Video games by developer/publisher
Epic Games
is an American
video game
and
software developer
based in
Cary, North Carolina
. It was founded by
Tim Sweeney
as Potomac Computer Systems in 1991, originally located in his parents' house in
Potomac, Maryland
. After releasing one game under that name,
ZZT
(1991), Sweeney renamed the company to Epic MegaGames in early 1992 "to make it look like we were a big company" even though it had no other employees or offices.
[1]
Over the next few years, the company continued to make
PC games
, largely self-published, including the side-scrollers
Jill of the Jungle
(1992) and
Jazz Jackrabbit
(1994). They additionally published titles by other developers such as
Epic Pinball
(1993) by
Digital Extremes
and
Tyrian
(1995) by Eclipse Software. Epic also slowly expanded in size, reaching 8 employees by 1994.
[1]
Beginning with the 1996 game
Fire Fight
, Epic ceased its publishing and self-publishing operations, and after the release and success of
Unreal
(1998) renamed itself in 1999 to Epic Games and moved to
Raleigh, North Carolina
; it and a temporary office in Canada during
Unreal
'
s development were the first time the company had a central office for their employees.
[1]
[2]
After the name change, the company focused almost solely on the
Unreal
series of shooters for the next few years, and expanded from PC games to console games. In 2006 the company launched its
Gears of War
series of games, and in 2010 the company moved into
mobile games
with the
Infinity Blade
series after purchasing
Chair Entertainment
. Epic returned to retail publishing in 2015 for its own titles, and has solely self-published since. In addition to games, Epic develops and licenses the
Unreal Engine
, which is also used as the
game engine
for many of its own games, and runs the
Epic Games Store
, a
digital video game storefront
for
Microsoft Windows
and
macOS
.
[1]
Sweeney described the history of the company in 2016 as four eras: the shareware era from founding through 1997 as the company grew to 15 employees; the
Unreal
era from 1998 to 2005 as the company focused on developing that franchise through external publishers and grew to 25 employees; the
Gears of War
era from 2006 to 2011 as the company shifted focus to console games and grew to around 200 employees; and the current era where the company moved back to PC games and self-publishing, spinning off or closing some of its subsidiary developers such as
People Can Fly
and
Big Huge Games
.
[3]
This latter era has instead become dominated by the multi-platform
Fortnite Battle Royale
and related games, which is one of the most-played video game franchises of all time with over 350 million registered players.
[4]
Epic Games has developed around 40 games since 1991 and published over 20 more, and has multiple games under development.
Video games
[
edit
]
Epic Games has used the names Potomac Computer Systems, Epic MegaGames, and Epic Games; the name given for the company is the one used at the time of a game's release. Many of the games under the Epic MegaGames brand were released as a set of separate episodes, which were purchasable and playable separately or as a group. In many cases the initial episode of a game was freely distributed as
shareware
to drive interest in the other purchasable episodes.
[1]
Titles are listed for games that gave individual names to their episodes instead of episode numbers.
Developed games
[
edit
]
Published games
[
edit
]
In addition to publishing many of its own games, Epic published several titles by other developers in the early 1990s as Epic MegaGames before ceasing publishing operations. In 2020, it launched Epic Games Publishing as a new publishing wing.
Cancelled games
[
edit
]
Notes
[
edit
]
- ^
a
b
Best of ZZT
and
ZZT's Revenge
were collections of
ZZT
games made by players with the included editor and submitted in a contest.
[6]
[7]
- ^
The 1994
CD-ROM
release of
Jazz Jackrabbit
, titled
Jazz Jackrabbit CD
, contained three additional episodes named "The Lost Episodes". Additionally, two special holiday editions were produced (
Holiday Hare
, 1994 and
Holiday Hare '95
, 1995), each containing additional holiday-themed levels.
