Software:Fall Guys

Short description: 2020 video game

Fall Guys
Developer(s)	Mediatonic
Publisher(s)	Devolver Digital Epic Games
Director(s)	Jamie Riding
Producer(s)	Alex Ruse
Designer(s)	Joseph Walsh
Programmer(s)	Joel Herber Rakesh Vangur
Artist(s)	Rob Jackson Ash Kerins Dan Hoang Nicolas Pessina
Composer(s)	Jukio Kallio Daniel Hagström Leonardo Lima Thirty Two Music
Engine	Unity
Platform(s)	PlayStation 4 Windows Nintendo Switch PlayStation 5 Xbox One Xbox Series X/S Android iOS
Release	PS4, Windows WW: 4 August 2020 Switch, PS5, Xbox One, Series X/S WW: 21 June 2022 Android WW: 16 August 2024 iOS EU: 16 August 2024
Genre(s)	Battle royale, platform
Mode(s)	Multiplayer

Fall Guys (formerly known as Fall Guys: Ultimate KnockoutTemplate:--) is a free-to-play platform battle royale game developed by Mediatonic and originally published by Devolver Digital for the PlayStation 4 and Windows. It was acquired by Epic Games and subsequently made free-to-play on 21 June 2022 and released on additional platforms including Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 5, Xbox One and Xbox Series X/S, with full cross-platform play support among all platforms. As part of the transition, the game adopted a paid battle pass system for its monetisation. On 16 August 2024, the game was released on mobile via the Epic Games Store, worldwide on Android and only in the European Union on iOS.

The main game involves up to 32 players who control bean-shaped characters and compete against each other in a series of randomly selected mini-games, such as obstacle courses and survival challenges. Players are eliminated as the rounds progress until, eventually, the last remaining player or team is crowned the winner. There are also many other modes, such as Explore, with different game rules and player counts. The game draws inspiration from game shows like Takeshi's Castle, It's a Knockout, Total Wipeout, and playground games like tag and British Bulldog.

Fall Guys received generally positive reviews from critics for its chaotic gameplay and visual appearance. The game was a commercial success, selling more than 10 million copies and attracting more than 50 million players after the game went free-to-play.

Gameplay

In the standard "Classic" and "Knockout" modes, up to 32 players compete in matches with battle royale style gameplay. Players, represented as jellybean-like figures, move around in a three-dimensional playing field, with abilities such as jumping, diving, dive sliding, piggybacking, and grabbing. Players can also use power-ups in select levels, which grant players unique abilities for either a limited amount of time or until the round ends. The aim is to qualify for subsequent rounds by successfully completing each of the randomly selected mini-games, many of which have randomly selected variations. There are currently seven different types of levels in Fall Guys; Course, Survival, Points, Team, Logic, Invisibeans, and Final.

The winner of the Final level is usually the winner of the match, except in Squads based modes where the winning player scores the victory for their whole team.

In the "Explore" and "Creator Spotlight" modes, up to 20 players can play continuous creative levels until they choose to finish. Players are able to skip levels and load into the next once qualified, earning 5 crown shards per completed level.

Currency

Using an in-game currency, "Kudos", players can purchase single cosmetics, nameplates, nicknames, patterns, faceplates, and colours, for their character to show off in-game. Players obtain Kudos by playing the game or progressing in the Fame Pass. Players receive crowns by winning a match. Crowns were a premium currency until 21 June 2022, whereas they now count towards Crown Rank.

Season 1: Free for All added a premium in-game currency called "Show-Bucks", which can be used to purchase full costumes, premium colours, patterns, faceplates, emotes, celebrations and unlock a "supercharged" version of the Fame Pass. Players are only able to obtain Show-Bucks through the Fame Pass or by purchasing them via microtransactions.

New costumes are regularly added to be bought in the store. Some are characters from different video games and media franchises, such as Sonic the Hedgehog, Doom, Ratchet & Clank, Among Us, Astro's Playroom, Hatsune Miku, SpongeBob SquarePants, Hello Kitty, Tomb Raider, Pixar, Marvel, Disney, Final Fantasy, and others.

Fall Guys Creative

Season 4: Creative Construction added a level editor titled Fall Guys Creative. It allows users to create rounds with various obstacles and objects. Players can choose between making Course, Survival, or Points based rounds. There is a budget of 2500 points, which limits how many objects a round can contain. Players can submit their rounds and can share their rounds to others via share codes. Creative-made rounds can appear in the Discovery tab or the Explore mode.

Game updates

New content is added to the game through updates. These can bring new tools, modes, bug fixes and Fame Passes. This has been present since 16 August 2023, when Mediatonic announced that they were moving away from Seasons to instead deliver more frequent updates.

Season Updates

Season 2 added banners, nicknames, and the ability to choose different shows with a different selection with the Game Selector.

Season 3 added the Crown Rank system. The same season added Prime Gaming exclusive rewards which only accessible if the user had an Amazon Prime subscription.

Season 4 added a basic daily challenge system. It also added the "Crown Shards" currency. In a mid-season update, they added to ability to host custom shows.

Season 5 added limited time events, and Duos/Trios shows. Later in the season, the main lobby was redesigned.

Season 6 added cross-progression, cross-play, and a game mode called Sweet Thieves, where one team is invisible (only being visible when moving fast) while the other team is not. The invisible team (Thieves) needs to bring sweets to the goals while the other team (Guardians) tries to prevent them by using the grabbing mechanic to capture the Thieves and put them in a jail. A button can be pressed every 30 seconds to remove the jail barrier.

