Software:Bulletstorm

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Bulletstorm is a 2011 first-person shooter game developed by People Can Fly and Epic Games and published by Electronic Arts (EA). The video game is distinguished by its system of rewarding players with "skillpoints" for performing increasingly creative kills. Bulletstorm does not have any competitive multiplayer modes, preferring instead to include cooperative online play and score attack modes. Set in the 26th century, the game's story follows Grayson Hunt, a space pirate and former black ops soldier who gets shot down on a war-torn planet while trying to exact revenge on General Sarrano, his former commander who tricked him and his men into committing war crimes and assassinating innocents.

Development of the game began in June 2007. Adrian Chmielarz and Cliff Bleszinski served as its director and designer respectively, while Rick Remender, the author of Fear Agent, wrote the game's story. It was originally envisioned to be a cover-based third-person shooter, though the core combat loop and gameplay perspective went through multiple revisions. Pulp magazines, Burnout, Duke Nukem, and Firefly all inspired the team during Bulletstorm's development. The team experimented with competitive multiplayer modes and campaign cooperative multiplayer mode during production but decided to remove them because of technological constraints.

Upon its release in February 2011 for Windows, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, the game received positive reviews from critics who praised its setting, graphics, action, pacing and gameplay, but was criticized for its story, short length, writing and multiplayer modes. It amassed a great deal of controversy with Fox News during its release window for its depiction of sexual jokes for humor. Bulletstorm was a commercial failure for both Epic Games and Electronic Arts, selling one million copies by 2013. Gearbox Publishing released a remastered version of the game titled Bulletstorm: Full Clip Edition in April 2017 for Windows, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, and a version for Nintendo Switch, titled Bulletstorm: Duke of Switch Edition, in August 2019. A sequel was put on hold as the studio reallocated its resources to work on Software:Gears of War: Judgment. A virtual reality version of the game, titled Bulletstorm VR, was released on December 14, 2023.

Gameplay

A screenshot of Bulletstorm showcasing the "Skillshot" system.
A gameplay screenshot showing the "Skillshot" system. Players receive points when they perform creative kills.

As a first-person shooter, Bulletstorm focuses on combat. The game features eight weapons, each with their own distinct behaviors.[1] In addition to standard firearms such as shotguns and assault rifles, the game features unusual weaponry such as the "Bouncer", which shoots explosive bouncing cannonballs,[2][3] and the "Flailgun", a cannon that shoots bolas weighted by grenades.[4] Each weapon has an alternate fire mode that uses "charges";[5] for example, the Screamer revolver's "charge shot" turns the weapon into a flare gun that ignites an enemy and sends them into the air.[6]

The playable character is equipped with an "instinct leash" that allows him to pull enemies towards him; an upgrade unlocks the "Thumper", which slams down a ball of energy that launches all nearby enemies and explosive barrels into the air.[7] The player can also kick enemies or run and slide into them. If an enemy is launched into the air from the whip or by being kicked/slid into, they go into slow motion, allowing players to perform "skillshots".[8] Skillshots reward the player for killing opponents in the most creative and unusual ways possible.[9] Points are awarded for various actions, such as killing enemies in midair, making use of environmental hazards such as kicking enemies towards spikes and impaling them, or using a weapon's distinct feature.[6][10] The more complicated or unusual the skillshot, the more points players acquire.[11] Points are used as currency at "dropkits" scattered across the planet to purchase firearms, ammunition and upgrades.[6][12] Dropkit checkpoints are also the sites where players can swap their weapons,[13] access the Skillshot database, and view players' statistics.[1]

Besides the single-player campaign, players can access two additional modes. In "Echoes", players must play through a single-player level and kill the enemies in the most unusual ways possible within a fixed period. Each player is given a rating on their performance, which is then uploaded to a leaderboard. Another mode is "Anarchy", a four-player co-operative multiplayer mode. In Anarchy, players must fight through waves of enemies and perform skillshots. When the group of players gains enough skillshots, they can then unlock new levels and arenas. The Anarchy mode has its own set of skillshots and a unique progression system.[14]

Plot

Bulletstorm takes place in the 26th century, where the universe is run by the "Confederation of Planets". Grayson Hunt (Steven Blum)[lower-alpha 1] is the leader of Dead Echo, a black ops team under the command of Confederation General Victor Sarrano (Anthony De Longis). Dead Echo assassinates a man named Bryce Novak and accesses his personal files; they discover Novak was not a criminal "separatist" as they had been told, but a civilian reporter, documenting evidence of Sarrano's corruption and his use of Dead Echo to eliminate his political and personal enemies. When Sarrano tries to have them killed for questioning him, Grayson and his team desert, flee to the edges of the universe, and become pirates.

Ten years later, the ship carrying Grayson (now struggling with alcoholism), and his comrades Ishi Sato (Andrew Kishino), Rell Julian (Chris Cox), and Dr. Whit Oliver (Robin Atkin Downes) is intercepted by the Ulysses, Sarrano's flagship, near the ruined planet of Stygia. In a drunken rage, Grayson attempts a suicide attack on Ulysses. Both ships crash land onto Stygia, fatally wounding Ishi. Oliver sends Grayson and Rell to find an energy cell to power the ship's medical equipment so he can operate. Grayson locates an escape pod from Ulysses and retrieves its energy cell and a device called an "instinct leash". They return with the cell, and Doc manages to replace most of Ishi's body with cybernetics, including an AI processor for parts of his brain. However, in the middle of the operation, marauders break into the ship; Doc and Rell are both killed, and while Ishi survives, he is left permanently disfigured by the incomplete surgery.

Grayson and Ishi decide to work together to get off the planet, despite Ishi blaming Grayson for their friends' deaths. As they work their way towards the nearest city, the AI processor in Ishi's brain takes over several times, fueled by his anger at Grayson's selfishness and refusal to give up his vendetta. The instinct leash leads Grayson to another escape pod, where they find Trishka (Jennifer Hale), a member of Final Echo, the unit that replaced Dead Echo. She agrees to work with Grayson and Ishi on the condition that they help her rescue Sarrano. Grayson eventually learns that Trishka was Novak's daughter; after Dead Echo inadvertently saved her life, she joined the military to hunt down the "separatists" who killed him. Grayson tells her that Sarrano was in fact responsible for her father's death, but lies about his involvement.

The three fight their way to Sarrano's escape pod, which landed on top of a skyscraper. Trishka holds Sarrano at gunpoint and demands answers; he manages to throw her off the roof and informs Grayson and Ishi that the Ulysses is carrying a "DNA bomb" designed to wipe out all life on Stygia so it can be repopulated. He claims that the bomb is damaged and that if it is not disarmed soon, they will die before help arrives. Reluctantly, the two fight alongside him to reach the wreckage of the Ulysses. Sarrano tricks Grayson into arming the bomb and escapes, leaving him and Ishi trapped. Just as it seems they are about to die, Trishka, who turns out to still be alive, rescues them.

The three race to Sarrano's rescue ship and get on board just as it takes off. They fight their way through Sarrano's "Heavy Echo" troops and confront him on the ship's bridge. Trishka demands to know who killed her father, and Sarrano reveals that Grayson and his men did. An argument ensues, and Sarrano then uses his own instinct leash to hijack Ishi's body and force him to attack Grayson and Trishka. Encouraged by Grayson, Ishi manages to wrest back control and winds up taking a bullet meant for his friend. Enraged, Grayson impales Sarrano on the wall, but Sarrano is able to eject him and Trishka from the ship back onto Stygia's surface. Grayson and Trishka race back to the Ulysses and board an unused escape pod. They launch it into low orbit, with the explosion of the DNA bomb propelling the pod into space. As Stygia is slowly consumed by the blast, the two talk about Grayson's revenge, the loss of his team, and Sarrano still being alive. Trishka asks Grayson what he is going to do about Sarrano escaping, and the screen fades to black. In a post-credits scene, it is revealed that Sarrano is now a cyborg due to the extent of his injuries. Ishi also survives, albeit under the full control of his AI processor.

Development

Rick Remender served as the game's writer.

Bulletstorm was developed by Polish game studio People Can Fly. They had previously created the Painkiller series, a first-person shooter (FPS) designed for the PC.[15] Bulletstorm was the studio's first triple-A game.[16] Development began in June 2007, and the game enjoyed a roughly three-and-a-half-year development cycle.[17] During the game's production, the studio had about 70 people working on it. The game was a collaboration between PCF and Epic Games, which had acquired a majority stake in the studio in August 2007.[18] Electronic Arts (EA) published the game under its EA Partners program, after being impressed by the studio's work on Painkiller.[19] PCF's Adrian Chmielarz directed the game, which was designed by Epic's Gears of War creator Cliff Bleszinski, and penned by writer and producer Rick Remender. PCF confirmed on February 2, 2011, that Bulletstorm had declared gold, indicating it was being prepared for duplication and release.[20]

Since Bulletstorm was the studio's first video game developed for home consoles, Epic Games helped PCF extensively when they were porting the game to PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360.[19] Epic's own Unreal Engine 3 rather than PCF's proprietary engine powered the game. This change allowed the team to create game demos quickly when they were pitching the project to publishers. The initial demo impressed Epic, who agreed to collaborate with PCF.[21] While PCF was the main developer of Bulletstorm, Epic Games ensured that the game was high quality by providing feedback and engine support. Some of the game's development was outsourced to external companies in Germany, China, USA, Sweden, and Poland.[22] Epic, an esteemed developer, helped to secure a publishing agreement with Electronic Arts.[21] While there were communication troubles among the three companies initially, this problem eased when the studio streamlined the communication processes. Whereas EA and Epic had provided their feedback separately to PCF, the new communication model saw EA providing feedback directly to Epic, which would then integrate EA's feedback with their own and deliver it to PCF.[22] Regarding the collaboration with Epic, Chmielarz said that the studio "got some tough love from Epic and their uncompromising approach to quality", and suggested that it was "a fantastic lesson on what quality means".[16]

Originally, the studio did not plan to have any unique gameplay feature or an ambitious goal for the game and only wanted to "offer a fun high adventure". The game was initially envisioned to be a cover-based, third-person shooter similar to Gears of War.[21] The gameplay underwent multiple iterations, and as development progressed, it became a cover-based FPS. The team later decided to de-emphasize cover after they had created the weapons, as they felt the cover did not complement with the cover-based gameplay.[23] The studio incorporated systems that would support emergent gameplay.[22] Mega Man inspired the slide mechanic, while Scorpion's spear in Mortal Kombat inspired the leash.[21] Through internal focus testing and seeing how fellow developers played the game, the team realized that "people were playing with their enemies like a cat plays with a mouse before he takes it out". This led to the creation of the Skillshots system, which aimed to reward players' creativity.[22][21] Bleszinski described the game as "the Burnout of shooters",[24] and cited Duke Nukem, Firefly and Serenity as his inspirations.[25]

