Epic Games is "Targeting the PC Again"

Brian Albert

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Aug 5, 2011
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Epic Games is "Targeting the PC Again"



Epic Games president Mike Capps says five new games are coming, but don't expect blockbusters like Gears of War.

With all the news erupting out of Gamescom 2011, it's easy to forget that GDC Europe is happening concurrently. Mike Capps, president of Epic Games, spoke at the convention, teasing new titles coming down the studio's pipeline.

Capps revealed no specifics, though he did speak vaguely about the size of the projects. He also added that he was "glad to be targeting the PC again as a primary platform, and not just for ports."

"At Epic we didn't multiply the studio size by five when we started working on these multiple projects, so you can make some assumptions about the size of those projects," Capps said.

This shouldn't be a cause for alarm, however. Through successful titles like Shadow Complex for XBLA and Infinity Blade for iOS, Epic has already proved it can thrive outside of a AAA environment.

Capps added this switch to smaller-sized games is necessary to counter the heightened risk level of modern game development.

"Everyone knows the middle class is disappearing from the console business. Gears of War, I hope will do really well, but a pretty good game doesn't make its money back anymore," Capps said. "A game like Homefront sells a couple of million copies and they close the studio, right? That's not enough anymore. That's pretty depressing. You don't want to see what happens to an industry where it's Call of Duty, Halo and Gears and no-one else has enough money to make any games anymore. That's not a fun industry."

"I can't bet my entire company every time I make a game," Capps concluded. "That's a really dangerous business."

Source: <a href=http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2011-08-16-epic-were-working-on-five-new-games>Gamesindustry


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Apr 28, 2008
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Really? You mean your not making money by making games in an over-crowded/saturated genre with stupidly high budgets?

NO WAY!
 

Zyst

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Jan 15, 2010
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Irridium said:
Really? You mean your not making money by making games in an over-crowded/saturated genre with stupidly high budgets?

NO WAY!
Such a surprise right? No way to guess that making multi-million budget games in such a stale environment is a gamble.
 

UnderCoverGuest

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May 24, 2010
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Whoo...hoo? I guess?

It's sort of like your most beloved pet suddenly running away to hang out with the guy you hate at work for a year or two, eventually hopping back over to you acting all lovable and expecting treats.

You do remember, don't you Epic games, that you canceled the release of Gears of War 2 and 3 on PC, even though you gave us the first game, right? You sure as hell aren't getting any doggy biscuits from me any time soon.
 
Feb 13, 2008
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Epic have come back to the PC, possibly after Microsoft failed to buy them [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/81525-Microsoft-to-Acquire-Epic-Games], again after hinting MLP? games [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/112144-Epics-Got-A-New-Unannounced-IP-In-The-Works] and making phone games? [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/111683-Epic-Customers-Want-Great-6-Mobile-Games]

Given the Unreal Engine [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/109302-Epic-Takes-Newbie-Game-Designers-to-School] is still in use, guys, why don't you just try and improve on that to beat the Source engine?

Especially given people tried to sue you for misrepresentation [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/108891-Silicon-Knights-Keeps-Up-the-Fight-Against-Epic] of it's capabilities?

Because Bulletstorm was a pile of rancid chesthigh gunporn.
 

Zhukov

The Laughing Arsehole
Dec 29, 2009
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Oh hey, so we might be getting Gear of War 3 on the...?

Oh.

...

Well, never fucking mind then.
 

TheDooD

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Dec 23, 2010
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Zyst said:
Irridium said:
Really? You mean your not making money by making games in an over-crowded/saturated genre with stupidly high budgets?

NO WAY!
Such a surprise right? No way to guess that making multi-million budget games in such a stale environment is a gamble.
So I guess Epic stopped listening to CliffyB and decided they wanted to make money who you have thunk it.
 

teh_Canape

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May 18, 2010
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The_root_of_all_evil said:
Because Bulletstorm was a pile of rancid chesthigh gunporn.
not even the good kind, like Black

OT: Epic, bros, listen

Jazz Jackrabbit HD for PC exclusive and another Unreal (canon, not Tournament) game

you will be wiping your asses with money

or at least start making decent ports
 

ph0b0s123

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Jul 7, 2010
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"We want to target PC's again, with new IP's."

Translation:

"Our engine is getting a bit dated and their are new consoles round the corner, so we had better get polishing, and where better to do that. Also we have new IP's we want to try out and we don't want to pay Microsoft / Sony / Nintendo licensing fee's until we know if the ip's will be popular or not."

This is about standard, then when the IP's get a good reputation and new consoles come out, they get moved to being primarily console focused. Yeah, been round that merry go round a few times now. Not biting.
 

TheHecatomb

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May 7, 2008
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I wish Epic would just bloody get it over with and finished what they started. Seriously, releasing Gears of War 1 on the PC but refusing to give us the rest of the series? Just pathetic in every way.
 

