History Creator / EpicGames

[[http://epicgames.com Epic Games]] is a game developer and publisher, best known for ''VideoGame/{{Unreal}}'', ''VideoGame/GearsOfWar'', ''VideoGame/{{Bulletstorm}}'', and ''VideoGame/{{Fortnite}}'', as well as its most widespread technology, the UsefulNotes/UnrealEngine.

The company currently maintains two of it's own freely downloadable [[UsefulNotes/GameEngine Game Engines]]; Unreal Engine 4 and 5, with [=UDK=] (Unreal Development Kit, or Unreal Engine 3 as it was commonly called) having deprecated support. Unreal Engine 4 was praised for its cross-platform capabilities, the gorgeous visuals it could render, as well as being very easy to work with with it's "blueprints" system, making game logic easier for developers to work with, rivalling that of UsefulNotes/{{Unity}} when it came to making development easier for developers of all stripes. It has subsequently been used as the basis for a lot of PC games ever since its release in 2014, with ''VideoGame/UnrealTournament4'', the ''VideoGame/SpyroReignitedTrilogy'', as well as the ''[[VideoGame/DestroyAllHumans2020 Destroy All Humans]]'' remake being some of the more prominent examples. It is also used in animation too; ''WesternAnimation/{{Zafari}}'' for example, uses the engine to create its show to great effect.

In 2024, Creator/{{Disney}} announced a strategic partnership with Epic Games. As a result, Disney would take an equity stake in the company. It plans to launch an expansive games and entertainment universe connecting Fortnite to various characters and IP from across the Disney brand.

In 2024, Creator/{{Disney}} announced a strategic partnership with Epic Games. As a result, Disney would take an equity stake in the company.

In late 2018, Epic announced that in addition to their existing repertoire of game development, publishing and technology, they would also be expanding into the realm of game distribution with the launch of the [[UsefulNotes/EpicGamesStore Epic Games Store]], a UsefulNotes/DigitalDistribution platform that competes with Valve's Platform/{{Steam}} service, EA's [[Creator/ElectronicArts Origin]], and CD Projekt's [[Website/GogDotCom GOG]] DRM Free store.

In late 2018, Epic announced that in addition to their existing repertoire of game development, publishing and technology, they would also be expanding into the realm of game distribution with the launch of the [[UsefulNotes/EpicGamesStore Epic Games Store]], a UsefulNotes/DigitalDistribution platform that competes with Valve's UsefulNotes/{{Steam}} service, EA's [[Creator/ElectronicArts Origin]], and CD Projekt's [[Website/GogDotCom GOG]] DRM Free store.

** They did this ''four times'' for the ''VideoGame/{{Unreal}}'' series. All the released patches here have Epic's actual blessing, giving them somewhat of semi-official release status[[note]][[ScrewedByTheLawyers For legal reasons]], though, forget about seeing them on UsefulNotes/{{Steam}} or Website/GOGDotCom[[/note]]:

[[http://epicgames.com Epic Games]] is a game developer and publisher, best known for ''VideoGame/{{Unreal}}'', ''VideoGame/GearsOfWar'', ''VideoGame/{{Bulletstorm}}'', and ''VideoGame/{{Fortnite}}'', as well as its most widespread technology, the ''[[UsefulNotes/GameEngine Unreal Engine]]''.

* ObviousBeta:
** Their latest games would find their way as incomplete releases, with Epic themselves releasing A LOT of patches. As of now, the worst offender is ''VideoGame/UnrealTournamentIII'', which had many {{Game Breaking Bug}}s in the GUI before the [[UpdatedRerelease Black Edition]].
** The UsefulNotes/EpicGamesStore was blatantly unfinished when it first released, filled not only with a litteny of bugs (that have since been fixed), but for the longest time lacked some basic store features, such as a shopping cart (which was ''finally'' added on the 09/12/2021, three years and three days after the store first went live on 06/12/2018).

!! Recently published:

!! Early and unknown games:

The company currently maintains two of it's own freely downloadable [[UsefulNotes/GameEngine Game Engines]]; Unreal Engine 4 and 5, with [=UDK=] (Unreal Development Kit; or Unreal Engine 3 as many others know it as now) has deprecated support. Unreal Engine 4 was praised for its cross-platform capabilities, the gorgeous visuals it could render, as well as being very easy to work with with it's "blueprints" system, making games logic easier for developers to code games, rivalling that of UsefulNotes/{{Unity}} when it comes to making games easier for developers of all stripes to make games. It has subsequently been used as the basis for a lot of PC games ever since its release in 2014, with ''VideoGame/UnrealTournament4'', the ''VideoGame/SpyroReignitedTrilogy'', as well as the ''[[VideoGame/DestroyAllHumans2020 Destroy All Humans]]'' remake being some of the more prominent examples. It is also used in animation too; ''WesternAnimation/{{Zafari}}'' for example, uses the engine to create its show to great effect.