Season 1: Free for All introduced Show-Bucks and added Bean Hill Zone, the first collaboration level, with Sonic the Hedgehog. On 5 March 2024 the level was removed from the game, including 'The Vault' show, for unknown reasons.

Season 2: Satellite Scramble added a Halloween-exclusive game mode called Treat Thieves, a Halloween themed version of Sweet Thieves, containing unique different gimmicks such as wormholes.

Season 3: Sunken Secrets added dive sliding and a Time Attack show. The maximum lobby size was decreased from 60 to 40 players for faster queue time. The same season also added 'The Vault', which features all levels regardless of vaulted status in one show, only available in Custom Games.

Fall Guys Creative logo

Season 4: Creative Construction added Fall Guys Creative, alongside a revamped Fame Pass system to replace the previous Season Pass.

Post Season Updates

The Power Party Update introduced power-ups. The same update also added the Discovery tab, a new tab in the Show Selector that shows Creative levels. Every few hours it refreshes with new levels.

The Survival Update added the ability to create Survival-type levels in Creative.

The Fall Forever Update added the 'Piggyback' mechanic. The same update also added the Explore and Knockout modes.

The Scrapyard Stumble Update added the ability to create Points-type levels in Creative, along with many items to score points. This includes the Rubber Chicken power-up, which can be used to break or move destructible and physics objects.

The November Update added the Creator Spotlight mode, which refreshes on a consistent two-week basis and features specific creator-made levels approved by Mediatonic.

The Ranked Knockout Update introduced the eponymous Ranked Knockout mode. Players must place well in Knockout games, in order to achieve the Superstar rank and earn the highest rewards in each eight-week cycle.

The Yeetropolis Update brought back the ability to earn Kudos at the end of games, a feature absent since Season 1: Free for All.

As of November 2025 all Classic levels (apart from Bean Hill Zone and Sweet/Treat Thieves) have been unvaulted and are available to play in the core shows.

Fame Pass

The Fame Pass is an optional purchase that gives players extra cosmetics and in-game currencies. Before Season 1: Free for All, the Fame Pass (known as the Fame Path) only had 40 tiers and was completely free. Season 4 increased the path to 50.

Starting in Season 1: Free for All, the renamed 'Season Pass' was extended to 100 tiers with only half of the rewards being free. Season 2: Satellite Scramble added 100 extra tiers to the Season Pass, offering mostly crown shards and 3 bonus costumes.

Season 4: Creative Construction changed the game's live service model, offering multiple 'Fame Passes' over the course of the season. These passes would have 40 main tiers, with the rest of the 100 tier pass consisting of bonus costumes and crown shards. The same season also introduced the first (and only) collaboration Fame Pass with the game Final Fantasy XIV, featuring rewards themed around the Warriors of Light.

After the discontinuation of seasons, Fame Passes would remain constant, but were extended from 100 to 160 tiers. The March '24 Fame Pass was then extended to 300 tiers, but only 70 consisted of proper rewards. The May '24 Fame Pass and subsequent Fame Passes were decreased to just 70 tiers.

Seasons

Up until 16 August 2023 Fall Guys operated under a seasonal content cycle, which were major updates to the game that each had a unique theme and added new content (rounds, costumes, obstacles, mechanics and music). Seasons lasted for several months, and introduced a new Season Pass (originally called a Fame Path in Legacy Seasons) each time. They could be levelled up by playing shows and completing challenges to obtain a variety of customisation options and currencies such as Kudos and Crowns. On 21 June 2022, the seasons reset for the free-for-all release of the game. Since 16 August 2023 the game shifted away from seasonal content in favour of more consistent smaller updates.

Updates

Season	Nickname	Theme	Date	Levels	Content	Sources
As Fall Guys: Ultimate Knockout
Season 1	Ultimate Knockout	Original	4 August 2020	25	Game release
Season 2	Medieval Knockout	Medieval	8 October 2020	5	Show Selector Interface Customization
Season 3	Winter Knockout	Winter	15 December 2020	8	Crown Rank Custom Shows
Season 4	Fall Guys 4041	Future	22 March 2021	9	Squads Crown Shards Cross play
Season 5	Jungle Adventure	Jungle	20 July 2021	7	Live Events Duos and Trios
Season 6	Party Spectacular	Party	30 November 2021	6	Cross-platform progression Cross platform parties
As Fall Guys
Season 1	Free for All	Sports/Stadium	21 June 2022	8	Free to Play relaunch Weekly/Marathon Challenges Show-Bucks
Season 2	Satellite Scramble	Space	15 September 2022	9	Varriations Events
Season 3	Sunken Secrets	Underwater/Alantis	22 November 2022	5	Time Attack The Vault Dive Slide
Season 4	Creative Construction	Digital/Low Poly	10 May 2023	50	Level Editor (Creative) Redesigned Show Selector
Post Seasonal Updates
Summer Breeze		Digital/Low Poly	16 August 2023	14	The ability to emote in the lobby Objects in Creative
Fall Force		Evergreen	27 September 2023	4	Options for Creative UI changes
Tool Up			7 November 2023	-	Creative budget extended Overlapping for most Creative objects The ability to choose specific music for Rounds
Power Party			6 December 2023	3	Bean Ball power-up The ability to scale objects in Creative Round tags Improved Discovery tab
Shapes and Stickers			23 January 2024	2	Various objects of geometric shapes and stickers to Creative UI changes
Survival Update			28 February 2024	7	Survival-type Rounds in Creative Invisibility and Party Crasher power-ups Hex tiles Elimination zones The ability to like and dislike Creative rounds
Fall Forever			7 May 2024	23	"Explore" and "Knockout" modes Piggybacking Social wheels UI changes Game Selector updates
June Update			11 June 2024	3	Physics changes Camera changes
August Update			16 August 2024	25	Mobile Release 3D backgrounds Faster load times
Scrapyard Stumble		Scrapyard	3 September 2024	19	Points-type Levels in Creative Destructibility and physics options for objects Rubber Chicken power-up
Falloween 2024		Halloween	8 October 2024	5	Quality of life improvements Creative objects
November Update		Original	7 November 2024	-	Creator Spotlight Custom object colors in Creative Customization for emoticons and phrases
Winter Update		Wild West	10 December 2024	5	Slime' material for Creative Creative budget increase to 2500 "Improved" version of Time Attack
Fall and Fantasy		Fantasy	4 February 2025		Fantasy-themed decorations, background and music The ability to see other players' Crown Rank
Ranked Knockout		Wilderness	1 April 2025		"Ranked Knockout" mode Wilderness-themed decorations and background Creative VFX
Yeetropolis		Metropolis	27 May 2025	4	Metropolis-themed decorations, background and VFX Rotation Controller improvements Earning Kudos after games
Tropical Tides		Tropics	29 July 2025		Summertime themed decorations, background, movement controllers
Slime Factory		-	16 September 2025	-	Unvaulted variants

