Epic: We Have Not Abandoned the PC

[Logan Westbrook]

Epic: We Have Not Abandoned the PC

Co-founder Mark Rein says that Epic is more than just Gears of War.

Speaking at the GameHorizon conference in Newcastle, UK, Epic VP Mark Rein said that despite the misconceptions of some, the company was still very much a PC developer.

"I think that it's a myth that we've abandoned the PC, it's just not true," he said. "I mean, Bulletstorm [http://www.gamestop.com/Catalog/ProductDetails.aspx?product_id=77658] is coming out on three platforms; we've just been in this situation where our biggest franchise has been published by a console-holder, and was a very console designed-IP."

"Don't confuse Gears of War [http://www.gamestop.com/Catalog/ProductDetails.aspx?product_id=39213] with everything we do. There's a tendency to think that because we wanna do one thing really, really well and not a hundred things really poorly or just okay that we're less committed. Bulletstorm is PC, PS3 and Xbox 360 and you'll see when it comes out, it will be a full-blown, oh-my-god amazing PC game."

With Epic offering the Unreal Development Kit free to whoever wants it, it's hard to make the case that it isn't supporting the PC platform. It might not be the PC exclusive developer it used to be, but that doesn't mean it's left the PC behind.

Source: Rock, Paper, Shotgun [http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2010/07/01/epic-its-a-myth-that-weve-abandoned-the-pc/]



Permalink

 

[Jack and Calumon]

Epic, I respect you. You make good games, but can you PLEASE release Gears of war 2 and 3 for the PC? That's all I want! You released the first one and now it just feels like your teasing us!

Calumon: Jack doesn't want a 360. Not enough exclusives he wants. : /

 

[Dioxide20]

I think that it's a myth that we've abandoned the PC, it's just not true, he said. I mean, we still develop our games on them.

sigh...

(lol)

 

[Woodsey]

A few months ago, didn't he say the future of PC gaming was in Facebook, and that it's future certainly didn't look anything like Gears of War?

Also, it's not actually the core Epic team that's developing Bulletstorm, so I don't know if that counts or not.

 

[unacomn]

A few months ago, didn't he say the future of PC gaming was in Facebook, and that it's future certainly didn't look anything like Gears of War?

Also, it's not actually the core Epic team that's developing Bulletstorm, so I don't know if that counts or not.

That was actually Mike Capps, his boss. Mark Rein's job at Epic these days mostly consists of retracting any statement Capps and CliffyB make about PC gaming being dead.

And indeed Bulletstorm is made by People Can Fly, a studio that isn't even on the same continent as Epic Games, but they do own the majority of shares.

In truth, Epic Games hasn't abandoned the PC, it uses it for it's own purposes. They won't release a proper UT game for it, but by releasing UDK for free, they made sure that a lot of people know how to work with their tech, people who will eventually be hired by companies, who will then license Unreal tech because their employees know how to use it.
It's sort of like Autodesk did with piracy a few years back.

 

[Woodsey]

A few months ago, didn't he say the future of PC gaming was in Facebook, and that it's future certainly didn't look anything like Gears of War?

Also, it's not actually the core Epic team that's developing Bulletstorm, so I don't know if that counts or not.

That was actually Mike Capps, his boss. Mark Rein's job at Epic these days mostly consists of retracting any statement Capps and CliffyB make about PC gaming being dead.

And indeed Bulletstorm is made by People Can Fly, a studio that isn't even on the same continent as Epic Games, but they do own the majority of shares.

Fair enough, but when your boss is coming out with that shit it's hard to believe anything he has to say.

 

[SonicWaffle]

Epic, I respect you. You make good games, but can you PLEASE release Gears of war 2 and 3 for the PC? That's all I want! You released the first one and now it just feels like your teasing us!

Calumon: Jack doesn't want a 360. Not enough exclusives he wants. : /

I had the second one. Don't worry, you're not missing a lot - play a level or two on a friend's xbox, and you'll essentially have played the entire game. You'd even get to miss the incredibly crappy driving sections!