* [2016] ''VideoGame/{{Paragon}}''

Epic Games is a game developer and publisher, best known for ''VideoGame/{{Unreal}}'', ''VideoGame/GearsOfWar'', ''VideoGame/{{Bulletstorm}}'', and ''VideoGame/{{Fortnite}}'', as well as its most widespread technology, the ''[[UsefulNotes/GameEngine Unreal Engine]]''.

* PromotedFanboy: It became a constant since ''VideoGame/{{Unreal|I}}'' for Epic to pick up members of their community, so they can work with them. It's still one of the biggest examples about hiring people from their own community:
** ''VideoGame/UnrealTournament'' came to the stores with around 8 mappers having worked on it, some of them gathered from the same ''Unreal'' community. The game was a success. Also, its modding and mapping community grew very well. By the time ''VideoGame/UnrealTournament2004'' came out, the quantity of mappers grew up to almost 20. Due to this, Epic Games tried to do [=UT3=] more "modding friendly", and the success it has is still up for debate.
** A particular example is Sjoerd "Hourences" de Jong: both [[http://ut2004stats.epicgames.com/index.php?stats=maps the most played map]] of ''2004'' and the most played Onslaught map of that same game were made by him, and found their way onto the demos, no doubt helping people get a feeling of how awesome ''2004'' is. Hourences later worked on the RPG ''The Chronicles Of Spellborn'', and released two books called "The Hows and Whys of Level Design".
** In an interesting bit, before the launch of ''VideoGame/UnrealTournamentIII'', [[http://web.archive.org/web/20080416154223/http://utforums.epicgames.com/showthread.php?t=576680 a short contest]] was done in the Epic Forums, to give a name to a CTF map that was originally going to be called "Dead Planet". [[http://utforums.epicgames.com/showthread.php?t=577156 The winner was keyrat]], who suggested the name "Omicron Dawn", and was credited in the game.
** The whole ''Unreal'' community got this for [[VideoGame/UnrealTournament4 the 2014 reboot of ''Unreal Tournament'']], as a result of Epic co-developing it with the community.

** The first Unreal Tournament came to the stores with around 8 mappers having worked on it, some of them gathered from the same Unreal community. The game was a success. Also, its modding and mapping community grew very well. By the time Unreal Tournament 2004 came out, the quantity of mappers grew up to almost 20. Due to this, Epic Games tried to do [=UT3=] more "modding friendly", and the success it has is still up for debate.

* PromotedFanboy:
** It became a constant since ''VideoGame/{{Unreal|I}}'' for Epic to pick up members of their community, so they can work with them. There are some examples in the [[VideoGame/{{Unreal}} Unreal page]], most notably ''Make Something Unreal'' contest winners.

** Their Storefront was blatantly unfinished upon release, filled not only with a litteny of bugs, but lacking some of the even most basic of features such as a shopping cart.

In late 2018, Epic announced that in addition to their existing repertoire of game development, publishing and technology, they would also be expanding into the realm of game distribution with the launch of the [[UsefulNotes/EpicGamesStore Epic Games Store]], a UsefulNotes/DigitalDistribution platform that competes with Valve's UsefulNotes/{{Steam}} service, EA's [[Creator/ElectronicArts Origin]], and CD Projekts [[Website/GogDotCom GOG]] DRM Free store.

The company currently maintains two of it's own freely downloadable [[UsefulNotes/GameEngine Game Engines]]; Unreal Engine 4 and 5, with [=UDK=](Unreal Development Kit; or Unreal 3 as many others know it as now) has deprecated support. Unreal 4 was praised for its cross-platform capabilities, the gorgeous visuals it could render, as well as being very easy to work with with it's "blueprints" system, making games logic easier to work with, and the engine rivals that of UsefulNotes/{{Unity}} when it comes to making games easier to make for developers of all stripes. It has subsequently been used as the basis for a lot of PC games ever since its release in 2014 with ''VideoGame/UnrealTournament4'' and the ''VideoGame/SpyroReignitedTrilogy'' being some of the more prominent examples. It is also used in animated series' too; ''WesternAnimation/{{Zafari}}'' for example uses the engine to great effect.