Development

The conception of what became Fall Guys began when Mediatonic was discussing another project in January 2018. Lead designer Joe Walsh said that it reminded him of game shows such as Takeshi's Castle and Total Wipeout. He drew from that inspiration to create a pitch document for what would become Fall Guys. Originally titled Fools' Gauntlet, (also later under development using the name "Stumble Chums"), Walsh's pitch featured 100 players competing in a battle royale composed of physical challenges. Creative director Jeff Tanton, while initially sceptical that creating another battle royale game would be successful, was quickly convinced of the game's potential, and forwarded Walsh's pitch to Mediatonic's founders.

Tanton and Walsh worked on a pitch deck, and principal concept artist Dan Hoang created images featuring colourful, bean-shaped characters racing on an obstacle course in the sky. Tanton explained that Hoang's character designs helped shift the focus of the game away from the obstacle course itself, to the characters. With the pitch deck completed, Tanton pitched the game to 10 different publishers at the 2018 Game Developers Conference. Six months after Devolver Digital agreed to publish the game, development began.

Fall Guys began its initial prototyping process with a small team, growing to 30 people during development. Initial progress on individual minigames was slow which caused the team to worry that there would not be enough content for launch. A turning point came when the team made a group of pillars that "took the opinions of people out of the occasion" and allowed the developers to "kill ideas faster". Such pillars include ensuring a minigame was "50-50 chaos and skill" and that a level had to be "different every time". Inspired by game shows, and differentiating from first-person shooter battle royale games, Mediatonic focused on gameplay variety. By presenting the player with several, randomised rounds of game modes, Mediatonic hoped to recreate the experience of being on a game show. To help keep the "spirit of playground games and game shows", Mediatonic created an internal rule that game modes needed to be explained in three words. Over time, the game underwent numerous other changes. The player count was decreased from 100 to 60, as overpopulated games "stopped being readable or fun". In testing, Mediatonic noted that players overestimated the number of players, stating "we didn't need as many players as we thought to create the crowds we wanted the gameplay to include."

It's a Knockout, a game show forcing contestants to dress up in oversized costumes, inspired the idea that the characters should "have that element of being completely uniquely, badly designed for the task that we were gonna put them through". The ragdoll physics is deliberate, to avoid "hyper athletic Ninja Warrior characters" and because "falling over is funny". According to Walsh, striking the right balance between funny ragdoll collisions and game performance was critical, because "as soon as you lose the ragdoll-ness of the character, you lose the comedy". The character designs were inspired by the look of vinyl toys.

Mediatonic began working on Season 2 before the game's release with level designer Joseph Juson, noting that it was more of an "expansion" compared to Season 3 where the team tried to bring new ideas.

Release

Cover art featuring the game's old logo with the Ultimate Knockout subtitle

Fall Guys: Ultimate Knockout was announced at E3 in June 2019 and was released on 4 August 2020 for PlayStation 4 and Windows. Several updates ensued for the first season and on 8 October 2020, the medieval-themed second season was released. The success prompted more hiring.

The Chinese company Bilibili announced in August 2020 that it would develop a mobile version for Android and iOS that would be exclusive to China. The deal expired in 2022 and Fall Guys announced that their exclusive content and accounts on Bilibili would be run by Epic from now on.

Post Release

In February 2021, Fall Guys was announced for Nintendo Switch, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X, scheduled for Summer 2021. However, in April 2021, these versions of the game were delayed to late 2021, citing greater focus on cross-compatibility among all versions of the game. On 30 November 2021, the release was delayed again to 2022.

In March 2021, Mediatonic and its parent company, Tonic Games Group, were bought by Epic Games. Epic Games later announced that they will focus on adding cross-platform compatibility for all versions of Fall Guys, utilising resources from games such as Fortnite that became available after acquisition by Epic Games.

On 18 November 2021, Mediatonic announced that Epic Games accounts will be required in season 6 allowing cross-platform progression between PS4 and Steam and the ability to have custom names for Steam players. On 22 February 2022, Mediatonic released an update adding Lobbies and Friends lists. This uses the Epic Overlay system that games like Fortnite or Rocket League have to invite anyone on any platform via Epic Games Accounts.

