epic-games posts

In case you have been on a island for the past couple of months, there's been some changes in some well known first person shooter game developers. id Software has been bought out and 3D Realms is now basically just Scott Miller and George Broussard. So how does Cliff Bleszinski, the lead designer at Epic Games,feel about these changes?

In a chat with the Develop site, He states, "To see the old standbys go through these kinds of changes . . . it's really shocking. We all came from the same mould from the shareware days; these studios have been around forever, and to see them acquired like that is a surprise." He adds that id's acquisition by ZeniMax Media " . . . will probably be a good thing for id." And what are the chances that Epic could be bought out one day? "CliffyB" says, "We're doing fine as is right now . . . .I've got like five projects going on right now, all a guarantee that we'll keep the lights on for years to come."

Epic Games continues to expand its offices with today's announcement of Epic Games Korea. The new office in Seoul, South Korea will be devoted to helping game developers in that area of the world with Unreal Engine licening and support. There's no iindication that the new studio will be active in its own game development.

In addition to its main hub in North Carolina, Epic Games owns two development studios, the Utah-based Chair Entertainment and the Poland based People Can Fly. It's also involved in Epic Games China, which licenses the Unreal Engine in that territory and who also creates their own games.

[Via email press release]

A number of game download web sites have announced new additions of games to their various line-ups of titles. One is GamersGate who just announced today that they are the latest provider for the Unreal series of games. Their deal with Epic Games covers all of the PC games released in the Unreal franchise (Steam and Gametap have similar deals).

On the DRM-free site GoG.com they have added the 2005 released sci-fi RTS game Earth 2160 to its line-up for just $5.99. And Steam has recently added the terrific 2004 strategy game Evil Genius (from the now defunct Elixir Studios) to its download library for $9.99

Several weeks ago the GameTap downloadable site announced they would add Epic Games' Unreal franchise to their library. Today Gametap is expected to add both Unreal Gold and Unreal Tournament: Game of the Year edition to its premimum service sometime today.

GameTap's blog site has also revealed that their free game of the week feature finally returns after a several week hiatus. This week Total Overdose will be free to play for one week. Also GameTap has refreshed its regular free library with an all new list. The library includes titles like the original Operation Flashpoint, Commandos 3, Colin Mcrae Rally and BloodRayne. The blog site also has a list of upcoming free and premimum games that will be added to GameTap in the coming week.s

Several months ago, Epic Games designer Cliff Bleszinski seemed to close the door on a PC port of their Xbox 360 shooter Gears of War 2, saying flat out, " We've decided we're not going to do a PC version this time around." Now IGN is reporting that may not be true after all.

Their evidence? A consumer web site that we have never heard of before is taking pre-orders on a PC version of Gears of War 2, complete with box art for the game and a release date of December 4, 2009. Naturally, the game publisher Microsoft still says that there is that there is no such PC version of the game planned but we will of course post up word if that position changes.

As promised earlier this week Epic Games has launched a new free weekend to play the full version of their 2007 FPS Unreal Tournament III via Steam with all of the recent free extra content included. The free play period will last until Sunday. As with previous free play weekends if you play and like UT3 you can also purchase the game via Steam for a discounted price.

From now until June 7 you can purchase Unreal Tournament III for just $9.99 on Steam. If you want to go all out you can also get the Unreal Pack which contains all of Epic's PC released Unreal games (Unreal Gold, Unreal Tournament, Unreal Tournament 2004, Unreal 2 and UT3) for just $19.99.

Epic Games re-launched Unreal Tournament III for the PC last March with the release of the new Titan Pack that added tons of new maps along with new weapons and gameplay modes to the first person shooter. Today Epic announced that they were making the full version of Unreal Tournament III available to play for free yet again.

The free play, via Valve's Steam service, will begin on Thursday, May 28 and you can go ahead and pre-load the full version now before the free play period begins. Again this version of the game (which Epic calls Unreal Tournament III Black) contains the original game and the contents of the new Titan Pack.

It's rare to read an interview with Epic Games co-founder Tim Sweeney that isn't all about the latest Unreal Engine 3 features. Yet that's what Gamasutra gives us in a new chat with the man. Indeed the vast majority of the lengthy chat is about Sweeney's early days as he co-founded Epic, early game programming, their first games like ZZT and more.

In fact it's only the last page of the Interview where the tone shifts to more present day matters such as the topic of when PC game graphics will look 100 percent photo realistic. Sweeney states that in terms of just looks, "Probably 10-15 years for that stuff, which isn't far at all. " However there are other factors such as animation and AI that are much further away. Sweeney states, "We simulate character facial animation using tens of bones and facial controls, but in the body, you have thousands. It turns out we've evolved to recognize those things with extraordinary detail, so we're far short of being able to simulate that." Maybe one day . . .

E3 2009 isn't just for game publishers showing off new titles. Epic Games is using the show to show off some new features for their Unreal Engine 3 game development technology. The company sent word today that they will be taking appointments from game developers, publishers and others to check out a demo of the new features.

Epic has already announced a number of new features for Unreal Engine 3 at GDC. They include a number of new lighting technology upgrades and the Tron-sounding Master Control Program (MCP) which is a back end solution for all sorts of stats tracking. There's no word if Epic will be making any game announcements during E3.

[Via email press release]

On Monday, Big Download first broke the news of possible changes to the membership of the PC Gaming Alliance. Today, we got a chance to chat briefly on the phone with the non-profit organization's president Randy Stute to discuss the changes. Stude confirmed what we first reported on Monday that game publisher Activision Blizzard, one of the group's founding members, has officially left the organization. Stude said that the reason was that the company felt it could not justify the expense in both money and staff to continue to be a member of the group. However, Stude added that it's possible that Activision Blizzard could rejoin the PC Gaming Alliance at some point.

With the company's departure, the PC Gaming Alliance now has only three game developers and/or publishers on the board (Epic Games, Capcom and Microsoft). Stude admitted to Big Download that having so few game developers and publishers in the group was a bit of a concern. However he added that he was confident that a number of game publisher will join the PC Gaming Alliance and there may be announcements to that effect before E3 begins in June