While the studio had created a playable team deathmatch prototype, they did not incorporate it into the final product because they believed that the market was crowded with competitive FPS at that time. The team created the Anarchy cooperative mode as an alternative. The development of Anarchy began during the late stages of production, and it catered only to hardcore players. He concluded it was the "wrong choice for the online modes" retrospectively.[22] Bleszinski added that the unusual firearms featured in the campaign would not translate well to a competitive game environment, and it would have required PCF to rework all the systems. The game initially had a cooperative mode that allowed friends to play through the campaign together, but it was cancelled after the team had realized that it shifted the game from "being this kind of puzzle shooter into essentially this downhill skiing simulator". Its removal allowed the studio to encourage players to use Skillshots more frequently and enabled the team to create more unique scenarios.[26] The score attack Echoes mode was added in the last six months of production after seeing gamers and journalists competing against each other for high scores playing the game's E3 2010 demo.[22]

Chmielarz recruited Rick Remender in 2009, impressed by his work on comic book series Fear Agent and Black Heart Billy. Remender was invited to visit PCF's headquarters in Warsaw for a week and finished drafting the story with the game's team.[27][28] The game's story focused on "redemption and revenge", and the planet Stigya, a tourist paradise destroyed by a natural disaster of unknown origin, was to evoke the same feeling as BioShock's Rapture.[29] Remender added that the story telling was not intended to be serious, and that the narrative relied a lot on cliches.[27] The character Ichi was described as "Samurai Spock" while General Sarrano, who was initially only a placeholder villain, was described as a "classic psychopath" and "pure evil".[28][27] Pulp fiction such as Juan Buscamares (a comic series published in January 1998 in Heavy Metal magazine), Indiana Jones, and men's magazines covers from 1920 to 1970 all helped inspire the game's narrative and visuals.[30] The game was criticized on release for its heavy profanity; Chmielarz responded that as Poles, English's profanity was "exotic and fun to us" and he did not realize that the game had so much of it until he read the Polish translation. The team incorporated a language filter, though Chmielarz noted that few noticed its existence.[22]

Release

In 2008, Electronic Arts announced it would be publishing a new Intellectual property (IP) from independent game developer Epic Games.[31] The name "Bulletstorm" was revealed when game developer People Can Fly filed a trademark request for the name in December 2009.[32] Originally, Epic Games designer Cliff Bleszinski was scheduled to announce the game alongside Gears of War 3 during an appearance on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon on April 8, 2010. However, his appearance was delayed to April 12, 2010.[33] The game was revealed before Bleszinski's scheduled appearance when gaming magazine Game Informer released its May 2010 issue, which mentioned the game on its cover.[34]

EA provided extensive marketing for the game.[35] Epic released a limited edition of Bulletstorm exclusively for the Xbox 360 known as the Epic Edition. The Epic Edition includes bonus in-game content when playing Bulletstorm online, and early access to the multiplayer beta of Gears of War 3.[36] In January 2011, a viral video for Bulletstorm was released, parodying the Halo 3 "Believe" diorama.[37] This was followed in February with the release of Duty Calls: The Calm Before the Storm, a free downloadable PC game that parodies the Call of Duty series as well as general first-person shooter clichés.[38] Players who preordered the Limited Edition for the PC also received a free copy of Klei Entertainment's Shank.[39] A demo of the game, featuring one of the game's Echoes missions, was released on January 25, 2011, for the Xbox 360 and on January 26, 2011, for the PlayStation 3.[40] Following this announcement, Bleszinski wrote a tweet on January 14, 2011, saying the demo was only for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, which game reviewers considered was a way of making fun of PC players.[41] Epic Games' vice-president Mark Rein later clarified that a PC demo would be released after the game's release.[42] Epic released it on April 4; it featured the same level as the console versions.[43] The demo attracted more than two million players, though in hindsight, Chmielarz believed the demo had confused players, as the Echo mission did not adequately communicate the experience to the player.[22] The game was released for Windows, PlayStation 3, and Xbox 360 on February 22, 2011.[44] Ragdoll effects, blood, splatter and dismembering were initially censored in the game's German version, despite the German Entertainment Software Rating Board granting it an "Adult" rating.[45] The German rating board later reversed its decision with Bulletstorm: Full Clip Edition, which was allowed to be released uncensored.[46] Both Bleszinski and Chmielarz criticized the game's marketing campaign, which focused extensively on the game's silliness and relied a lot on jokes.[16]

The first downloadable content (DLC) for Bulletstorm, titled Gun Sonata, was released on April 14, 2011, for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360,[47] and on May 19, 2011, for the PC.[48] The content includes three Anarchy maps, two Echo missions and two Leash colors.[47] The second DLC, Blood Symphony, was released on June 10, 2011, for Xbox 360. The content includes two "Echoes" maps, three "Anarchy" maps, and a new mode called "The Ultimate Echoes".[49]

Remastered version

Gearbox Publishing revealed the remastered version during The Game Awards 2016 in December.[50] It increased texture resolution and included support for 4K resolutions, and additional content created by People Can Fly. The remastered version includes new content such as the Overkill Campaign Mode, which starts the players with access to all the game's weapons and six new Echo maps. Those who pre-ordered the game received access to the Duke Nukem's Bulletstorm Tour downloadable content, allowing players to play as Duke Nukem with new voice lines recorded by Jon St. John.[51][52] Gearbox' Randy Pitchford explained that the remastered version was not a free update for those who already owned the game on Windows because the license was still held by Electronic Arts, and Gearbox had only secured the rights to help People Can Fly create the remaster. In addition, there were issues in transitioning from the discontinued Games for Windows Live platform.[53] Entitled the "Full Clip Edition", the remastered version was released on April 7, 2017, for Windows (with a Lite version, which only contains the campaign), PlayStation 4, and Xbox One. Gearbox sparked controversy when they partnered with game key reseller G2A for the sales of exclusive Collector's Editions of Full Clip Edition. The studio ultimately canceled its agreement with G2A.[54] A port of the Full Clip Edition for the Nintendo Switch, titled Duke of Switch Edition, was released on August 31, 2019.[55]

VR version

On June 1, 2023, during the 2023 Meta Quest Games Showcase, a VR version, published by People Can Fly and developed by Incuvo, of the game was announced, using Unreal Engine 4. Initially set for release on December 14, 2023 on Meta Quest 2, Meta Quest Pro and PlayStation VR2, the date was later pushed back until January 18, 2024.[56][57]

Reception

Critical reception

Reception
Aggregate score
AggregatorScore
MetacriticPC: 82/100[58]
PS3: 83/100[59]
X360: 84/100[60]
PC (Full Clip): 76/100[61]
PS4: 75/100[62]
XONE: 82/100[63]
NS: 74/100[64]
Review scores
PublicationScore
1Up.comB−[65]
Destructoid9/10[66]
Eurogamer9/10[67]
Game Informer9.25/10[68]
GameSpot8/10[70]
GamesRadar+StarStarStarStarStar[69]
IGN8/10[73]
JoystiqStarStarStarStarHalf star[71]
PC Gamer (UK)80/100[72]

According to review aggregator website Metacritic, the game received generally positive reviews upon release.[58][59][60]

The game's combat received acclaim. Writing for GameSpot, Kevin VanOrd described the game as "sometimes ludicrous and often ludicrously fun". He praised the skillshot mechanic for tying into the upgrade system as this gave players an incentive to use them during combat. He also enjoyed the weapons, which enables players to fight against enemies in "intriguing" ways.[70] Tim Turi of Game Informer praised the game for offering players a lot of freedom when controlling Grayson, comparing the game favourably to Mirror's Edge. He also applauded how the game allowed players to combine different moves together freely.[68] Rich McCormick of PC Gamer also liked the skillshot system for allowing players to use their creativity to eliminate enemies. However, he noted that this combat loop falls flat during the latter part of the game where players combat more agile mutant enemies.[72] Arthur Gies, an IGN reviewer, described the game as "violently charming". He felt the skillshot system, the weapons, and the responsive gunplay turned Bulletstorm's combat into a success. He noted, though, that by the end of the game, the combat became monotonous and repetitive as the game failed to offer more diverse combat encounters.[73] David Houghton of GamesRadar compared the game to a "3D puzzle game" and a "high-speed strategy game". He described the game as "a very intelligent, highly intricate, and sumptuously nuanced design masquerading as a big dumb action game" and recognized that its gameplay helped evolve the FPS genre.[69]

Critics also generally enjoyed the game's setting and pacing. VanOrd liked the variety in the game's mission design and felt that most of the missions were entertaining and exciting. Despite this, he was disappointed by the game's linear design, making it difficult for the player to control the battlefield when they were facing multiple enemies at once.[70] Gies, Joystiq's Randy Nelson, Christian Donlan of Eurogamer praised the game's setpieces and pacing.[67] Both McCormick and Gies praised the game's visuals and the setting's color palette.[73] Nelson praised Stygia as a setting, describing the campaign as a "wild ride through some truly fantastic, alien locations".[71] Gies also appreciated the game's environmental storytelling, which helped establish Stygia's history and turned it into an interesting setting.[73]

The characters and the writing in the game received a mixed opinion. The characters were conflictingly considered rounded or one-dimensional,[70][71] and VanOrd called the profanity-filled dialogue "cringe-worthy" and undermined the studio's attempt at serious storytelling.[70] Nelson, in contrast, believed the use of profanities fit tonally with the game and offered moments of levity following combat-heavy sequences.[71] Gies described the set-up as original and liked the characters, though he criticized the anticlimactic ending. Nick Chester, writing for Destructoid, said the entertaining story complemented the gameplay fairly well, though he noted the narrative relied on pulp fiction clichés and predictable plot twists.[66] Taylor Cocke of 1Up.com liked how the game parodied other FPS writing and that it broke free of a focus on melodrama. However, he remarked the story was overly serious, and the campaign was dragged down by the stark contrast between the tone of the story and the chaotic and creative nature of the combat.[65]