On 15 March 2022, Mediatonic announced that starting on 5 April 2022 there would be a new launcher that all PlayStation players would need to download to keep playing the game. On 9 May 2022, the old PlayStation launcher shut down and became unusable. Both launchers were the same besides the new one being published by Epic Games instead of Devolver Digital. People who downloaded the new launcher would be able to redeem a free DLC Pink Shark costume that was able to be redeemed until the end of season 6.

Mediatonic and Epic Games transitioned Fall Guys to a free-to-play system alongside its 21 June release on Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S and Nintendo Switch. Additionally, a dedicated PlayStation 5 version also released, featuring enhanced visuals and DualSense effects. The game was also rebranded as Fall Guys, without the Ultimate Knockout subtitle. The free-to-play version eliminated the need for players to have console subscription services like PlayStation Plus to be able to play. To support the free-to-play model, the game included a new season pass system with both a free and premium tier of rewards, the latter available to those that purchase the premium pass with real-world funds. For Windows, the game was removed from the Steam storefront and made available on Epic Games Store, though the Steam version will continue to be updated in sync with the Epic Games Store version. The free-to-play versions of Fall Guys also added support for cross-platform play with other platforms. Players who had purchased Fall Guys before this transition were given a "Legacy Pack", which included costumes and the Season 1: Free for All premium Season Pass for free.

On 21 February 2023, Mediatonic announced in a blogpost that Seasons will be longer than 2–3 months for future seasons to allow for more time to work on future seasons. They also announced a level editor which was originally teased in 2022 called Creative. Creative launched on 10 May 2023.

As of Season 3: Sunken Secrets, Jukio Kallio no longer composes the game's music.

On 17 July 2023, Fall Guys' show-bucks prices were increased in the United Kingdom, Mexico, and Canada due to inflation. On 17 September 2023, it was announced that the price for Show-Bucks would also be increasing in Czech Republic, Denmark, Eurozone countries, Hungary, Japan, Norway, Poland, Romania, Sweden, Turkey and the United States for similar reasons.

On 16 August 2023, it was announced that Seasons would be phased out in favour of more frequent updates, but that Fame Passes would remain.

The inside of Mediatonic's office on 28 September 2023. The word Mediatonic was rearranged to spell 'decimation' as a response to Epic Games laying off over 830 employees, with Mediatonic being severely affected by the layoffs. While it is unknown how many employees were fired, many former employees announced their unemployment on Twitter.

Tim Sweeney stated that Fall Guys and Rocket League will not be discontinued despite mass layoffs, and that Epic Games would continue to invest in them.

On 16 August 2024, Fall Guys was released on Android worldwide and IOS devices in the EU via the Epic Games Store relaunch on mobile devices.

The Fall and Fantasy Update announced that a Ranked mode would be released with the next update, which came in the form of "Ranked Knockout" on 1 April 2025.

On 23 January 2025 a Fall Guys limited time mode titled 'Crown Jam' was released in Fortnite.

Reception

Reception
Aggregate score Aggregator Score Metacritic PC: 80/100 PS4: 81/100 Review scores Publication Score Destructoid 8/10 Game Informer 8.75/10 GameRevolution GameSpot 7/10 GameStar 78/100 IGN 8/10 PC Gamer (US) 80/100 PC Games 8/10 Push Square USgamer

Fall Guys received "generally favourable" reviews, according to review aggregator website Metacritic. A clone game called Stumble Guys was released for mobile devices on 23 September 2020, and became popular.

Tom Wiggins of Stuff magazine praised the game, calling it "Super Monkey Ball for the Fortnite generation". Mercury News praised the "controlled chaos" gameplay of Fall Guys, stating it to be utilising a combination of the elements from the battle royale game Fortnite and the party game Mario Party in such a way that made it "tailored to the coronavirus age". Ollie Toms from Rock, Paper, Shotgun praised Fall Guys for its creative approach as a battle royale game incorporating family-friendly elements rather than resorting to violent themes. He praised the simplicity of the game and the diversity of content added with each season. He argues that the ragdoll physics can be both exciting and frustrating to play: "What really makes and breaks this game is the imprecision of your actions. It's not something many competitive games can get away with in the way Fall Guys does."

The weekend before release during a closed beta, Fall Guys briefly became the most-watched game on Twitch as well as the sixth-best-selling Steam game where it was available for pre-order.

Fall Guys has been frequently compared to Among Us, in that both are online games which grew in popularity during the COVID-19 pandemic. Both also have similar characters, commonly called "Beans" by both communities.

The addition of Squad Mode in Season 4 was positively received. Kotaku says it evokes a new perspective on intense gameplay, indicating the importance of teamwork. The addition of Sweet Thieves has been positively received. The website Destructoid says "This is the most fun I've had with Fall Guys in forever." and "If you care about trophies, Sweet Thieves is worth checking out. But it stands on its own, too."

On 11 October 2022, the hashtag #savefallguys started trending on Twitter. This was to elicit Mediatonic's attention to address and resolve numerous problems that players have had with the game including lack of round variety, bugs, sub par events, prices in the in-game shop, implementation of skill based matchmaking, and more. On 15 November 2022, the Fall Guys Twitter account stated that in order for the game to stay stable, some rounds will be "vaulted" and rounds will be rotated in and out of the vault. This meant that some rounds will be temporarily removed to increase stability across all platforms. Players criticised this move, citing how removing pre-existing rounds causes the game to lose its replay value. Starting with the Fall Forever Update, the "vault" was officially discontinued and as of November 2025 all levels previously vaulted (apart from Bean Hill Zone) have been unvaulted.

Following the Slime Factory Update, players became concerned with the lack of any new content beyond cosmetics and events scheduled until January 2027. This has led players to believe Mediatonic placed the game onto autopilot or has plans to shut the game down in the near future. As of 2026 the game hasn't received a major update.

