Epic Games, Inc. is an American software and video game company based in Cary, North Carolina. Originally founded in 1991 under the name Potomac Computer Systems, it was renamed into Epic MegaGames, Inc. the following year before rebranding to its current name in 1999. The company was founded by American programmer Tim Sweeney, who serves as its chief-executive officer.
Epic Games is best known for its development of the proprietary game engine Unreal Engine, which since its inception became the most commercially used game engine in the world; as of 2023, the engine saw five iterations with Unreal Engine 5 launching in April 2022. The engine has been used for numerous Sony Interactive Entertainment-published titles, including Days Gone, Concrete Genie, Returnal and Horizon Call of the Mountain. As a game developer, Epic is known for its work on the Unreal and Gears of War franchises, and Fortnite, which became a massive commercial success and a cultural phenomenon for Epic.
In addition to its Unreal Engine technology, Epic also developed the MetaHuman Creator to allow faster creation of in-game character and facial models. Applications of MetaHuman were included into Sony's Decima game engine as of 2022, with games such as Horizon Forbidden West and Death Stranding 2 being early adopters of the technology.
In June 2012, approximately 40% of Epic's shares were acquired by Chinese conglomerate Tencent. In July 2020, Epic received a $250 million investment from Sony Interactive Entertainment, as part of a technological partnership between the two companies.[1] In April 2021, Sony invested another $200 million in Epic Games, which raised its shares in the company to 5%.[2]