The multiplayer component of the game received lackluster reviews. VanOrd felt the multiplayer was fun but limited in scope. He remarked that the experience, while mostly rewarding, could be frustrating if the players were joined by strangers. He added the mode's maps were too small and players may get bored easily because of a lack of variety.[70] Gies shared a similar sentiment, writing that Anarchy became repetitive very quickly. Gies labeled the absence of campaign co-op as a missed opportunity. While he called Echo a good inclusion, he was disappointed that the leaderboard was not incorporated into the game's main campaign.[73] Nelson liked the Anarchy mode for including new Skillshots, but called the Echo mode "cut-and-dry".[71] Donlan liked the Echo mode for being a distilled experience, which disregarded the story elements completely and compared the leaderboard competition favorably to that of Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit and Zuma Blitz.[67]

The remastered version also received generally positive reviews.[61][63][62] Scott Butterworth of GameSpot praised the upgraded textures and visuals, "impressive" draw distance and stable frame rate. However, he was disappointed that the Duke Nukem DLC did not meaningfully change the story or change the cutscenes.[74] IGN's Lucy O'Brien praised the improved lighting system and believed that the improved visuals helped elevate the intensity and the urgency of the game's setpieces. However, she noted the original game showed its age due to the presence of invisible walls and the lack of a dedicated jump button. She expressed her disappointment that PCF did not add much that was new to the remaster.[75] Reviewing the Nintendo Switch version, PJ O'Reilly of Nintendo Life expressed his disappointment regarding the absence of multiplayer and the lack of gyroscopic controls.[76] The VR version of the game was panned. Scott Hayden from Road to VR felt that the gameplay was "more tedious and less fluid overall", and remarked that the game was "not only uglier than the original, but less fun overall".[77] Ian Higton from Eurogamer described it as an "incredibly sloppy, clumsily produced VR port".[78]

Fox News controversy

On February 8, 2011, the game came under scrutiny by Fox News in an article on their website by John Brandon, a televised broadcast and another article.[79] Part of a Fox News panel was psychologist Carole Lieberman, who said, "The increase in rapes can be attributed in large part to the playing out of [sexual] scenes in video games". Her statement caused enraged gamers to review bomb her book at Amazon.com. Lieberman later responded by saying that her quotes were taken out of context by Brandon.[80] Nonetheless, she continued to draw correlations between rape and sexual content in video games, claiming to have "thousands" of research papers supporting her claim. To support her claim, Lieberman referred to eight sources, one of them being Bulletstorm. Gaming blog Rock, Paper, Shotgun analysed Lieberman's claims, and found only one of eight sources she provided had anything to do with the subject at hand.[81] Kotaku also quoted data from US Department of Justice that the number of rape cases have been declining since 1973, though Lieberman disputed this by saying that the official rape statistics were "known to be variable and unreliable". Dr. Mark Griffiths, a professor at Nottingham Trent University, whose lectures focused on video game addiction, described Fox's news piece as "sensationalist" in a Guardian interview. He added it would be very difficult to prove that exposure to sexual content in video games contributed to rape crimes because of the large number of confounding factors involved.[82] Brandon followed up his report on February 20, adding that the gaming press "reacted violently" and the experts he had talked to "were nearly universally worried that video game violence may be reaching a fever pitch".[83] Rock, Paper, Shotgun later contacted the experts, most of whom said they had never said there is a conclusive link between video game violence and real world violence.[84]

EA defended the game's developers and the game. Its vice president of public relations, Tammy Schachter, wrote the publisher had followed the policies established by the ESRB and marketed the game only to a mature audience. She added that "much like Tarantino's Kill Bill or Rodriguez's Sin City, this game is an expression of creative entertainment for adults."[85] Epic's CEO Mike Capps added that the Fox News controversy helped the game reach a wider audience, and he was delighted the gaming press helped defend the game. He noted his concern that the Fox news piece may mislead an uninformed public.[86]

Sales

EA had high sales expectations for the game. David DeMartini, an EA executive, remarked the game had the potential to perform as well as the Gears of War games.[87] In the United Kingdom, Bulletstorm was the second best-selling video game in its release week behind Killzone 3.[88] In the US, it was the seventh best-selling game in February 2011.[89] It sold around 300,000 units in February; the Xbox 360 was the platform of choice for most players.[90][91] Capps added the game did not turn a profit for Epic,[91] while an unnamed source from EA revealed that the game "underperformed" for them.[92] In 2013, it was revealed the game sold just under one million copies.[93] Capps added that the game did not sell well on the PC, citing piracy as the main reason behind its disappointing performance, though he admitted it was not a very good port.[94] Chmielarz initially blamed the game's EA marketing, which reduced "fresh ideas to dick-jokes for dude-bros". He later recognized the game was the victim of an industry shift, as smaller-tier games were slowly being phased out.[95] However, Sebastian Wojciechowski, the CEO of People Can Fly following their split from Epic, felt the game sold well, adding it would never be considered as successful or profitable as Epic's Gears of War series at the time.[96]

Bulletstorm: Full Clip Edition debuted as the 23rd best-selling game in the UK in its release week.[97] Wojciechowski added that the sales of the remaster "went really, really well" and that it validated the studio's belief that it should do something with the IP in the future.[98]

Sequel

According to Capps, the studio had begun development of Bulletstorm's sequel but was sidelined as Epic assigned PCF to work on Gears of War: Judgement, a spin-off in the Gears of War series.[99][100] PCF became independent in 2015 following a management buyout,[96] and it retained the intellectual property rights to Bulletstorm.[101] Speaking about a potential sequel in 2019, Wojciechowski, said the studio wanted the IP to have a "second life" despite the fact that it was not the studio's short-term goal.[102] Wojciechowski added that should the studio return to the IP, they would consider ways to make it more popular.[103]

See also

  • List of commercial failures in video gaming

Notes

  1. ↑ Duke Nukem (Jon St. John) replaces Grayson in the campaign, if the Duke Nukem's Bulletstorm Tour DLC is enabled in Bulletstorm: Full Clip Edition and Bulletstorm: Duke of Switch Edition.