Sales

Within 24 hours of release, the game had an active player base of more than 1.5 million players. On 10 August 2020, Devolver Digital announced 2 million copies sold on Steam. During the first day of release, the servers for Fall Guys were unexpectedly overloaded due to popularity.

The game's popularity brought several brand collaborations for custom content. Shortly after release Mediatonic announced a fundraiser by which the brand that donated the most money to the charity SpecialEffect would have their custom skin featured in the game.

By 26 August 2020, more than 7 million copies of Fall Guys had been sold on Steam, and it was the most downloaded monthly PS Plus game of all time. By November 2020, the game had reached more than 10 million sales on Steam. According to firm Superdata the game's online revenue for PC in its first month was $185 million from 8.2 million players, making it the biggest launch on that platform since Overwatch by those metrics. Multiple outlets described the game's popularity as a "phenomenon". In December 2020, Mediatonic confirmed sales of more than 11 million copies on PC.

In June 2022, within two weeks of going free-to-play and its release on multiple consoles, Fall Guys' player count rose to over 50 million.

Awards

Award	Date of ceremony	Category	Result	Ref.
Golden Joystick Awards 2020	24 November 2020	Best Multiplayer Award	Won
		Best Family Game	Won
		Best Gaming Community	Nominated
		PlayStation Game of the Year	Nominated
		Ultimate Game of the Year	Nominated
The Game Awards 2020	10 December 2020	Best Community Support	Won
		Best Multiplayer Game	Nominated
		Best Indie Game	Nominated
PlayStation.Blog Game of the Year	18 December 2020	Best Independent Game-Platinum	Won
		Best Multiplayer Game-Gold	Won
17th British Academy Games Awards	25 March 2021	British Game	Nominated
		Evolving Game	Nominated
		Family	Nominated
		Multiplayer	Nominated
		Original Property	Nominated
24th Annual D.I.C.E. Awards	22 April 2021	Online Game of the Year	Won
		Family Game of the Year	Nominated

External links

Epic Games, Inc.

Logo used since 2015
Headquarters in Cary, North Carolina, 2016
Formerly	Potomac Computer Systems (1991–1992) Epic MegaGames, Inc. (1992–1999)
Type	Private
Industry	Video games
Founded	1991 (1991) in Potomac, Maryland, US
Founder	Tim 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	Unreal Engine Bink Video Epic Games Store Unreal series Gears of War series Fortnite
Revenue	US$6 billion (2022)
Owners	Tim Sweeney (41.4%) Tencent (35%) The Walt Disney Company (9%) Sony (5.4%) Mark Rein (4%) Kirkbi (3.2%)
Number of employees	4,000+ (2023)
Subsidiaries	See § Subsidiaries and divisions
Website	epicgames.com
Footnotes / references

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. 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.

History

Potomac Computer Systems (1991–1992)

Potomac Computer Systems was founded by Tim Sweeney in 1991. At the time, Sweeney was studying mechanical engineering and living in a dorm at the University of Maryland. He frequently visited his parents, who lived in nearby Potomac, Maryland, where his personal computer, used for both work and leisure, was situated. 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.

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. It was only with the unexpected success of ZZT, caused in most part by the easy modifiability of the game using Sweeney's custom ZZT-oop programming language, that made Sweeney consider turning Potomac Computer Systems into a video game company. ZZT was sold through bulletin board systems, while all orders were fulfilled by Sweeney's father, Paul Sweeney. 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. The final copy of ZZT was shipped by Paul Sweeney in November 2013.

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. 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. 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. 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. Some time this season, the company soon had 20 employees consisting of programmers, artists, designers and composers. Among them was the 17-year old Cliff Bleszinski, who joined the company after submitting his game Dare to Dream to Sweeney. The following year, they had over 30 employees.

In 1996, Epic MegaGames produced a shareware isometric shooter called Fire Fight, developed by Polish studio Chaos Works. It was published by Electronic Arts. By 1997, Epic MegaGames had 50 people working for them worldwide. In 1998, Epic MegaGames released Unreal, a 3D first-person shooter co-developed with Digital Extremes, which expanded into a series of Unreal games. The company also began to license the core technology, the Unreal Engine, to other game developers.

Epic Games (1999–present)

Unreal and personal computer games (1999–2006)

In February 1999, Epic MegaGames announced that they had moved their headquarters to a new location in Cary, North Carolina, and would henceforth be known as simply Epic Games. Rein explained that "Unreal was first created by developers who were scattered across the world, eventually, the team came together to finish the game and that's when the real magic started. The move to North Carolina centralizes Epic, bringing all of the company's talented developers under one roof." 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. The follow-up game, Unreal Tournament, shipped to critical acclaim the same year, at which point the studio had 13 employees.

The company launched the Make Something Unreal competition in 2004, aiming to reward video game developers who create mods using the Unreal game engine. Tripwire Interactive won US$80,000 in cash and computer hardware prizes over the course of the contest in the first contest in 2004.

Gears of War and console games (2006–2012)

Around 2006, the personal computer video game market was struggling with copyright infringement in the form of software piracy, and it became difficult to make single-player games, elements that had been part of Epic's business model to that point. The company decided to shift focus into developing console systems, a move which Sweeney called the start of the third major iteration of the company, "Epic 3.0". In 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. A year later, the company released Unreal Tournament 3 for PC and acquired a majority share in People Can Fly.

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

Epic Games released Epic Citadel on September 1, 2010 as a tech demo to demonstrate the Unreal Engine 3 running on Apple iOS, within Adobe Flash Player Stage3D and using HTML5 WebGL technologies. It was also released for Android on January 29, 2013. Epic Games worked on an iOS game, Infinity Blade, which was released on December 9, 2010. The third game in the series, Gears of War 3, came out in 2011.