JeanLuc761

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Sep 22, 2009
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UnderCoverGuest said:
You do remember, don't you Epic games, that you canceled the release of Gears of War 2 and 3 on PC, even though you gave us the first game, right? You sure as hell aren't getting any doggy biscuits from me any time soon.
This is pretty much where I stand as well. I was okay with Unreal Tournament 3 not being as jaw-droppingly amazing as UT2004 was, and I loved the special treatment the PC got for Gears of War PC...but to cancel the rest of the trilogy on PC and force everyone to buy an Xbox to see the rest of the story made me lose faith.
 

Woodsey

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Aug 9, 2009
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Epic Games is, "probably lying again."

In spite of it making them, no one from that studio shows anything but contempt for the platform anymore. So I'll believe it when I see it.
 

barash

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Mar 29, 2010
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So, previously the same nob was all "boohoo there's no money in the pc market because there's piracy so screw the pc as a platform", and now it's all "pc is teh bestest and we always loved you"? Fuck him and fuck Epic.
 

Abedeus

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Sep 14, 2008
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I read it as "We milked the consoles as much as we could, and we might as well throw some scrap at PC gamers to get some of their money. Or not. Whatever, those games will cost maybe 1/100th of the console games' budget".
 

Waaghpowa

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Apr 13, 2010
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TheDooD said:
Zyst said:
Irridium said:
Really? You mean your not making money by making games in an over-crowded/saturated genre with stupidly high budgets?

NO WAY!
Such a surprise right? No way to guess that making multi-million budget games in such a stale environment is a gamble.
So I guess Epic stopped listening to CliffyB and decided they wanted to make money who you have thunk it.

My thought was that after CliffyB swore up and down that they were stopping PC support because of piracy, he shut the hell up after Gears of War 3 leaked to torrent sites 2 months early, and figured it's no worse than the consoles.

Brian Albert said:
Epic Games president Mike Capps says five new games are coming, but don't expect blockbusters like Gears of War.
So that means we're going to actually get a good game?
 

Lord_Gremlin

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Apr 10, 2009
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Well, as long as I can get new Killzone and Mortal Kombat games it's fine. And maybe Radek with his knife in new Mortal Kombat.
I'm not sure though if he's right that no middle class games make money anymore. I bet some do, but in case of Homefront game's budget was quite large, not to mention extensive marketing.
Another thing is that Gears of War is just not as good as he want it to be. Videos of part 3 actually shocked me: they actually copied enemies from Quantum Theory? WHAT? Anyone who seen 20 min dev walkthrough of Gears 3 and familiar with Quantum Theory knows what I'm talking about.
I must admit I'd like to see a new UT game, maybe a proper SP campaign for it too.
 

Treblaine

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Jul 25, 2008
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As much as I appreciate the attention... does anyone really care about Epic any more?

They burned a LOT of bridges with Gears of War 2 refusing to port it to PC with such catty comments from Cliff Blezinsky on PC priacy.

Made even worse by buying up PC darling like PCF and having them churn out bilge like Bulletstorm.

3 years we have been waiting for Gears of War 3, and it seems that it was arbitrarily delayed an entire 12 months. Realise for 360 when Gears 3 is release it will mark and entire year that has gone by without 360 having a single solitary exclusive game. But no one really cares about Gears 3.

I'm much more interested in the developer staff who jumped ship from People Can Fly to form Flying Wild Hog studios and REALLY ARE committed to PC with their recently announced game; Hard Reset.

Cliff Blezinsky dissed PC back in 2008 saying the piracy made it uninvestable, now Gears of War 3 has been leaked it is ALL over the torrents sites with strong seeds and the word on the net is that it is a faithful crack. Xbox 360, pirated to hell.

Maybe that has changed their tune on PC as it turns out all we said was right, piracy can hit consoles just as hard. Actually, Gears 1 was not pirated MONTHS before release! So Epic are suffering worse with Xbox 360.

Really what the hell has Epic got?

If they want to port Gears 3 to PC, that I might be interested in (porting is the job of a small team) or Shadow Complex.

But mostly I want them to bring back an real Unreal Tournament game fit for the 2010's not just a reskin of 1990's game. Do something special, interesting and innovative.
 

MonkeyPunch

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Feb 20, 2008
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I'm not the most objective person to talk to on this subject since I was an avid Epic fan back in the day playing Unreal, UT, UT 2k and working a lot with their engine making mods etc.

When they went console and only gave the PC ports (this includes UT3) I felt quite let down for being on the system which made them great and then just to be abandoned and treated like second class citizens.

I really hope for future PC-centric games from them... just that it feels like they're defaulting back to the platform. Which leaves a funny taste in my mouth.

Post #19 [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/jump/7.307553.12393692] has a lot of points concerning statements and actions which Epic made and which did anger the PC community. In fact he's missing some, but suffice to say that a fair few of the PC gaming community needs a little buttering up before they will be excited about Epic products once again. I know I'm one of them.