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Bulletstorm Manual. Electronic Arts. 2011. 
  2. ↑ Yin-Poole, Wesley (May 13, 2010). "Bulletstorm First Look Preview". VideoGamer.com. https://www.videogamer.com/previews/bulletstorm-first-look-preview. 
  3. ↑ Senior, Tom (September 23, 2010). "Bulletstorm TGS trailer shows cannonball gun". PC Gamer. https://www.pcgamer.com/bulletstorm-tgs-trailer-shows-cannonball-gun/. 
  4. ↑ "March 8 2011 Bulletstorm". Good Game. ABC News. March 8, 2011. https://www.abc.net.au/tv/goodgame/stories/s3156925.htm. 
  5. ↑ Barett, Charlie (February 9, 2011). "Bulletstorm hands-on preview: Is the campaign as fun as the demo?". GamesRadar. https://www.gamesradar.com/au/bulletstorm-hands-on-preview-is-the-campaign-as-fun-as-the-demo/2/. 
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 "Bulletstorm Playtest: Deceitfully Clever". Siliconera. March 13, 2011. https://www.siliconera.com/bulletstorm-playtest-deceitfully-clever/. 
  7. ↑ Edwards, Tim (June 16, 2010). "Bulletstorm E3 hands-on, 9 fresh shots". PC Gamer. https://www.pcgamer.com/bulletstorm-e3-hands-on-9-fresh-shots/. 
  8. ↑ O'Connor, Alice (November 23, 2014). "Have You Played... Bulletstorm?". Rock, Paper, Shotgun. https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/have-you-played-bulletstorm. 
  9. ↑ Biessender, Adam (April 26, 2010). "Killing With Style: A Look At Bulletstorm's Skillshots". Game Informer. https://www.gameinformer.com/b/features/archive/2010/04/26/killing-with-style-an-illustration-of-bulletstorm-s-skillshots.aspx. Retrieved January 30, 2020. 
  10. ↑ Barrett, Charlie (November 8, 2018). "Bulletstorm: Full Clip Edition Skillshot guide". GamesRadar. https://www.gamesradar.com/bulletstorm-skillshot-guide/. 
  11. ↑ "The Problem with Bulletstorm". VentureBeat. October 12, 2011. https://venturebeat.com/2011/10/12/the-problem-with-bulletstorm/. 
  12. ↑ Seid, Kurtis (February 3, 2012). "Bulletstorm Walkthrough". GameSpot. https://www.gamespot.com/articles/bulletstorm-walkthrough/1100-6300784/. 
  13. ↑ Donlan, Christian (February 23, 2011). "Bulletstorm review". Eurogamer. https://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2011-02-22-bulletstorm-review?page=2. 
  14. ↑ Bertz, Matt (December 8, 2010). "Bulletstorm Multiplayer: Leave No Bullet Unshot". Game Informer. https://www.gameinformer.com/games/bulletstorm/b/xbox360/archive/2010/12/08/bulletstorm-multiplayer-leave-no-bullet-unshot.aspx. Retrieved January 30, 2021. 
  15. ↑ Biessner, Adam (April 16, 2010). "Before Bulletstorm, There Was Painkiller". Game Informer. https://www.gameinformer.com/b/features/archive/2010/04/16/before-bulletstorm-there-was-painkiller.aspx. Retrieved February 8, 2021. 
  16. ↑ 16.0 16.1 16.2 Bajda, Piotr (April 2, 2019). "How Bulletstorm Shot, Kicked And Cursed Its Way To Fame". Kotaku. https://www.kotaku.com.au/2019/04/how-bulletstorm-shot-kicked-and-cursed-its-way-to-fame. 
  17. ↑ Smoszna, Krystian (February 8, 2010). "Interview with Adrian Chmielarz". http://www.gry-online.pl/S018.asp?ID=678. 
  18. ↑ Geddes, Ryan (August 20, 2007). "GC 2007: Epic Buys Stake in People Can Fly". http://www.ign.com/articles/2007/08/20/gc-2007-epic-buys-stake-in-people-can-fly. 
  19. ↑ 19.0 19.1 Ryckert, Dan (April 21, 2017). "When Epic Met People Can Fly". Game Informer. https://www.gameinformer.com/b/features/archive/2010/04/21/when-epic-met-people-can-fly.aspx. Retrieved February 8, 2020. 
  20. ↑ Cullen, Johnny (February 2, 2011). "Bulletstorm goes gold". VG 247. https://www.vg247.com/2011/02/02/bulletstorm-goes-gold/. 
  21. ↑ 21.0 21.1 21.2 21.3 21.4 Brown, David (February 18, 2011). "Bulletstorm developer interview: Cliff Bleszinski". The Daily Telegraph. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/video-games/8333276/Bulletstorm-developer-interview-Clifford-Bleszinski.html. 
  22. ↑ 22.0 22.1 22.2 22.3 22.4 22.5 22.6 22.7 Chmielarz, Adrian (February 22, 2016). "Classic Postmortem: People Can Fly's Bulletstorm". Gamasutra. https://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/266261/Classic_Postmortem_People_Can_Flys_Bulletstorm.php. 
  23. ↑ Nunneley, Stephany (January 8, 2011). ""The very first prototype of Bulletstorm was a third person shooter," says Jessen". VG 247. https://www.vg247.com/2011/01/08/the-very-first-prototype-of-bulletstorm-was-a-third-person-shooter-says-jessen/. 
  24. ↑ Good, Owen (May 13, 2010). "It's Like Many Things, But Still Unlike Anything, Say Bulletstorm's Creators". Kotaku. https://kotaku.com/its-like-many-things-but-still-unlike-anything-say-bu-5537335. 
  25. ↑ Aziz, Hamza (May 13, 2010). "Bulletstorm is the 'Burnout of shooters'". Destructoid. https://www.destructoid.com/stories/bulletstorm-is-the-burnout-of-shooters--173537.phtml. 
  26. ↑ Yin-Poole, Wesley (February 18, 2011). "Why Bulletstorm's campaign isn't co-op". Eurogamer. https://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2011-02-18-why-bulletstorms-campaign-isnt-co-op. 
  27. ↑ 27.0 27.1 27.2 Rubin, Peter (February 11, 2011). "Interview: "Bulletstorm" Writer Rick Remender On Cartoon Violence And Creative Swearing". Complex. https://www.complex.com/pop-culture/2011/02/interview-bulletstorm-writer-rick-remender-on-cartoon-violence-and-creative-swearing. 
  28. ↑ 28.0 28.1 Ryckert, Dan (April 19, 2010). "Inside Bulletstorm Writer Rick Remender's Head". Game Informer. https://www.gameinformer.com/games/bulletstorm/b/ps3/archive/2010/04/19/inside-bulletstorm-writer-rick-remender-s-head.aspx. Retrieved February 8, 2021. 
  29. ↑ Nelson, Randy (May 13, 2010). "Impressions: Bulletstorm". Engadget. https://www.engadget.com/2010-05-13-impressions-bulletstorm.html. 
  30. ↑ Biessener, Adam (April 23, 2010). "The Pulp That Inspired Bulletstorm". Game Informer. https://www.gameinformer.com/b/features/archive/2010/04/23/the-pulp-that-inspired-bulletstorm.aspx. Retrieved February 8, 2021. 
  31. ↑ Houghton, Stuart (August 14, 2008). "EA To Publish New IP Title From Epic". Kotaku. http://kotaku.com/5037277/ea-to-publish-new-ip-title-from-epic. 
  32. ↑ McWhertor, Michael (December 29, 2009). "Painkiller Developers Predicting A Bulletstorm". Kotaku. http://kotaku.com/5436469/painkiller-developers-predicting-a-bulletstorm. 
  33. ↑ McWhertor, Michael (April 7, 2010). "Gears of War Designer's 'Late Night' Game Reveal Bumped, The Bieber Steps In". Kotaku. http://kotaku.com/5512082/gears-of-war-designers-late-night-game-reveal-bumped-the-bieber-steps-in. 
  34. ↑ McWhertor, Michael (April 9, 2010). "First Look At Gears Of War & Painkiller Creators' Bloody, Brutal Bulletstorm". Kotaku. http://kotaku.com/5513826/first-look-at-gears-of-war--painkiller-creators-bloody-brutal-bulletstorm. 
  35. ↑ Yin-Poole, Wesley (December 8, 2010). "EA marketing the f*** out of Bulletstorm". Eurogamer. https://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2010-12-08-ea-marketing-the-f-out-of-bulletstorm. 
  36. ↑ Marie, Meagan (December 17, 2010). "Get In On Gears With Bulletstorm Epic Edition". Game Informer. https://www.gameinformer.com/b/news/archive/2010/12/17/get-in-on-gears-with-bulletstorm-epic-edition.aspx. Retrieved February 8, 2020. 
  37. ↑ "Bulletstorm diorama looks very familiar". Eurogamer. January 11, 2011. http://www.eurogamer.net/videos/bulletstorm-diorama-trailer-looks-familiar. 
  38. ↑ Fahey, Mike (February 2, 2011). "Bulletstorm Mocks Call Of Duty With A Free PC Game". Kotaku. http://kotaku.com/5749967/bulletstorm-mocks-call-of-duty-with-a-free-pc-game. 
  39. ↑ Yin-Poole, Wesley (February 7, 2011). "Pre-order Bulletstorm PC, get Shank free". Eurogamer. https://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2011-02-07-pre-order-bulletstorm-pc-get-shank-free. 
  40. ↑ Yin-Poole, Wesley (January 14, 2011). "Bulletstorm demo confirmed". Eurogamer. https://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2011-01-14-bulletstorm-demo-confirmed. 
  41. ↑ "Bulletstorm demo upsets "grumpy" PC gamers". MCVUK. January 17, 2011. http://www.mcvuk.com/news/42574/Bulletstorm-demo-upsets-grumpy-PC-gamers. 
  42. ↑ Good, Owen (February 19, 2011). "Bulletstorm's PC Demo On The Way – After It Releases". Kotaku. https://www.kotaku.com.au/2011/02/bulletstorms-pc-demo-on-the-way-after-it-releases/. 
  43. ↑ Senior, Tom (April 5, 2011). "Bulletstorm demo now available". PC Gamer. https://www.pcgamer.com/bulletstorm-demo-now-available/. 
  44. ↑ Makuch, Eddie (February 2, 2011). "Bulletstorm goes gold". GameSpot. https://www.gamespot.com/articles/bulletstorm-goes-gold/1100-6297302/. 
  45. ↑ Meer, Alec (February 9, 2011). "Censored Bulletstorm given 18+ rating in Germany". Gameindustry.biz. https://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2011-02-09-censored-bulletstorm-given-18-rating-in-germany. 
  46. ↑ Stefan Köhler (February 13, 2017). "Bulletstorm: Full Clip Edition - Shooter vom Index gestrichen, in Deutschland ungeschnitten" (in de). GameStar. https://www.gamestar.de/artikel/bulletstorm-full-clip-edition-shooter-vom-index-gestrichen-in-deutschland-ungeschnitten,3309632.html. 
  47. ↑ 47.0 47.1 O'Connor, Alice (April 13, 2011). "Bulletstorm Gun Sonata DLC out on consoles now, PC 'soon'". Shacknews. https://www.shacknews.com/article/68100/bulletstorm-gun-sonata-dlc-out. 
  48. ↑ Steve Watts (May 19, 2011). "Bulletstorm 'Gun Sonata' DLC comes to PCs". Shacknews. http://www.shacknews.com/article/68507/bulletstorm-gun-sonata-dlc-comes. 
  49. ↑ Kato, Matthew (June 10, 2011). "Bulletstorm Unleashes The Blood Symphony Pack". Game Informer. https://www.gameinformer.com/b/news/archive/2011/06/10/bulletstorm-unleashes-the-blood-symphony-pack.aspx. Retrieved February 8, 2021. 
  50. ↑ Dornbush, Jonathon (December 2, 2016). "Bulletstorm Remastered Edition Revealed, Release Date Announced". IGN. https://www.ign.com/articles/2016/12/02/bulletstorm-remastered-edition-revealed-released-date-announced. 
  51. ↑ Williams, Mike (December 1, 2016). "Bulletstorm Gets the Remaster Treatment With Full Clip Edition". US Gamer. http://www.usgamer.net/articles/bulletstorm-gets-the-remaster-treatment-with-full-clip-edition. 
  52. ↑ Hall, Charlie (December 1, 2016). "Bulletstorm remaster on the way from People Can Fly". Polygon. https://www.polygon.com/2016/12/1/13814504/bulletstorm-remaster-release-date-pre-order. 
  53. ↑ Hussain, Tamoor (December 5, 2016). "Bulletstorm: Full Clip Won't Be a Free Upgrade on PC, Here's Why". GameSpot. http://www.gamespot.com/articles/bulletstorm-full-clip-wont-be-a-free-upgrade-on-pc/1100-6445970/. 
  54. ↑ Hall, Charlie (July 4, 2017). "G2A's relationship with Gearbox ends with the launch of Bulletstorm remake (update)". Polygon. https://www.polygon.com/2017/4/7/15223622/g2a-gearbox-bulletstorm-ultimatum-collectors-edition. 
  55. ↑ Blake, Vikki (August 31, 2019). "Surprise! Bulletstorm: Duke of Switch Edition is now available". GamesRadar. https://www.gamesradar.com/surprise-bulletstorm-duke-of-switch-edition-is-now-available/. 
  56. ↑ S. Good, Owen (July 9, 2023). "Was bro-shooter Bulletstorm actually ahead of its time?". Polygon. https://www.polygon.com/23787497/bulletstorm-vr-release-date-meta-quest-psvr2. Retrieved July 9, 2023. 
  57. ↑ Meija, Oozie (June 1, 2023). "Bulletstorm for VR announced at Meta Quest Showcase 2023". Shacknews. https://www.shacknews.com/article/135727/bulletstorm-vr-reveal-meta-quest. Retrieved July 9, 2023. 
  58. ↑ 58.0 58.1 "Bulletstorm for PC Reviews". Metacritic. CBS Interactive. https://www.metacritic.com/game/bulletstorm/critic-reviews/?platform=pc. 
  59. ↑ 59.0 59.1 "Bulletstorm for PlayStation 3 Reviews". Metacritic. CBS Interactive. https://www.metacritic.com/game/bulletstorm/critic-reviews/?platform=playstation-3. 
  60. ↑ 60.0 60.1 "Bulletstorm for Xbox 360 Reviews". Metacritic. CBS Interactive. https://www.metacritic.com/game/bulletstorm/critic-reviews/?platform=xbox-360. 
  61. ↑ 61.0 61.1 "Bulletstorm: Full Clip Edition for PC Reviews". Metacritic. CBS Interactive. https://www.metacritic.com/game/bulletstorm-full-clip-edition/critic-reviews/?platform=pc. 
  62. ↑ 62.0 62.1 "Bulletstorm: Full Clip Edition for PlayStation 4 Reviews". Metacritic. CBS Interactive. https://www.metacritic.com/game/bulletstorm-full-clip-edition/critic-reviews/?platform=playstation-4. 
  63. ↑ 63.0 63.1 "Bulletstorm: Full Clip Edition for Xbox One Reviews". Metacritic. CBS Interactive. https://www.metacritic.com/game/bulletstorm-full-clip-edition/critic-reviews/?platform=xbox-one. 
  64. ↑ "Bulletstorm: Duke of Switch Edition for Switch Reviews". Metacritic. CBS Interactive. https://www.metacritic.com/game/bulletstorm-duke-of-switch-edition/critic-reviews/?platform=nintendo-switch. 
  65. ↑ 65.0 65.1 Cocke, Taylor (February 22, 2011). "Bulletstorm Review". http://www.1up.com/reviews/bulletstorm-review. 
  66. ↑ 66.0 66.1 Chester, Nick (February 22, 2011). "Review: Bulletstorm". Destructoid. https://www.destructoid.com/review-bulletstorm-194664.phtml. 
  67. ↑ 67.0 67.1 67.2 Donlan, Christian (February 23, 2011). "Bulletstorm review". Eurogamer. https://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2011-02-22-bulletstorm-review. 
  68. ↑ 68.0 68.1 Turi, Tim (February 22, 2011). "Bulletstorm review: Giving The FPS Genre A Billion Shots In The Arm". Game Informer. https://www.gameinformer.com/games/bulletstorm/b/xbox360/archive/2011/02/22/bulletstorm-review-the-fps-genre-gets-a-billion-shots-in-the-arm.aspx. Retrieved February 9, 2021. 
  69. ↑ 69.0 69.1 Houghton, David (February 22, 2011). "Bulletstorm review". GamesRadar. https://www.gamesradar.com/bulletstorm-review/. 
  70. ↑ 70.0 70.1 70.2 70.3 70.4 70.5 VanOrd, Kevin (February 22, 2011). "Bulletstorm Review". https://www.gamespot.com/reviews/bulletstorm-review/1900-6300186/. 
  71. ↑ 71.0 71.1 71.2 71.3 71.4 Nelson, Randy (February 22, 2011). "Bulletstorm review: It's raining fun, hallelujah". Joystiq. Engadget. https://www.engadget.com/2011-02-22-bulletstorm-review.html. 
  72. ↑ 72.0 72.1 McCormick, Rick (February 22, 2011). "Bulletstorm PC review". PC Gamer. https://www.pcgamer.com/bulletstorm-review/. 
  73. ↑ 73.0 73.1 73.2 73.3 73.4 Gies, Arthur (May 3, 2017). "Bulletstorm review". IGN. https://www.ign.com/articles/2011/02/23/bulletstorm-review. 
  74. ↑ Butterworth, Scott (April 6, 2017). "Bulletstorm: Full Clip Edition Review". GameSpot. https://www.gamespot.com/reviews/bulletstorm-full-clip-edition-review/1900-6416652/. 
  75. ↑ O'Brien, Lucy (May 3, 2017). "Bulletstorm: Full Clip Edition Review". IGN. https://www.ign.com/articles/2017/04/06/bulletstorm-full-clip-edition-review. 
  76. ↑ O'Reilly, P. J. (September 4, 2019). "Bulletstorm: Duke of Switch Edition Review (Switch eShop)". Nintendo Life. https://www.nintendolife.com/reviews/switch-eshop/bulletstorm_duke_of_switch_edition?. 
  77. ↑ Hayden, Scott (January 18, 2024). "‘Bulletstorm VR’ Review – An Uglier & More Tedious Version of the Game You Love". RoadtoVR. https://www.roadtovr.com/bulletstorm-vr-review-quest-3-psvr-2-pc/. Retrieved April 13, 2025. 
  78. ↑ Higton, Ian (January 21, 2024). "Is Bulletstorm VR really as bad as everyone says it is?". Eurogamer. https://www.eurogamer.net/is-bulletstorm-vr-really-as-bad-as-everyone-says-it-is. Retrieved April 13, 2025. 
  79. ↑ Brandon, John (February 8, 2011). "Is Bulletstorm the Worst Video Game in the World?". Fox News. http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2011/02/08/bulletstorm-worst-game-kids. 
  80. ↑ Turi, Tim (February 10, 2011). "UPDATE: Gamers Assault Bulletstorm-Criticizing Psychologist On Amazon". Game Informer. https://www.gameinformer.com/b/news/archive/2011/02/10/gamers-assault-bulletstorm-criticizing-psychologist-on-amazon.aspx. Retrieved February 8, 2021. 
  81. ↑ Walker, John (February 15, 2011). "Bulletstormgate: Analysing The "Evidence"". Rock, Paper, Shotgun. http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2011/02/15/bulletstormgate-lieberman-offers-evidence/. 
  82. ↑ Stuart, Keith (February 16, 2011). "Bulletstorm, Fox News and the controversy that shouldn't have been". The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/technology/gamesblog/2011/feb/16/bulletstorm-fox-news-controversy. 
  83. ↑ Brandon, John (February 20, 2011). "Bulletstorm: Censored in Germany, Coming to America". Fox News. https://www.foxnews.com/tech/bulletstorm-censored-in-germany-coming-to-america/. 
  84. ↑ Walker, John (April 7, 2017). "Remember when Fox News tried to take on Bulletstorm?". Rock, Paper, Shotgun. https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/remember-when-fox-news-tried-to-take-on-bulletstorm. 
  85. ↑ Gilbert, Ben (February 9, 2011). "How Bulletstorm became 'the worst video game in the world'". Engadget. https://www.engadget.com/2011-02-09-how-bulletstorm-became-the-worst-video-game-in-the-world.html. 
  86. ↑ Sterling, Jim (March 8, 2011). "Epic: FOX controversy good for Bulletstorm, bad for games". Destructoid. https://www.destructoid.com/stories/epic-fox-controversy-good-for-bulletstorm-bad-for-games-195942.phtml. 
  87. ↑ Yin-Poole, Wesley (September 6, 2010). "EA Partners' David DeMartini". Eurogamer. https://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2010-09-03-ea-partners-david-demartini-interview. 
  88. ↑ Purchese, Robert (February 28, 2011). "UK top 40: Killzone 3 beats Bulletstorm". Eurogamer. https://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2011-02-28-uk-top-40-killzone-3-beats-bulletstorm. 
  89. ↑ Martin, Matt (March 10, 2011). "Hardware and accessories help US market rebound in Feb". Gameindustry.biz. https://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2011-03-10-hardware-and-peripherals-help-us-market-rebound-in-feb. 
  90. ↑ Matthews, Matt (March 14, 2011). "NPD: Behind the Numbers, February 2011". Gamasutra. https://www.gamedeveloper.com/business/npd-behind-the-numbers-february-2011. 
  91. ↑ 91.0 91.1 "Epic saw no profit from Bulletstorm sales". MCVUK. July 25, 2011. https://www.mcvuk.com/business-news/publishing/epic-saw-no-profit-from-bulletstorm-sales/. 
  92. ↑ Tolito, Stephen (July 23, 2011). "Bulletstorm Didn't Make Money, But It Was Worth It". Kotaku. https://www.kotaku.com.au/2011/07/bulletstorm-didnt-make-money-but-it-was-worth-it/. 
  93. ↑ Devore, Jordan (August 13, 2013). "Bulletstorm dev on sales: 'We did everything we could'". Destructoid. https://www.destructoid.com/stories/bulletstorm-dev-on-sales-we-did-everything-we-could--259959.phtml. 
  94. ↑ Senior, Tom (April 10, 2012). "Bulletstorm 2 canned, original hurt by poor port and piracy on PC". PC Gamer. https://www.pcgamer.com/bulletstorm-2-canned-original-hurt-by-poor-port-and-piracy-on-pc/. 
  95. ↑ Handrahan, Matthew (May 29, 2014). "The Astronauts: "In 2014, $60 for a game is a little insane"". Gameindustry.biz. https://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2014-05-29-the-astronauts-in-2014-USD60-for-a-game-is-a-little-insane. 
  96. ↑ 96.0 96.1 Taylor, Haydn (October 18, 2018). "The rebuilding of People Can Fly". https://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2018-10-18-people-can-fly. 
  97. ↑ Dring, Christopher (April 10, 2017). "Persona 5 tops UK boxed charts". Gameindustry.biz. https://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2017-04-10-persona-5-tops-uk-boxed-charts. 
  98. ↑ Vasquez, Suriel (August 22, 2018). "Bulletstorm: Full Clip Edition Went 'Really, Really Well' For People Can Fly". Game Informer. https://www.gameinformer.com/gamescom-2018/2018/08/22/bulletstorm-full-clip-edition-went-really-really-well-for-people-can-fly. Retrieved February 9, 2021. 
  99. ↑ McElroy, Griffin (April 10, 2012). "'Bulletstorm 2' sidelined for People Can Fly's unannounced next project". Polygon. https://www.polygon.com/gaming/2012/4/10/2938500/bulletstorm-2-sidelined-for-people-can-flys-unannounced-next-project. 
  100. ↑ Purchese, Robert (April 23, 2013). "Adrian Chmielarz on Bulletstorm 2 ideas, Gears of War: Judgment changes and why he left People Can Fly". Eurogamer. https://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2013-04-23-adrian-chmielarz-on-bulletstorm-2-ideas-gears-of-war-judgment-changes-and-why-he-left-people-can-fly. 
  101. ↑ Chalk, Andy (July 4, 2019). "Bulletstorm studio says it would be 'awesome' to do a sequel". PC Gamer. https://www.pcgamer.com/bulletstorm-studio-says-it-would-be-awesome-to-do-a-sequel/. 
  102. ↑ Purchese, Robert (July 4, 2019). "It sounds like People Can Fly would love to do Bulletstorm 2". Eurogamer. https://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2019-07-04-it-sounds-like-people-can-fly-would-love-to-do-bulletstorm-2. 
  103. ↑ Saed, Sherif (July 5, 2019). "People Can Fly wants to do Bulletstorm 2, but it needs to find a way to make it more popular". VG 247. https://www.vg247.com/2019/07/05/bulletstorm-2-could-happen-but-may-be-different/. 