In 2011, Epic's subsidiary Titan Studios was dissolved. At the 2011 Spike Video Game Awards, Epic Games announced their new game Fortnite. In March 2012, Epic Games China became independent from Epic as Ying Pei Games (Chinese: 英佩游戏), developing Mercenary Ops at the time, while Epic still retained a minority stake.

In June 2012, Epic announced that it was opening up a new studio, Epic Baltimore, made up of members of 38 Studios' Big Huge Games. Epic Baltimore was renamed to Impossible Studios in August 2012. However, the studio ended up closing its doors in February 2013.

Epic fully acquired People Can Fly in August 2012, rebranding them as Epic Games Poland in November 2013 as they began work on Fortnite alongside Epic. Epic alongside People Can Fly made one last game in the Gears of War series that served as a prequel to the other games, Gears of War: Judgement, which was released in 2013. At this point, Epic had considered developing a fourth main title for Gears of War, but estimated that its budget would be at least $100 million. 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.

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." 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. 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. However, Sweeney stated that Tencent otherwise has very little control on the creative output of Epic Games. 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.

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

• Cliff Bleszinski, then the design director, announced he was leaving Epic Games in October 2012 after 20 years with the company. His official reason was "It's time for a much-needed break". Bleszinski later stated that he had become "jaded" about the gaming industry in the lead-up to Tencent's involvement. After Tencent's investment, Bleszinski attempted to renegotiate his contract but failed to come to terms, making him think about retirement instead. He opted to stop coming to work, spending his time at his beach house, eventually leading Sweeney to come down and have a heart-to-heart discussion with Bleszinski on the new direction Epic was going, and asking him to make a firm decision regarding his commitment to Epic. Bleszinski opted to write his resignation letter the next day. After about two years, Bleszinski started Boss Key Productions in 2014. * President Mike Capps announced his retirement in December 2012, and cited as reasons the birth of a baby boy he was having with his wife and his plans to be a stay-at-home dad. He subsequently announced quitting his advisory role as well as his affiliation with the company in March 2013.
• Rod Fergusson, who had been a lead developer for the Gears of War series, left Epic in August 2012. Fergusson stated that he had seen the direction that the Tencent acquisition would have taken the company, and was not interested in the free-to-play style of games but instead wanted to continue developing a "AAA, big-narrative, big-story, big-impact game". Fergusson briefly joined Irrational Games, owned by 2K Games, to help complete BioShock Infinite. While there, Fergusson talked with 2K about potentially continuing the Gears of War series, leading to talks between 2K Games, Epic, and Microsoft. 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.
• 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.
• 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.

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, and the free-to-play multiplayer online battle arena game Paragon, launched in 2016 for Microsoft Windows and PlayStation 4. Epic also released a remastered version of Shadow Complex for newer consoles and computers in 2015, and their first foray into virtual reality with the release of Robo Recall for the Oculus Rift.

The investment infusion from Tencent allowed Epic Games to relicense the Unreal Engine 4 engine in March 2015 to be free for all users to develop with, with Epic taking 5% royalties on games developed with the engine.

In June 2015, Epic agreed to allow Epic Games Poland's departure from the company and sold its shares in the studio; the studio reverted to 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.

Fortnite success (2018–present)

Epic's Fortnite exhibition space at E3 2018

By July 2017, Fortnite was finally in a state for public play. Epic launched the title through a paid early access then, with a full free-to-play release expected in 2018. Following on the popularity of PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds, a battle royale game released earlier in 2017, Epic developed a variant of Fortnite called Fortnite Battle Royale, which was released in September 2017 as a free-to-play title across computer, console, and mobile platforms. Fortnite Battle Royale quickly gained an audience, amassing over 125 million players by May 2018 with estimates of having earned over $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. Player count continued to expand when Epic broke new ground by convincing Sony to change its stance on cross-platform play allowing players on any device to compete with each other in Fortnite Battle Royale. Fortnite has drawn nearly 250 million players as of March 2019.

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%. Epic launched the Epic Games Store digital storefront to compete with services like Steam and GOG.com, not only taking a 12% cut of revenue compared to the industry standard of 30%, but also eliminated the 5% cut for games using the Unreal engine sold via the storefront. However the company also refocused its development efforts to provide more support for Unreal and Fortnite by ending support for Paragon and Unreal Tournament.

The financial success of Fortnite brought additional investment into Epic Games. Epic Games was one of eleven companies selected to be part of the Disney Accelerator program in 2017, providing Epic equity investment and access to some of Disney's executives, and potential opportunity to work with Disney in the future. Disney had selected both Epic and aXiomatic as potential leads in the growing esports arena.

Epic's has used its windfall to support its products. In January 2019, following a dispute between Improbable and Unity Technologies over changes to the acceptable uses of the Unity game engine, Epic announced it was partnering with Improbable to launch a $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. Epic launched a $100 million prize pool in February 2019 for Fortnite-related esports activities that it plans to run from 2019 onward. To expand its esports initiatives, Epic Games hired Nate Nanzer from Blizzard Entertainment and their commissioner of the Overwatch League in May 2019. 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. 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.

Epic Games was given the British Academy of Film and Television Arts Special Award in June 2019 for its past and continuing developments for the Unreal Engine, a software which also earned it the Engineering Excellence Award from the Hollywood Professional Association.

