Epic Games is an American video game and software developer based in Cary, North Carolina. It was founded by Tim Sweeney as Potomac Computer Systems in 1991, originally located in his parents' house in Potomac, Maryland. After releasing one game under that name, ZZT (1991), Sweeney renamed the company to Epic MegaGames in early 1992 "to make it look like we were a big company" even though it had no other employees or offices. Over the next few years, the company continued to make PC games, largely self-published, including the side-scrollers Jill of the Jungle (1992) and Jazz Jackrabbit (1994). They additionally published titles by other developers such as Epic Pinball (1993) by Digital Extremes and Tyrian (1995) by Eclipse Software. Epic also slowly expanded in size, reaching 8 employees by 1994.
Beginning with the 1996 game Fire Fight, Epic ceased its publishing and self-publishing operations, and after the release and success of Unreal (1998) renamed itself in 1999 to Epic Games and moved to Raleigh, North Carolina; it and a temporary office in Canada during Unreals development were the first time the company had a central office for their employees. After the name change, the company focused almost solely on the Unreal series of shooters for the next few years, and expanded from PC games to console games. In 2006 the company launched its Gears of War series of games, and in 2010 the company moved into mobile games with the Infinity Blade series after purchasing Chair Entertainment. Epic returned to retail publishing in 2015 for its own titles, and has solely self-published since. In addition to games, Epic develops and licenses the Unreal Engine, which is also used as the game engine for many of its own games, and runs the Epic Games Store, a digital video game storefront for Microsoft Windows and macOS.
Sweeney described the history of the company in 2016 as four eras: the shareware era from founding through 1997 as the company grew to 15 employees; the Unreal era from 1998 to 2005 as the company focused on developing that franchise through external publishers and grew to 25 employees; the Gears of War era from 2006 to 2011 as the company shifted focus to console games and grew to around 200 employees; and the current era where the company moved back to PC games and self-publishing, spinning off or closing some of its subsidiary developers such as People Can Fly and Big Huge Games. This latter era has instead become dominated by the multi-platform Fortnite Battle Royale and related games, which is one of the most-played video game franchises of all time with over 350 million registered players. Epic Games has developed around 40 games since 1991 and published over 20 more, and has multiple games under development.
Video games Epic Games has used the names Potomac Computer Systems, Epic MegaGames, and Epic Games; the name given for the company is the one used at the time of a game's release. Many of the games under the Epic MegaGames brand were released as a set of separate episodes, which were purchasable and playable separately or as a group. In many cases the initial episode of a game was freely distributed as shareware to drive interest in the other purchasable episodes. Titles are listed for games that gave individual names to their episodes instead of episode numbers.
Developed games + Title(Episodes) System Release date Developer(s) Publisher(s) ZZT( ) MS-DOS Potomac Computer Systems Potomac Computer Systems Best of ZZT( ) MS-DOS Epic MegaGames Epic MegaGames ZZT's Revenge( ) MS-DOS Epic MegaGames Epic MegaGames Super ZZT( ) MS-DOS Epic MegaGames Epic MegaGames Adventure Math MS-DOS Epic MegaGames Epic MegaGames Kiloblaster( ) MS-DOS Epic MegaGames Epic MegaGames Jill of the Jungle( ) MS-DOS Epic MegaGames Epic MegaGames Dare to Dream( ) Windows Epic MegaGames Epic MegaGames Silverball MS-DOS Epic MegaGames, Digital Extremes MicroLeague Xargon( ) MS-DOS Epic MegaGames Epic MegaGames Jazz Jackrabbit( ) MS-DOS Epic MegaGames Epic MegaGames Extreme Pinball MS-DOS, PlayStation Epic MegaGames, Digital Extremes, High Score Entertainment Electronic Arts Fire Fight Windows Chaos Works, Epic MegaGames Electronic Arts 7th Legion Windows Epic MegaGames, Vision Software MicroProse Jazz Jackrabbit 2( ) Windows, macOS Epic MegaGames, Orange Games Gathering of Developers Unreal Windows, macOS Epic MegaGames, Digital Extremes, Legend Entertainment GT Interactive Age of Wonders Windows Epic MegaGames, Triumph Studios Gathering of Developers Unreal Tournament Windows, macOS, Linux, PlayStation 2, Dreamcast Epic Games, Digital Extremes GT Interactive Unreal Tournament 2003 Windows, macOS, Linux Epic Games, Digital Extremes Infogrames Unreal Championship Xbox Epic Games, Digital Extremes Infogrames