Template:People Can Fly

Short description: American video game company
Epic Games, Inc.
Formerly
  • Potomac Computer Systems
  • (1991–1992)
  • Epic MegaGames, Inc.
  • (1992–1999)
TypePrivate
IndustryVideo games
Founded1991; 35 years ago (1991) in Potomac, Maryland, US
FounderTim Sweeney
Headquarters
Cary, North Carolina
,
US
Area served
Worldwide
Key people
  • Tim Sweeney (CEO)
  • Kim Libreri (CTO)
  • Mark Rein (VP)
  • Adam Sussman (president)
  • Charlie Wen (CCO)
Products
Owners
  • Tim Sweeney (51.4%)
  • Tencent (40%)
  • Sony (5.4%)
  • Kirkbi A/S (3.2%)
Number of employees
4,000+ (2023[1])
SubsidiariesSee § Subsidiaries and divisions
Websiteepicgames.com
Footnotes / references
[2][3][4]

Epic Games, Inc. is an American video game and software developer and publisher based in Cary, North Carolina. The company was founded by Tim Sweeney as Potomac Computer Systems in 1991, originally located in his parents' house in Potomac, Maryland. Following its first commercial video game release, ZZT (1991), the company became Epic MegaGames, Inc. in early 1992 and brought on Mark Rein, who has been its vice president since. After moving the headquarters to Cary in 1999, the studio changed its name to Epic Games.

