. The deal continues the two companies' technology collaboration after they had worked together on the development of Unreal Engine 5, but does not commit Epic to any exclusivity to the Sony PlayStation platform. Sweeney said that Sony had started talking with Epic about investing following the demonstration of the Unreal Engine 5 in May 2020. Epic purchased
Cary Towne Center in Cary, North Carolina, in January 2021, which had been scheduled to be closed and demolished after 2020, to be its new headquarters and campus, with the conversion to be complete by 2024. All of the existing mall's structure, with the exception of a section housing the Belk department store, was razed. However, after no further actions, the Town of Cary revoked Epic's zoning application on December 6, 2024, declaring it "inactive". Epic unveiled its MetaHuman Creator project in February 2021. Based on the technology from 3Lateral, Cubic Motion, and Quixel, the MetaHuman Creator is a browser-based application to allow game developers to create realistic human characters within a short amount of time starting from various presets, and then can be exported as pre-made models and animation files ready for use in Unreal Engine. Epic announced a partnership with Cesium in March 2021 to bring its 3D
geospatial data as a free add-on into the Unreal Engine. In April 2021, Epic completed another round of funding to support the company's "long-term vision for the
metaverse", putting the company's valuation at . The round of funding included another strategic investment from Sony. Sweeney remains the controlling shareholder with these additional investments. In February 2022, Epic Games announced that at least half a billion accounts have been created on its platform. Epic released the initial beta version of RealityScan, a mobile app that uses the tools from Capturing Reality and Quixel, in April 2022. RealityScan allows users to create 3D models that can be imported into Sketchfab using photos taken by the user. Epic received another $1 billion each from Sony and from
Kirkbi, the parent company of
The Lego Group, in April 2022 for continued support of building out Epic's metaverse. These investments gave Kirkbi 3% ownership and increased Sony's to 4.9%. With these investments, Epic had an estimated valuation of . Epic and Lego also announced their partnership to build a child-friendly space in the metaverse that same month. On February 9, 2023, Epic released the Postparty application. Postparty is a gameplay clipping
software designed for people who do not have access to clipping software or who require a way to share gaming videos and highlights (it is frequently used on gaming consoles) clipped (30 seconds max), edited to the user's preference (using the in-app editing tools and other editing software), and then posted to social media. It is most commonly associated with creating and sharing video clips in
Fortnite, but it is also associated with clipping other applications created by Epic, such as
Rocket League. It was released on
iPhone and
Android devices. Although it was already possible to share clips and other data across many devices, Postparty provided an additional clipping method. Clips from many platforms, including
Xbox,
Nintendo Switch,
PlayStation, and PC, were combined into a single main application. After sharing their first
Fortnite clip using the Postparty app, players will earn the Post That! Wrap and Postparty Confetti Spray cosmetic items. The company announced in September 2023 that it was laying off 870 employees, along with divesting in Bandcamp to Songtradr and spinning off SuperAwesome into its own company. Sweeney said this move was needed to rein in spending, and did not anticipate there would be further layoffs in the future. Mediatonic reported a significant number of layoffs from its team, but remained part of Epic. Following these cuts, the company had over 4000 employees. On February 7, 2024, Epic Games received a $1.5 billion investment from
the Walt Disney Company. Pending regulatory approval, Disney will acquire a 9% stake. Disney plans to co-develop new games and an "entertainment universe" encompassing its properties with Epic. Part of this involved bringing more of the Disney properties to
Fortnite; while
Fortnite had already featured numerous cosmetics based on
Marvel Comics and
Star Wars, Disney announced new plans to bring its classic animated characters and those from
Pixar properties to the game. In July 2024, the
Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA), an actor labor union of which numerous video game voice actors are members, would initiate a
labor strike against a number of video publishers, including Epic Games, over concerns about lack of
A.I. protections related to not only video game actors, but also the use of A.I to replicate an actor's voice, or create a digital replica of their likeness. Epic launched Fab, a unified marketplace for Unreal Engine Marketplace, Sketchfab, ArtStation Marketplace, and Quixel assets, on October 22, 2024. Following an investigation by the Department of Justice, the two Tencent board members stepped down, as they were also board members on
Riot Games, which was seen as a violation of the
Sherman Act by the department. Epic announced it would be laying off over 1,000 employees in March 2026 as a result of waning engagement in
Fortnite since 2025, as well as achieving a cost saving of $500 million with changes in contracting. The company would be left with more than 4,000 staff following these layoffs. Alongside the layoffs, Epic announced it was discontinuing various
Fortnite modes that had low engagement, including
Rocket Racing,
Fortnite Ballistic and the
Fortnite Festival Battle Stage, as well as removing
Horizon Chase and
Horizon Chase Turbo, both developed by Epic studio Aquiris, from its storefront and from mobile app stores, though the sequel
Horizon Chase 2 will remain available. According to
Bloomberg News, Epic had also released some products too soon before the developers could bring the product to meet expectations for players, causing interest to wane quickly, such as with
Ballastic. As part of revitalization,
Bloomberg said that Epic was working on an
extraction shooter using Disney characters as part of the earlier Disney funding deal. ==Acquisitions==