 

[TheBlackKnight]

I don't know guys.

I for one don't trust Epic as much as I use to when they released Unreal Tournament 3(a hardcore PC franchise to the core that never cough much popularity with the consoles gamers) on all 3 platforms with the PC version suffering horribly because of how much they consolized the game to appeal to a crowd that was never that interested in the franchise in the first place at the expense of the original fans. The horrid servers and the bugs were also a spit into our faces.

Until I see a PC focused Unreal Tournament 4 I won't consider forgiving them either.

Yeah...UT3 did a lot of things not so well. A shame.

 

[blackjaw1]

Didn't CliffyB say the PC was crap and there was no money in it? Honestly, as bad as GoW and UT3 are I don't really mind if they abandon us.

 

[DeadlyYellow]

Don't confuse Gears of War with everything we do.

Whoops!

Perhaps if they tried varying their properties a bit more than just cow-men with guns.

 

[murphy7801]

I think epic forgets that there games are easy and great to mod but you need to make games for people to mod

 

[Abedeus]

Don't confuse Gears of War with everything we do.

Whoops!

Perhaps if they tried varying their properties a bit more than just cow-men with guns.[/quote]

Dude, the last original thing they did was Jack Jazzrabbit: X-Mas Edition...

 

[The Imp]

Yeah right. Epic backpedaling - literally. But if this Bulletstorm comes with ded. servers for online, lan and modsupport via an sdk it might become this "oh-my-god amazing PC game". Until then...

 

[Jared]

They say that, but, saying and doing are two different things. I will admit though GoW on PC would be epic...Need to release 2!

 

[gibboss28]

...Well then release some games that ain't going to be ports for crying out loud. One game thats coming out in 2011 isn't enough in the way of proof. Money where mouth is, etc.

Dude, the last original thing they did was Jack Jazzrabbit: X-Mas Edition...

Ah Jazz Jackrabbit...I might go on a floppy disk hunt just to see if i've still got my old copy of it.

 

[sunburst]

This is seriously sad. It's okay Epic, really. You're hooking up with 360 now and we've come to terms with that. We've moved on. Please stop drunk dialing to tell us how much you care about our friendship. It's over and we'll never get back what we had before. Let it go.

 

[mxfox408]

Epic is so full of crap maybe if they came out and just said that they dont want to bother working on a pc version of gow 2 ratger than give them crap square enix gives, then maybe we can take them at thier word. Hell look at some unreal powered bad ass games(not made by epic fyi) mass effect series, batman arkam asylum and not knowing others. Epic is full of crap and if the ceo wanted to debate this come on out you coward.

 

[Delusibeta]

As a middleware company, they've probably never been more involved in PC gaming. As a game developer, they've abandoned PCs ages ago (no, Bulletstorm doesn't count, as its made by People Can Fly, whom Epic just happens to own).

 

[Valiance]

All I really want is a UT game that's actually better than UT '99. I know that's hard to do, but UT2K4 was excellent, it took everything , changed it around a bit, made it better, prettier, kept the core gameplay, added more movement, and then UT3 was more of a step backwards, and seemed like it tried to cash in on the Gears of War craze.

Whatever happened to it just being a tournament run by Liandri? Why are we fighting aliens all of a sudden? It's UT, not Unreal, right? And why not make it the Skaarj to at least sort of have some tie-in with the old games?

Why was assault mode removed, when some of the most unique gameplay UT had to offer was in Assault mode? Why was the campaign over 60% warfare?

This isn't a review or a ***** list, I just don't why understand these changes took place, since none of them had "fun" in mind.

Epic is a great company, and I've been a fan of them since Kiloblaster. I don't want to see Unreal fall short like it did from Unreal to Unreal 2, and I don't want to see UT fall down like it did from 2K4 to 3. I hope they do more than just make an excellent engine with the Unreal 4 engine, and I hope they make a title game for the old fans that will be fantastic.