Epic Games developed Unreal Engine, a commercially available game engine which also powers its internally developed video games like Fortnite and the Unreal, Gears of War, and Infinity Blade series. In 2014, Unreal Engine was named the "most successful videogame engine" by Guinness World Records.[5]

Epic Games owns the game developers Psyonix, Mediatonic, and Harmonix, and operates studios in multiple locations around the world. While Sweeney remains the controlling shareholder, Tencent acquired a 48.4% outstanding stake, equating to 40% of total Epic, in the company in 2012, as part of an agreement aimed at moving Epic towards a games as a service model. Following the release of the popular Fortnite Battle Royale in 2017, the company gained additional investments that enabled it to expand its Unreal Engine offerings, establish esports events around Fortnite, and launch the Epic Games Store. As of April 2022, the company has a US$32 billion equity valuation.

On August 13, 2020, Epic released a version of Fortnite that included a permanent discount on V-bucks across all platforms (except iOS and Android devices) if they purchased directly through Epic, bypassing Apple and Google's storefronts. Both Apple and Google immediately delisted the game for violating the storefronts' terms of service by including their own storefront, which led Epic to file lawsuits against both companies the same day, accusing them of antitrust behavior in how they operate their app stores. While Apple was ultimately victorious in a bench trial in September 2021 and upheld through appeals, Google's actions were found to be monopolistic by a jury trial in December 2023.

History

Potomac Computer Systems (1991–1992)

Potomac Computer Systems was founded by Tim Sweeney in 1991.[6] 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.[6] Out of this location, Sweeney started Potomac Computer Systems as a computer consulting business but later figured that it would be too much work he would have to put into keeping the business stable, and scrapped the idea.[6]

After finishing his game ZZT, Sweeney opted to re-use the Potomac Computer Systems name to release the game to the public in January 1991.[6][7] 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,[8] that made Sweeney consider turning Potomac Computer Systems into a video game company.[6] ZZT was sold through bulletin board systems, while all orders were fulfilled by Sweeney's father, Paul Sweeney.[9] 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.[6][9] The final copy of ZZT was shipped by Paul Sweeney in November 2013.[9]

Epic MegaGames (1992–1999)

Epic Games founder and CEO Tim Sweeney

In early 1992, Sweeney found himself and his new-found video game company in a business where larger studios, such as Apogee Software and id Software, were dominant, and he had to find a more serious name for his.[6] As such, Sweeney came up with "Epic MegaGames", a name which incorporated "Epic" and "Mega" to make it sound like it represented a fairly large company (such as Apogee Software), although he was its only employee.[6] Sweeney soon underwent searching for a business partner, and eventually caught up with Mark Rein, who previously quit his job at id Software and moved to Toronto, Ontario.[8][6] Rein worked remotely from Toronto, and primarily handled sales, marketing and publishing deals; business development that Sweeney found to have significantly contributed to the company's growth.[6] Some time this season, the company soon had 20 employees consisting of programmers, artists, designers and composers.[10] Among them was the 17-year old Cliff Bleszinski, who joined the company after submitting his game Dare to Dream to Sweeney.[11] The following year, they had over 30 employees.[12]

In 1996, Epic MegaGames produced a shareware isometric shooter called Fire Fight, developed by Polish studio Chaos Works. It was published by Electronic Arts.[13] By 1997, Epic MegaGames had 50 people working for them worldwide.[14] 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.[15]

Epic Games (1999–present)

Unreal and personal computer games (1999–2006)

In February 1999, Epic MegaGames announced that they had moved their headquarters to a new location in Cary, North Carolina, and would henceforth be known as simply Epic Games.[16] 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."[16] Furthermore, Sweeney stated that the "Mega" part of the name was dropped because they no longer wanted to pretend to be a big company, as was the original intention of the name when it was a one-man team.[6] The follow-up game, Unreal Tournament, shipped to critical acclaim the same year,[17] at which point the studio had 13 employees.[18]

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.[19][20]

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".[21] In 2006, Epic released the Xbox 360 shooter Gears of War, which became a commercial success for the company, grossing about $100 million off a $12 million budget.[22][21] A year later, the company released Unreal Tournament 3 for PC and acquired a majority share in People Can Fly.[23][24]

In 2008, Epic Games released Gears of War 2,[25] selling over three million copies within the first month of its release.[26]

Epic Games released on September 1, 2010 Epic Citadel 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,[27] which was released on December 9, 2010.[28] The third game in the series, Gears of War 3, came out in 2011.[29]

In 2011, Epic's subsidiary Titan Studios was dissolved.[30] At the 2011 Spike Video Game Awards, Epic Games announced their new game Fortnite.[31]

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.[32] Epic Baltimore was renamed to Impossible Studios in August 2012.[33] However, the studio ended up closing its doors in February 2013.[34][35]

Epic fully acquired People Can Fly in August 2012, rebranding them as Epic Games Poland in November 2013 as they began work on Fortnite alongside Epic.[36] 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 $100 million.[22] Additionally, they had suggested the idea of a multiplayer-only version of Gears of War that featured improved versions of maps based on user feedback, similar to the concept behind Unreal Tournament, but Microsoft rejected this idea. Epic recognized the troubles of being held to the business objectives of a publisher and began to shift the company again.[21]

Games as a service and Tencent shareholding (2012–2018)

File:GitHub OctoTales - Epic Games.webm Coupled with their desire to move away from being beholden to a publisher, Epic Games observed that the video game industry was shifting to a games-as-a-service model (GaaS). Sweeney stated, "There was an increasing realization that the old model wasn't working anymore and that the new model was looking increasingly like the way to go."[21] In an attempt to gain more GaaS experience, they made an agreement with Chinese Tencent, who had several games under their banner (including Riot Games' League of Legends) operating successfully as games as a service.[37] 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.[3] However, Sweeney stated that Tencent otherwise has very little control on the creative output of Epic Games.[21] Sweeney considered the partial acquisition by Tencent as the start of "Epic 4.0", the fourth major iteration of the company, allowing the company to be more agile in the video game marketplace.[21][38]

Around this point, Epic had about 200 employees.[21] A number of high-profile staff left the company months after the Tencent deal was announced for various reasons. Some notable departures included:[39]

  • 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".[40] 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.[41] After about two years, Bleszinski started Boss Key Productions in 2014.[citation needed]
  • 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.[42] He subsequently announced quitting his advisory role as well as his affiliation with the company in March 2013.[43]
  • 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".[44] 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.[21] As a result, Microsoft acquired the rights to Gears of War on January 27, 2014, eventually assigned those to Microsoft Game Studios; Fergusson moved to Black Tusk Studios, owned by Microsoft Game Studios, to take on lead development for a new Gears title, with the studio being rebranded as The Coalition. The first game since the acquisition, Gears of War 4, was released in October 2016.[45][46]
  • 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.[41]
  • Lee Perry, a lead designer on both Unreal and Gears of War series, felt that Epic has started to grow too large to maintain a role as an eccentric game developer. Coupled with the studio's need for more management to support the games as a service model, Perry felt that their creative freedom would become limited. He and five other senior people left Epic to form a new studio, Bitmonster.[41]

Epic continued its goal to deliver games as a service following these departures. Fortnite was to serve as their testbed for living games, but with the shifts in staff, and its engine from Unreal Engine 3 to 4, its release suffered some setbacks. Epic started additional projects; the free-to-play and community-developed Unreal Tournament, first announced in 2014,[47][48] and the free-to-play multiplayer online battle arena game Paragon, launched in 2016 for Microsoft Windows and PlayStation 4.[49] Epic also released a remastered version of Shadow Complex for newer consoles and computers in 2015,[50][51] and their first foray into virtual reality with the release of Robo Recall for the Oculus Rift.[52][53]

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.[54]

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 their 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.[55][56]

Fortnite success (2018–present)

Epic's Fortnite exhibition space at E3 2018

By July 2017, Fortnite was finally in a state for public play.[57] Epic launched the title through a paid early access then, with a full free-to-play release expected in 2018.[58] 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[59] 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 $1 billion by July 2018 through microtransactions, including its battle pass system. Epic Games, which had been valued at around $825 million at the time of Tencent's acquisition, was estimated to be worth $4.5 billion in July 2018 due to Fortnite Battle Royale, and expected to surpass $8.5 billion by the end of 2018 with projected growth of the game.[60] 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.[61] Fortnite has drawn nearly 250 million players as of March 2019.[62]

Fortnite's 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%.[63] 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.[64] However the company also refocused its development efforts to provide more support for Unreal and Fortnite by ending support for Paragon[65] and Unreal Tournament.[66]

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.[67]

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 $25 million fund to help bring developers they believe affected by these changes towards solutions that are more open and would have fewer service compatibilities.[68] Epic launched a $100 million prize pool in February 2019 for Fortnite-related esports activities that it plans to run from 2019 onward.[69] To expand its esports initiatives, Epic Games hired Nate Nanzer from Blizzard Entertainment and their commissioner of the Overwatch League in May 2019.[70] At the 2019 Game Developers Conference, Epic announced it was launching a $100 million MegaGrants initiative, allowing anyone to apply for up to $500,000 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.[71] One of the first major funded entities under this was the Blender Foundation in July 2019, having received $1.2 million from the MegaGrants funding, to help them to improve and professionalize their Blender tools for 3D art creation.[72]

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,[73] a software which also earned it the Engineering Excellence Award from the Hollywood Professional Association.[74]

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.[75][76] The company expanded their publishing options in October 2021 with Spry Fox and Eyes Out.[77]

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 $1 million in revenue, regardless of how they were published, retroactively starting from January 1, 2020.[78]

Bloomberg reported that Epic was nearing a $17 billion valuation in June 2020 once it had completed a new $750 million investing round from its previous investors and newcomings T. Rowe Price Group Inc. and Baillie Gifford.[79] 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.[80]