Epic announced in March 2020 it was establishing a new multi-platform publishing label, Epic Games Publishing. Alongside this, the label had announced three deals with developers Remedy Entertainment, Playdead and GenDesign in which Epic would fully fund development and publishing (including employee salaries, quality assurance, localization, and marketing) of one or more games from each studio, but leaving full creative control and IP rights to the studio, and sharing profits, following Epic's recouping of its investment, 50/50 with the studio. The company expanded their publishing options in October 2021 with Spry Fox and Eyes Out.

Unreal Engine 5 was announced on May 13, 2020, with plans for an early 2022 release. Alongside this announcement, Epic released its Epic Online Services, a free SDK toolset for online matchmaking and other similar cross-platform play support features based on Fortnite. Epic further waived all Unreal license fees retroactively for games up through the first $1 million in revenue, regardless of how they were published, retroactively starting from January 1, 2020.

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. The company partnered with Christopher Nolan and Warner Bros. to acquire distribution rights for Inception, Batman Begins and The Prestige as part of "Movie Nite" on Fortnite's "Party Royale" island. The film live streams were based on a user's country.

Across July and August, Epic raised an additional $1.78 billion in capital investment, bringing the company's post-money equity valuation to $17.3 billion. 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. Sweeney said that Sony had started talking with Epic about investing following the demonstration of the Unreal Engine 5 in May 2020.

Epic purchased Cary Towne Center in Cary, North Carolina, in January 2021, which had been scheduled to be closed and demolished after 2020, to be their new headquarters and campus, with the conversion to be complete by 2024. All of the existing mall's structure, with the exception of a section housing the Belk department store, was razed. However, after no further actions, the Town of Cary revoked Epic's zoning application on December 6, 2024, declaring it "inactive".

Epic unveiled its MetaHuman Creator project in February 2021. Based on the technology from 3Lateral, Cubic Motion, and Quixel, the MetaHuman Creator is a browser-based application to allow game developers to create realistic human characters within a short amount of time starting from various presets, and then can be exported as pre-made models and animation files ready for use in Unreal Engine.

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

In April 2021, Epic completed another $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. Sweeney remains the controlling shareholder with these additional investments.

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.

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

Epic released the initial beta version of RealityScan, a mobile app that uses the tools from Capturing Reality and Quixel, in April 2022. RealityScan allows users to create 3D models that can be imported into Sketchfab using photos taken by the user.

Epic received another $1 billion each from Sony and from Kirkbi, the parent company of The Lego Group, in April 2022 for continued support of building out Epic's metaverse. These investments gave Kirkbi 3% ownership and increased Sony's to 4.9%. With these investments, Epic had an estimated valuation of $32 billion. Epic and Lego also announced their partnership to build a child-friendly space in the metaverse that same month.

On February 9, 2023, Epic released the Postparty application. Postparty is a gameplay clipping software designed for people who do not have access to clipping software or who require a way to share gaming videos and highlights (it is frequently used on gaming consoles) clipped (30 seconds max), edited to the user's preference (using the in-app editing tools and other editing software), and then posted to social media. It is most commonly associated with creating and sharing video clips in Fortnite, but it is also associated with clipping other applications created by Epic, such as Rocket League. It was released on iPhone and Android devices.

Although it was already possible to share clips and other data across many devices, Postparty provided an additional clipping method. Clips from many platforms, including Xbox, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation, and PC, were combined into a single main application. After sharing their first Fortnite clip using the Postparty app, players will earn the Post That! Wrap and Postparty Confetti Spray cosmetic items.

The company announced in September 2023 that it was laying off 870 employees, along with divesting in Bandcamp to Songtradr and spinning off SuperAwesome into its own company. Sweeney said this move was needed to rein in spending, and did not anticipate there would be further layoffs in the future. Mediatonic reported a significant number of layoffs from their team, but remained part of Epic.

On February 7, 2024, Epic Games received a $1.5 billion investment from the Walt Disney Company. Pending regulatory approval, Disney will acquire a 9% stake. Disney plans to co-develop new games and an "entertainment universe" encompassing its properties with Epic. Part of this involved bringing more of the Disney properties to Fortnite; while Fortnite had already featured numerous cosmetics based on Marvel Comics and Star Wars, Disney announced new plans to bring its classic animated characters and those from Pixar properties to the game.

In July 2024, the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA), an actor labor union of which numerous video game voice actors are members, would initiate a labor strike against a number of video publishers, including Epic Games, over concerns about lack of A.I. protections related to not only video game actors, but also the use of A.I to replicate an actor's voice, or create a digital replica of their likeness.

Epic launched Fab, a unified marketplace for Unreal Engine Marketplace, Sketchfab, ArtStation Marketplace, and Quixel assets, on October 22, 2024.

Following an investigation by the Department of Justice, the two Tencent board members stepped down, as they were also board members on Riot Games, which was seen as a violation of the Sherman Act by the department.

Acquisitions

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

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. With the investment, Epic Games was estimated to have a nearly $15 billion valuation in October 2018.

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. The company also announced the acquisition of Kamu, a firm that offered anti-cheat software called Easy Anti-Cheat, in October 2018. 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. 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.

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. 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.

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. 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. Epic later shuttered Houseparty's app in October 2021, though the team behind it was continuing to develop social apps for Epic's platforms.

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. The company acquired Cubic Motion, a studio that provides highly detailed digital facial animations for both films and video games, in March 2020.

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.

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

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.

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. Epic buying Tonic Games Group falls under the company's broader plans of creating its own metaverse. 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.

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%. 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.

In November 2021, Epic Games acquired Harmonix, a music game developer, for undisclosed terms. 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, and Epic's larger metaverse plans.