In late 2018, Epic announced that in addition to their existing repertoire of game development, publishing and technology, they would also be expanding into the realm of game distribution with the launch of the Epic Games Store, a UsefulNotes/DigitalDistribution platform to compete with UsefulNotes/{{Steam}} and Website/GogDotCom. [[UsefulNotes/EpicGamesStore See here for more details]].

The company currently maintains two of it's own freely downloadable [[UsefulNotes/GameEngine Game Engines]]; Unreal Engine 4 and 5, with [=UDK=](Unreal Development Kit; or Unreal 3 as many others know it as now) has deprecated support. Unreal 4 was praised for its cross-platform capabilities, the gorgeous visuals it could render, as well as being very easy to work with with it's "blueprints" system, making games logic easier to work with, and the engine rivals that of UsefulNotes/{{Unity}} when it comes to making games easier to make for developers of all stripes. It has subsequently been used as the basis for a lot of PC games ever since its release in 2014 with ''VideoGame/UnrealTournament4'' and the ''VideoGame/SpyroReignitedTrilogy'' being some of the more prominent examples. It is also used in animated series' too; ''WesternAnimation/Zafari'' for example uses the engine to great effect.

The company currently maintains two of it's own freely downloadable [[UsefulNotes/GameEngine Game Engines]]; Unreal Engine 4 and 5, with [=UDK=](Unreal Development Kit; or Unreal 3 as many others know it as now) has deprecated support. Unreal 4 was praised for its cross-platform capabilities, the gorgeous visuals it could render, as well as being very easy to work with with it's "blueprints" system, making games logic easier to work with, and the engine rivals that of UsefulNotes/{{Unity}} when it comes to making games easier to make for developers of all stripes. It has subsequently been used as the basis for a lot of PC games ever since its release in 2014, such as the ''VideoGame/SpyroReignitedTrilogy''.

The company currently maintains two of it's own freely downloadable [[GameEngine Game Engines]]; Unreal Engine 4 and 5, with [=UDK=](Unreal Development Kit; or Unreal 3 as many others know it as now) has deprecated support. Unreal 4 was praised for its cross-platform capabilities, the gorgeous visuals it could render, as well as being very easy to work with with it's "blueprints" system, making games logic easier to work with, rivalling that of UsefulNotes/Unity. It has subsequently been used as the basis for a lot of PC games ever since it's release in 2014, such as the ''VideoGame/SpyroReignitedTrilogy''.

In late 2018, Epic announced that in addition to their existing repertoire of game development, publishing and technology, they would also be expanding into the realm of game distribution with the launch of the Epic Games Store, a UsefulNotes/DigitalDistribution platform similar to the likes of UsefulNotes/{{Steam}} and Website/GogDotCom. The unique advantage of Epic's store is that they will take a mere 12% cut of revenue from game sales, as opposed to the industry standard of 30% for digital distribution services. Additionally, licensees of Epic's Unreal Engine 4 would not have to pay any additional royalties to Epic for sales on the store, making the store an even more attractive offer for such games.

In Early 2019, Epic drew ire from consumers for making a hard push to secure several third party games as exclusives for the Epic Store. The deal with Epic entailed that games had to be exclusive to Epic Games Store for a certain period before going to other digital storefronts. The controversy mostly stemmed from several of these games having already had pre-order sales on other PC stores like Steam, like ''VideoGame/MetroExodus'' and ''VideoGame/PhoenixPoint''. Consumers were especially angry in the case of the latter game as it had been funded primarily through a Fig crowdfunding campaign and had promised its backers it would be available at launch on both Steam and GOG. The vitriol would only get worse as Epic continued to secure more and more games as Epic Store exclusives, reaching a high boiling point after August 1, 2019 when the two-person indie development team of ''VideoGame/{{Ooblets}}'' announced that their game would become a timed exclusive on EGS, [[https://www.businessinsider.com/ooblets-developers-receive-threats-for-epic-games-store-exclusivity-deal-2019-8 which swiftly led to threats of violence and racist abuse against the developers.]]

Epic drew more ire when the Epic Games Store was caught, without an explicit prompt or permission, reading Steam friends data straight from a specific file, rather than making specific requests through Steam's API, meaning it could take more data from Steam than is required for basic functions like syncing users' friends lists. [[https://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2019-03-15-epic-responds-to-accusations-its-launcher-accesses-steam-data-without-permission Epic responded]] by admitting that this was a remnant of when they were setting up friends list integration with ''VideoGame/{{Fortnite}}'', and fixed the issue not long after.