Across July and August, Epic raised an additional $1.78 billion in capital investment, bringing the company's post-money equity valuation to $17.3 billion.[81][82] This included a $250 million 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.[83][84] Sweeney said that Sony had started talking with Epic about investing following the demonstration of the Unreal Engine 5 in May 2020.[85]

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 their new headquarters and campus, with the conversion to be complete by 2024.[86]

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.[87]

Epic announced a partnership with Cesium in March 2021 to bring its 3D geospatial data as a free add-on into the Unreal Engine.[88]

In April 2021, Epic completed another $1 billion round of funding to support the company's "long-term vision for the metaverse", putting the company's valuation at $28.7 billion. The round of funding included another $200 million strategic investment from Sony.[89][90] Sweeney remains the controlling shareholder with these additional investments.[89]

The Information reported that Epic Games was launching a new scripted entertainment division in October 2021, bringing on three former executives from Lucasfilm to manage it, with initial plans for a Fortnite film.[91]

In February 2022 Epic Games announced that at least half a billion accounts have been created on its platform.[92]

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.[93]

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.[94] These investments gave Kirkbi 3% ownership and increased Sony's to 4.9%.[95] With these investments, Epic had an estimated valuation of $32 billion.[96] Epic and Lego also announced their partnership to build a child-friendly space in the metaverse that same month.[97]

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.[98] Mediatonic reported a significant number of layoffs from their team, but remained part of Epic.[99]

Acquisitions

In 2008, Epic acquired Utah based Chair Entertainment, developer of Undertow.[100][101] Summer 2009 saw the launch of Chair's Shadow Complex, an adventure game inspired by the Metroid series.[102]

Epic announced in October 2018 that it had acquired $1.25 billion in investment from seven firms: KKR, ICONIQ Capital, Smash Ventures, aXiomatic, Vulcan Capital, Kleiner Perkins, and Lightspeed Venture Partners. The firms join Tencent, Disney, and Endeavor as minority shareholders in Epic.[103][104] With the investment, Epic Games was estimated to have a nearly $15 billion valuation in October 2018.[105]

Besides expanding support for Fortnite and the Epic Games Store, these investments allowed Epic to acquire additional firms. In January 2018, it was announced that Epic had acquired Cloudgine, a developer of cloud-based gaming software.[106] The company also announced the acquisition of Kamu, a firm that offered anti-cheat software called Easy Anti-Cheat, in October 2018.[107][108] A year later, in January 2019, Epic acquired 3Lateral and Agog Labs. 3Lateral is known for its "digital human" creations, using a combination of digital technology, motion capture, and other tools to create photo-realistic human subjects in real-time. Epic plans to add some of 3Lateral's features to the Unreal Engine.[109] Agog had developed SkookumScript, a platform for scripting events in video games; on the announcement of this acquisition, Agog stated they will stop the development of SkookumScript to work more on Unreal Engine scripting support.[110]

Epic acquired Psyonix, the developer of Rocket League, in May 2019. Epic and Psyonix have had a past history, as Psyonix was originally founded a few miles from Epic's headquarters and had contributed to Epic's Unreal Tournament.[111][112] Besides ongoing support for Rocket League, Psyonix developed an arcade-style car racing game inside of Fortnite, named Rocket Racing, which was added in December 2023.[113]

Epic acquired the Twinmotion visualization tool used in architectural design in May 2019 from Abvent, and which they plan to expand and incorporate into their Unreal Engine offerings.[114][115] Epic acquired Life on Air, the developers behind Houseparty, a social networking service, in June 2019. The monetary terms of the acquisition were not disclosed.[116] Epic later shuttered Houseparty's app in October 2021, though the team behind it was continuing to develop social apps for Epic's platforms.[117]

In November 2019, Epic acquired Quixel, the world's largest photogrammetry asset library which makes 3D models of objects based on real-world high-definition photography. Epic plans to open Quixel's existing library of models to users of Unreal Engine, while the Quixel staff will continue to build out its assets within Epic.[118][119] The company acquired Cubic Motion, a studio that provides highly detailed digital facial animations for both films and video games, in March 2020.[120]

Epic acquired SuperAwesome, a firm that has developed services to support children-safe games and services around games, in September 2020, as to incorporate these elements more into Epic's portfolio and to offer to other developers, particularly for games built around Epic's vision of metaverse games.[121][122]

Epic acquired the digital facial animation firm Hyprsense in November 2020.[123]

In January 2021, Epic acquired RAD Game Tools, a company that makes a variety of middleware solutions for video game development which Epic plans to incorporate into the Unreal Engine. RAD's tools will still remain available outside of Unreal as well.[124]

In March 2021, Epic announced it was acquiring the Tonic Games Group, which includes developers Mediatonic and Fortitude Games. Mediatonic's Fall Guys, a major success during 2020, would remain available on Steam while Epic would help to bring it to additional platforms.[125] Epic buying Tonic Games Group falls under the company's broader plans of creating its own metaverse.[126] Additionally in March, Epic acquired Capturing Reality, the developers of RealityCapture, a photogrammetry suite that can create 3D models from numerous photographs. Epic plans to integrate RealityCapture into the Unreal Engine.[127]

Epic Games acquired ArtStation, a professional artists' marketplace, in April 2021. As part of the acquisition, ArtStation members would gain access to Epic's tools and support such as the Unreal Engine, while the ArtStation marketplace will reduce its take on purchases from 30% to 12%.[128] In July 2021, Epic acquired Sketchfab, a marketplace for 3D models. As with ArtStation, the acquisition allowed Sketchfab to reduce its pricing structure, lowering its revenue cut on purchases to 12% and making their Sketchfab Plus level of membership free.[129]

In November 2021, Epic Games acquired Harmonix, a music game developer, for undisclosed terms.[130] Harmonix continued to support their existing games including Rock Band 4 and Fuser while building out Fortnite's musical experiences, adding a Fortnite Festival mode that mimics the note-matching gameplay of Rock Band in December 2023,[113] and Epic's larger metaverse plans,[131]

Epic acquired the indie music platform Bandcamp in March 2022. Bandcamp was expected to remain independently operated under Epic while gaining the benefits of Epic's backend services.[132][133] In April 2023, Epic acquired Brazilian studio Aquiris and changed its name to Epic Games Brasil, with the intention to be used in Fortnite.[134] In September 2023, Epic sold Bandcamp to music licensing company Songtradr.

Products

Video games

Epic Games is known for games such as ZZT developed by founder Tim Sweeney, various shareware titles including Jazz Jackrabbit and Epic Pinball, the Unreal video game series, which is used as a showcase for its Unreal Engine, the Gears of War series which is now owned by The Coalition and Xbox Game Studios, Infinity Blade, Shadow Complex, Bulletstorm, and Fortnite.[citation needed]

Unreal Engine

Main article: Unreal Engine

Epic is the proprietor of five 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 their own engine from scratch. The five engines Epic has created are Unreal Engine 1, Unreal Engine 2 (including its 2.5 and 2.X releases), Unreal Engine 3, Unreal Engine 4 and Unreal Engine 5. Epic also provides support to the Unreal marketplace, a digital storefront for creators to sell Unreal assets to other developers. Further, since 2019, Epic has provided support for filmmakers which have utilized the Unreal Engine to create virtual sets for productions such as The Mandalorian,[135] and will be backing major animated feature film production using Unreal, starting with Gilgamesh with studios Hook Up, DuermeVela and FilmSharks.[136]

Epic Games Store

Epic announced its own Epic Games Store, an open digital storefront for games, on December 4, 2018, which launched a few days later with The Game Awards 2018 presentation. Differing from Valve's Steam storefront, which takes 30% of revenues (30/70 revenue-sharing agreement) from the sale of a game, the Epic Game Store will take 12%, as well as foregoing the 5% for games developed in the Unreal Engine, anticipating that these lower revenue-sharing agreements will draw developers to it.[137][138]

Epic Online Services

Epic Online Services is a free SDK based on Epic's Fortnite code that allows developers to implement cross-platform play features in their games, including matchmaking, friends lists, leaderboards, and achievements, with support for Windows, macOS, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, iOS, and Android systems. It was first released for all in May 2020.[78] Support for anti-cheat and voice chat was added in June 2021.[139]

Productivity products

Other productivity products include ArtStation, Sketchfab, Twinmotion, RealityCapture, RealityScan and Quixel. Epic and Autodesk partnered in September 2022, making Twinmotion available to Revit subscribers.[140]

The MetaHuman Creator is a project based on technology from three companies acquired by Epic—3Lateral, Cubic Motion, and Quixel—to allow developers to quickly create realistic human characters that can then be exported for use within Unreal.[141] Through partnership with Cesium, Epic plans to offer a free plugin to provide 3D geospatial data for Unreal users, allowing them to recreate any part of the mapped surface of Earth.[142] Epic will include RealityCapture, a product it acquired with its acquisition of Capturing Reality that can generate 3D models of any object from a collection of photographs taken of it from multiple angles,[143] and the various middleware tools offered by Epic Game Tools.