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. In April 2023, Epic acquired Brazilian developer Aquiris Game Studio, developer of Horizon Chase, and changed its name to Epic Games Brasil, with the intention to be used in Fortnite. In September 2023, Epic sold Bandcamp to music licensing company Songtradr.

Products

Unreal Engine

Main article: Unreal Engine

Epic is the proprietor of the Unreal game engine. Originally developed for the Unreal and Unreal Tournament game series, Unreal Engine has a complete feature set of graphical rendering, sound processing, and physics. The engine is licensed to third party game developers who can modify the software to fit their needs. 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, and will be backing major animated feature film production using Unreal, starting with Gilgamesh with studios Hook Up, DuermeVela and FilmSharks.

Epic Games Store

Epic announced its own Epic Games Store, an open digital storefront for games on Windows, 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. Epic opened a version of the store for Android devices worldwide and for iOS devices in Europe in January 2025 as a result of legal victories, one based on its suit against Google, and the second from the European Union's enforcement of remedies towards Apple under the Digital Markets Act.

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. Support for anti-cheat and voice chat was added in June 2021.

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.

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. 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. 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, 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	—
Epic Games Brasil	Porto Alegre, Brazil	2007	2023
Epic Games China	Shanghai, China	2006	—
Epic Games Germany	Berlin, Germany	2016
Epic Games Japan	Yokohama, Japan	2010
Epic Games Korea	Seoul, South Korea	2009
Epic Games Montreal	Montreal, Canada	2018
Epic Games Publishing	—	2020
Epic Games Seattle	Bellevue, Washington, US	2012
Epic Games Sweden	Stockholm, Sweden	2018
Epic Games San Francisco	San Francisco, California, US	2012
Epic Games UK	Sunderland, England	2014

Subsidiaries

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

Former

Name	Location	Founded	Acquired	Divested	Fate	Ref.
Agog Labs	Vancouver, Canada	2013	2019		Software development moved internally to Epic Games.	Template:Centered
Bandcamp	Oakland, US	2008	2022	2023	Sold to Songtradr	Template:Centered
Chair Entertainment	Salt Lake City, US	2005	2008	Unknown	Closed
Cloudgine	Edinburgh, Scotland	2012	2018		Software development moved internally to Epic Games.	Template:Centered
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	Template:Centered
Titan Studios	Seattle, Washington, U.S.	2008	—	May 2011	Closed

Legal issues

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". 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.

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". 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. 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, a partnership for which it never received a license fee.

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, an injury award that was later doubled due to prejudgment interest, attorneys' fees and costs. 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". 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".

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).

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.

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. 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.

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. Within hours, both Apple and Google had removed Fortnite from their storefronts stating the means of bypassing their payment systems violated both storefronts guidelines. 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. 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." 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."

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. 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." 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.

U.S. District Court Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers issued her first ruling on Epic Games v. Apple on September 10, 2021. 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. 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. 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. Though Apple did adjust its policies for third-party storefront, Epic argued these failed to achieve the goals set further. In April 2025, Rogers ruled in Epic's favor that Apple's changes were not sufficient. Rogers blocked Apple from taking fees from third-party stores or restrict how they are shown in apps, subsequently leading Epic to bring the Epic Games Store back to iOS within a week.

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. 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.

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. 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." Epic ultimately settled with the FTC, agreeing to pay $245 million in December 2024 in relation to the use of dark patterns it used to drive users to buy V-bucks, with $72 million being issued as refunds by the FTC to more than 600,000 users that had filed claims in the case.

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.

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.

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.

Further reading

• Keighley, Geoffrey. "Blinded By Reality: The True Story Behind the Creation of Unreal". http://www.gamespot.com/features/makeunreal/. 
• Berardini, César A. (June 30, 2005). "Everything You Wanted to Know About Unreal". http://features.teamxbox.com/xbox/1199/Everything-You-Wanted-to-Know-About-Unreal/p1/. 
• Porter, Will (October 26, 2007). "The Epic tradition". https://www.gamesradar.com/the-epic-tradition/. 
• Blancato, Joe (May 13, 2008). "Epic's Rainmakers". http://v1.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/video-games/issues/issue_149/4896-Epic-s-Rainmakers. 
• Edwards, Benj (May 25, 2009). "From The Past To The Future: Tim Sweeney Talks". https://www.gamedeveloper.com/design/from-the-past-to-the-future-tim-sweeney-talks. 
• Totilo, Stephen (December 7, 2011). "The Quiet Tinkerer Who Makes Games Beautiful Finally Gets His Due". https://kotaku.com/the-quiet-tinkerer-who-makes-games-beautiful-finally-ge-5865951. 
• Plante, Chris (April 2, 2012). "Better with age: A history of Epic Games". https://www.polygon.com/2012/10/1/3438196/better-with-age-a-history-of-epic-games. 
• Freeman, Will (August 12, 2013). "Development Legends: An Unreal tale". https://www.mcvuk.com/development-legends-an-unreal-tale/. 
• Crecente, Brian (May 1, 2016). "Their future is Epic: The evolution of a gaming giant". https://www.polygon.com/a/epic-4-0. 
• Huddleston, Tom Jr. (August 9, 2018). "'Fortnite' launched battle royale a year ago today – here's how the company behind the billion-dollar game was founded by a college kid". https://www.cnbc.com/2018/06/12/epic-games-company-behind-fortnite-was-founded-by-a-college-kid.html. 
• Griffith, Erin (August 25, 2020). "To Fight Apple and Google's Grip, Fortnite Creator Mounts a Crusade". https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/25/technology/fortnite-creator-tim-sweeney-apple-google.html. 

External links

• Official website