[13]
[14]
[15]
- ^
a
b
c
d
e
f
Fortnite Battle Royale
,
Fortnite Creative
,
Fortnite: Save the World
,
Lego Fortnite
,
Rocket Racing
, and
Fortnite Festival
are all separate games which are accessed through the
Fortnite
launcher and share a microtransaction storefront.
- ^
Fortnite Battle Royale
was released for free
early access
on September 26, 2017, but this was later made the official release date, as the changes to the game became part of its ongoing nature rather than pre-release development
[46]
- ^
Battle Breakers
was
soft launched
in Australia, New Zealand, and the Philippines in April 2017
[49]
- ^
Fortnite: Save the World
was released for paid
early access
on July 25, 2017, and was not changed substantially for its official release date
[52]
- ^
Brix
had a followup release titled "Brix 2 Deluxe" which served as the registered version.
- ^
Castle of the Winds
was self-published as shareware by SaadaSoft in 1989, with "A Question of Vengeance" released for free and "Lifthransir's Bane" sold. The Epic Games version was a retail release of enhanced versions of both episodes.
[56]
- ^
Electro Man
was an enhanced version of the original game, self-published by X LanD Computer Games in Poland in 1992 as
Electro Body
[60]
- ^
a
b
c
Electro Man
,
The Adventures of Robbo
, and
Heartlight
were released together in 1994 by Epic as the
Epic Puzzle Pack
.
[8]
- ^
The MS-DOS release of
The Adventures of Robbo
was an enhanced version of the original game, published by
LK Avalon
in 1989 in Poland as
Robbo
for
Atari 8-bit computers
.
[60]
- ^
Solar Winds
'
second episode was released as both "Solar Winds: Galaxy" and "Solar Winds II: Universe"
- ^
The Epic MegaGames release of
Ken's Labyrinth
was an expanded and enhanced version of the original game, self-published by Ken Silverman as Advanced Systems on January 1, 1993
[63]
- ^
Heartlight
was originally published by
LK Avalon
in Poland in 1990 for
Atari 8-bit computers
[60]
- ^
Tyrian
was re-released shortly after launch as
Tyrian 2.0
with a fourth episode. It was later ported to
Windows
in 1999 (with a fifth episode named "Hazudra Fodder") as
Tyrian 2000
without involvement by Epic Games. Additionally,
Game Boy Color
and
Game Boy Advance
versions were developed by World Tree Games but cancelled; the compiled game codes were released for free in 2007.
[72]
- ^
Fall Guys
was published by
Devolver Digital
from August 4, 2020, until March 2, 2021, when its developer Mediatonic was purchased by Epic Games
- ^
Paragon
was released in
pay to play
early access
on March 3, 2016, and
free-to-play
early access on February 4, 2017
[86]
[87]
- ^
Unreal Tournament
was made available to players on
Windows
,
macOS
, and
Linux
during development beginning on March 3, 2015, with these players able to contribute code or resources for potential inclusion in the game.
[89]
In December 2018 development was halted, though the existing game was still available to players
[90]
- ^
Spyjinx
was made available as a beta to players in Malaysia and Australia in April 2020, but after the beta concluded a few months later no further announcments or releases were made.
[92]
[93]
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"Getting Started With Unreal Tournament"
.
Epic Games
. Archived from
the original
on 2016-04-15
. Retrieved
2018-04-12
.
- ^
a
b
"Spyjinx"
.
Epic Games
.
Archived
from the original on 2018-03-29
. Retrieved
2018-04-12
.
- ^
Oloman, Jordan (April 2, 2020).
"Epic Games, J.J. Abrams' Long-Dormant Spyjinx Finally Revealed, Getting a Limited Beta"
.
IGN
. Retrieved
April 2,
2020
.
- ^
Oloman, Jordan (April 2, 2020).
"Epic Games, J.J. Abrams' Long-Dormant Spyjinx Finally Revealed, Getting a Limited Beta"
.
IGN
. Retrieved
April 2,
2020
.
External links
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