Subsidiaries and divisions

Locations

Name Location Founded Acquired Ref(s).
Epic Games Australia Burwood, Australia 2018 — [144]
Epic Games Brasil Porto Alegre, Brazil 2007 2023 [145]
Epic Games China[lower-alpha 1] Shanghai, China 2006 — [146]
Epic Games Germany Berlin, Germany 2016 [147][148]
Epic Games Japan Yokohama, Japan 2010 [149][150][151]
Epic Games Korea Seoul, South Korea 2009 [152][153]
Epic Games Montreal Montreal , Canada 2018 [154]
Epic Games Publishing — 2020 [155]
Epic Games Seattle Bellevue, Washington, US 2012 [156][157][158]
Epic Games Stockholm Stockholm, Sweden 2018 [159]
Epic Games San Francisco San Francisco , US 2012
Epic Games UK[lower-alpha 2] Sunderland, England 2014 [160][161][162]

Subsidiaries

Name Area Location Founded Acquired Ref(s).
3Lateral Motion capture digitization Novi Sad, Serbia 2008 2019
ArtStation Professional artist marketplace Montreal , Canada 2014 2021
Capturing Reality Photogrammetry software Bratislava, Slovakia 2015 2021
Cubic Motion Facial animation Manchester, England 2009 2020
Harmonix Music game developer Boston, Massachusetts 1995 2021
Psyonix Video game development San Diego, US 2000 2019
Quixel Photogrammetry assets Uppsala, Sweden 2011 2019
Epic Game Tools (formerly RAD Game Tools) Game middleware Bellevue, Washington 1988 2021 [124]
Sketchfab 3D model marketplace Paris, France 2012 2021
Tonic Games Group (Mediatonic) Video game development London, England 2005 2021

Former

Name Location Founded Acquired Divested Fate Ref.
Agog Labs Vancouver , Canada 2013 2019 Software development moved internally to Epic Games.
Bandcamp Oakland, US 2008 2022 2023 Sold to Songtradr
Chair Entertainment Salt Lake City, US 2005 2008 Unknown Closed
Cloudgine Edinburgh, Scotland 2012 2018 Software development moved internally to Epic Games.
Hyprsense Burlingame, California 2015 2020 Software development moved internally to Epic Games.
Impossible Studios Baltimore, US 2012 — 2013 Closed Template:Centered
Kamu Helsinki, Finland 2013 2018 Software development moved internally to Epic Games.
Life on Air San Francisco , US 2012 2019 Software development moved internally to Epic Games.
People Can Fly (Epic Games Poland) Warsaw, Poland 2002 2012 2015 Sold to management Template:Centered
RAD Games Tools Kirkland, Washington, US 1988 2021 Software development moved internally to Epic Games.
SuperAwesome London, England 2013 2020 2023 Spun off

Litigation with Silicon Knights

On July 19, 2007, Canadian game studio Silicon Knights sued Epic Games for failure to "provide a working game engine", causing the Ontario-based game developer to "experience considerable losses".[163] The suit alleged that Epic Games was "sabotaging" Unreal Engine 3 licensees. Epic's licensing document stated that a working version of the engine would be available within six months of the Xbox 360 developer kits being released. Silicon Knights claimed that Epic missed this deadline and that when a working version of the engine was eventually released, the documentation was insufficient. The game studio also claimed Epic had withheld vital improvements to the game engine, claiming they were game-specific, while also using licensing fees to fund the development of its own titles rather than the engine itself.[164]

In August 2007, Epic Games counter-sued Silicon Knights, alleging the studio was aware when it signed on that certain features of Unreal Engine 3 were still in development and that components would continue to be developed and added as Epic completed work on Gears of War. Therefore, in a statement, Epic said that "SK knew when it committed to the licensing agreement that Unreal Engine 3 may not meet its requirements and may not be modified to meet them".[165] Additionally, the counter-suit claimed that Silicon Knights had "made unauthorized use of Epic's Licensed Technology" and had "infringed and otherwise violated Epic's intellectual property rights, including Epic's copyrighted works, trade secrets, know how and confidential information" by incorporating Unreal Engine 3 code into its own engine, the Silicon Knights Engine.[165] Furthermore, Epic asserted the Canadian developer broke the contract when it employed this derivative work in an internal title and a second game with Sega,[166] a partnership for which it never received a license fee.[167]

On May 30, 2012, Epic Games defeated Silicon Knights' lawsuit and won its counter-suit for $4.45 million on grounds of copyright infringement, misappropriation of trade secrets, and breach of contract,[168] an injury award that was later doubled due to prejudgment interest, attorneys' fees and costs.[169] Consistent with Epic's counterclaims, the presiding judge, James C. Dever III, stated that Silicon Knights had "deliberately and repeatedly copied thousands of lines of Epic Games' copyrighted code, and then attempted to conceal its wrongdoing by removing Epic Games' copyright notices and by disguising Epic Games' copyrighted code as Silicon Knights' own".[169] Dever stated that evidence against Silicon Knights was "overwhelming", as it not only copied functional code but also "non-functional, internal comments Epic Games' programmers had left for themselves".[169]

As a result, on November 7, 2012, Silicon Knights was directed by the court to destroy all game code derived from Unreal Engine 3, all information from licensee-restricted areas of Epic's Unreal Engine documentation website, and to permit Epic Games access to the company's servers and other devices to ensure these items have been removed. In addition, the studio was instructed to recall and destroy all unsold retail copies of games built with Unreal Engine 3 code, including Too Human, X-Men Destiny, The Sandman, The Box/Ritualyst, and Siren in the Maelstrom (the latter three titles were projects never released, or even officially announced).[170]

On May 16, 2014, Silicon Knights filed for bankruptcy and a Certificate of Appointment was issued by the office of the Superintendent of Bankruptcy, with Collins Barrow Toronto Limited being appointed as trustee in bankruptcy.[171]

Apple and Google disputes

Since as early as 2017, Tim Sweeney had questioned the need for digital storefronts like Valve's Steam, Apple's iOS App Store, and Google Play, to take a 30% revenue sharing cut, and argued that when accounting for current rates of content distribution and other factors needed, a revenue cut of 8% should be sufficient to run any digital storefront profitably.[172] When Epic brought Fortnite Battle Royale to mobile devices, the company initially offered a sideloaded package for Android systems to bypass the Google Play store, but eventually also made it a store app.[173][174][175]

On August 13, 2020, Epic Games updated Fortnite across all platforms, including the iOS and Android versions, to reduce the price of "V-Bucks" (the in-game currency) by 20% if they purchased directly from Epic. For iOS and Android users, if they purchased through the Apple or Google storefront, they were not given this discount, as Epic said they could not extend the discount due to the 30% revenue cut taken by Apple and Google.[176] Within hours, both Apple and Google had removed Fortnite from their storefronts stating the means of bypassing their payment systems violated the terms of service.[177][178] Epic immediately filed separate lawsuits against Apple and Google for antitrust and anticompetitive behavior in the United States District Court for the Northern District of California.[179] Epic did not seek monetary damages in either case but instead was "seeking injunctive relief to allow fair competition in these two key markets that directly affect hundreds of millions of consumers and tens of thousands, if not more, of third-party app developers."[180] In comments on social media the next day, Sweeney said that they undertook the actions as "we're fighting for the freedom of people who bought smartphones to install apps from sources of their choosing, the freedom for creators of apps to distribute them as they choose, and the freedom of both groups to do business directly. The primary opposing argument is: 'Smartphone markers [sic] can do whatever they want.' This is an awful notion. We all have rights, and we need to fight to defend our rights against whoever would deny them."[181]

Apple responded to the lawsuit that it would terminate Epic's developer accounts by August 28, 2020, leading Epic to file a motion for a preliminary injunction to force Apple to return Fortnite to the App Store and prevent them from terminating Epic's developer accounts, as the latter action would leave Epic unable to update the Unreal Engine for any changes to iOS or macOS and leave developers that relied on Unreal at risk.[182][183] The court granted the preliminary injunction against Apple from terminating the developer accounts as Epic had shown "potential significant damage to both the Unreal Engine platform itself, and to the gaming industry generally", but refused to grant the injunction related to Fortnite as "The current predicament appears of [Epic's] own making."[184] In September 2020, Epic Games, together with thirteen other companies, launched the Coalition for App Fairness, which aimed for better conditions for the inclusion of apps into app stores.[185]

U.S. District Court Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers issued her first ruling on Epic Games v. Apple on September 10, 2021.[186] Rogers found in favor of Apple on nine of ten counts brought up against them in the case, including Epic's charges related to Apple's 30% revenue cut and Apple's prohibition against third-party marketplaces on the iOS environment.[187] Rogers did rule against Apple on the final charge related to anti-steering provisions, and issued a permanent injunction that, in 90 days from the ruling, blocked Apple from preventing developers from linking app users to other storefronts from within apps to complete purchases or from collecting information within an app, such as an email, to notify users of these storefronts.[188][189] Rogers' ruling was upheld at the Ninth Circuit on appeals, and the Supreme Court of the United States declined to hear the case, leaving Rogers' order against Apple in place.[190]

Google initially sought to negotiate with Epic but later filed their own countersuit against Epic for breach of contract. The Google case was set as a jury trial, held in November and December 2023. Prior to this, other groups had filed their own lawsuits against Google for similar reasons as Epic, including a coalition of states and the Match Group, but these were settled just ahead of the trial.[191][192] The jury found for Epic on all claims made, determining that Google maintained a monopoly on the Android marketplace by how it managed the Play Store and used its leverage as a big tech firm to make deal with partners, including some deals made as a result of the earlier settlements. A second phase of this trial to determine remedies is scheduled to occur in January 2024.[193]

FTC child privacy settlement

In December 2022, Epic Games was fined a combined $520 million after the Federal Trade Commission accused the company of separate accounts related to Fortnite, one for violating COPPA related to children's privacy by collecting personal data without parent or guardian consent, exposing children and teens to potential harassment, and a second related to misleading users into making unwanted purchases while playing the game.[194][195][196][197] Epic Games said "No developer creates a game with the intention of ending up here. The laws have not changed, but their application has evolved and long-standing industry practices are no longer enough. We accepted this agreement because we want Epic to be at the forefront of consumer protection and provide the best experience for our players. Over the past few years, we've been making changes to ensure our ecosystem meets the expectations of our players and regulators, which we hope will be a helpful guide for others in our industry."[198]

Criticism

Since the partial investment by the Chinese company Tencent, some consumers have become wary of Epic Games' reliability and use of their data, particularly in relationship with the Epic Games Store. These concerns have been connected to broader issues of general distrust of the Chinese government and Chinese corporations among some Western video game players. Epic has stated that Tencent does not have access to any of this private data nor provides this to the Chinese government.[199][200]

In late March 2020, accusations began circulating on social media that the Epic Games social networking app Houseparty led to other services such as Netflix and Spotify being hacked. However, both Epic and Life on Air claimed this was a smear campaign against its product and offered a $1 million bounty for anyone able to substantiate their claim.[201][202][203]

Notes

  1. ↑ Additional studio in Suzhou
  2. ↑ Additional studios in Guildford, Leamington Spa and Newcastle

References

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  2. ↑ Crecente, Brian (July 25, 2018). "How a 2012 Decision Helped 'Fortnite' Make Epic Games a Billion Dollar Company". https://variety.com/2018/gaming/news/fortnite-epic-games-billion-dollar-decision-1202884194/. 
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 Crecente, Brian (March 21, 2013). "Tencent's $330M Epic Games investment absorbed 40 percent of developer [Updated"]. https://www.polygon.com/2013/3/21/4131702/tencents-epic-games-stock-acquisition. 
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  6. ↑ 6.00 6.01 6.02 6.03 6.04 6.05 6.06 6.07 6.08 6.09 6.10 Edwards, Benj (May 25, 2009). "From The Past To The Future: Tim Sweeney Talks". https://gamasutra.com/view/feature/132426/from_the_past_to_the_future_tim_.php. 
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Further reading

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