Unreal Tournament 2004 Windows, macOS, Linux Epic Games, Digital Extremes Atari Unreal Championship 2: The Liandri Conflict Xbox Epic Games Midway Games Gears of War Windows, Xbox 360 Epic Games Microsoft Game Studios Unreal Tournament 3 Windows, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 Epic Games Midway Games Gears of War 2 Xbox 360 Epic Games Microsoft Game Studios Shadow Complex Xbox 360 Epic Games, Chair Entertainment Microsoft Game Studios Infinity Blade iOS Epic Games, Chair Entertainment Epic Games Bulletstorm Windows, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 Epic Games, People Can Fly Electronic Arts Gears of War 3 Xbox 360 Epic Games Microsoft Studios Infinity Blade II iOS Epic Games, Chair Entertainment Epic Games Gears of War: Judgment Xbox 360 Epic Games, People Can Fly Microsoft Studios Infinity Blade III iOS Epic Games, Chair Entertainment Epic Games Shadow Complex Remastered Windows, macOS, PlayStation 4, Xbox One Epic Games, Chair Entertainment Epic Games Robo Recall Windows Epic Games Epic Games Fortnite Battle Royale Windows, macOS, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, Android, iOS, Nintendo Switch Epic Games Epic Games Fortnite Creative Windows, macOS, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5 Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, Android, iOS, Nintendo Switch Epic Games Epic Games Battle Breakers Windows, macOS, Android, iOS Epic Games, Chair Entertainment Epic Games Fortnite: Save the World Windows, macOS, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S Epic Games, People Can Fly Epic Games Lego Fortnite Windows, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, Android, Nintendo Switch Epic Games Epic Games Rocket Racing Windows, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, Android, Nintendo Switch Psyonix Epic Games Fortnite Festival Windows, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, Android, Nintendo Switch Harmonix Epic Games Fortnite Ballistic Windows, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, Android, Nintendo Switch Harmonix Epic Games
Published games In addition to publishing many of its own games, Epic published several titles by other developers in the early 1990s as Epic MegaGames before ceasing publishing operations. In 2020, it launched Epic Games Publishing as a new publishing wing.
+ Games published as Epic MegaGames Title(Episodes) System Release date Developer(s) Brix MS-DOS MicroLeague Castle of the Winds( ) Windows SaadaSoft OverKill( ) MS-DOS Tech-Noir Ancients 1: Death Watch MS-DOS Farr-Ware Electro Man MS-DOS X LanD Computer Games The Adventures of Robbo MS-DOS X LanD Computer Games Solar Winds( ) MS-DOS Stone Interactive Media Zone 66( ) MS-DOS Renaissance Ken's Labyrinth( ) MS-DOS Ken Silverman Epic Pinball MS-DOS Digital Extremes Ancients II: Approaching Evil MS-DOS Farr-Ware Heartlight MS-DOS X LanD Computer Games Epic Baseball MS-DOS MicroLeague One Must Fall: 2097 MS-DOS Diversions Entertainment Radix: Beyond the Void MS-DOS Neural Storm Entertainment Tyrian( ) MS-DOS Eclipse Software
+ Games published as Epic Games Publishing Title System Release date Developer(s) Fall Guys Windows, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, Nintendo Switch March 2, 2021 Mediatonic Alan Wake Remastered Windows, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, Nintendo Switch Remedy Entertainment Rocket League Sideswipe iOS, Android Psyonix Kid A Mnesia Exhibition Windows, PlayStation 5, macOS Namethemachine / Arbitrarily Good Productions PC Building Simulator 2 Windows, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S Spiral House Ltd. Rumbleverse Windows, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S Iron Galaxy Touch Type Tale Windows Pumpernickel Studio Alan Wake II Windows, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S Remedy Entertainment End of Abyss Windows, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S Section 9 Interactive Infintitesimals Windows, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S 2026 Cubit StudiosOut of Words Windows, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, Nintendo Switch 2 Kong Orange, WiredFly gen ATLAS Windows, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S genDESIGN
Cancelled games Title Cancellation date Developer(s) Bulletstorm 2 2012 Epic Games, People Can Fly Gears of War: Exile 2012 Epic Games Infinity Blade Dungeons 2013 Epic Games, Impossible Studios Paragon 2018 Epic Games Unreal Tournament 2018 Epic Games Spyjinx 2020 Epic Games, Chair Entertainment, Bad Robot
Notes
References Epic Pinball Catalog - "Coming soon from Epic MegaGames! Jazz Jackrabbit, Xargon, Epic Baseball. These games will all be available by February 1994!"
External links