Epic Games' headquarters in Cary, North Carolina
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Formerly called
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Private | |
Industry | Video game industry |
Founded | 1991Potomac, Maryland, U.S. | in
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Headquarters | Cary, North Carolina, U.S. |
Area served
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Worldwide |
Key people
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Products | |
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Number of employees
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250 (2016) |
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Website | epicgames |
Epic Games, Inc. (formerly Potomac Computer Systems and later Epic MegaGames, Inc.) is an American video game development company based in Cary, North Carolina, partially owned by Tencent. Founded in 1991, they are best known for their Unreal Engine technology, which has powered their popular in-house Unreal, Gears of War and Infinity Blade series of games.
It is the parent company of game developer Chair Entertainment, and also owns game studios in Seattle, Guildford, Berlin, Tokyo, and Seoul. Key developers at Epic Games include chairman, CEO and technical director Tim Sweeney, and lead programmer Steve Polge. Jerry O'Flaherty was the studio art director from 2003 to 2007. Chris Perna has been the art director since O'Flaherty's departure from the company. Cliff Bleszinski, Epic's design director, announced his departure on October 3, 2012.
Epic Games was founded as Potomac Computer Systems in 1991 by Tim Sweeney in Rockville, Maryland, releasing its flagship product, ZZT, the same year.
During the latter portion of ZZT's life span, Potomac Computer Systems became Epic MegaGames and subsequently released numerous popular shareware games, including Overkill, Tyrian, Epic Pinball, Brix, Dare to Dream, Jill of the Jungle, Kiloblaster, Xargon, Solar Winds, Ken's Labyrinth, Jazz Jackrabbit, Radix: Beyond the Void, and One Must Fall: 2097. During this time, Epic also published and sold games developed by other developers such as those by Safari Software and also XLand's Adventures of Robbo, Heartlight, and Electro Man; and Renaissance's Zone 66.