Epic has always been in the business of seeing the future. Nowadays, however, the situation is a little more complicated than that. “It’s kind of a scam,” smiles CEO and founder Tim Sweeney, “because while we’re predicting the future, we’re actually secretly building it in the background so that our predictions are right.” It’s a comment that succinctly describes just how influential a force in the videogame industry Epic has become, especially over the last few years. Epic has always been a big player, particularly in terms of tech: the cover of E251 featured Unreal Engine 4, whose graphical capabilities and accessible tools – not to mention its competitive pricing scheme – quickly made it one of the cornerstones of the creation of a new generation of games. Now, its maker has positioned itself at the forefront of the next one.
Still, back in 2012, Epic was really going through it. In the very same year Unreal Engine 4 was announced, the company revealed that it was to be part-acquired by Chinese multinational conglomerate Tencent. Epic had revealed a trailer for a small side-project called Fortnite the previous year, and the team was starting to realise that the planned series of updates to evolve the game might be best suited to a free-to-play model – and that it was this model that was the future of success in the videogame industry. If anyone knew how to make that kind of thing work, it was Tencent, the world’s number one operator of live games.
この記事は Edge の August 2020 版に掲載されています。
7 日間の Magzter GOLD 無料トライアルを開始して、何千もの厳選されたプレミアム ストーリー、9,000 以上の雑誌や新聞にアクセスしてください。
すでに購読者です ? サインイン
この記事は Edge の August 2020 版に掲載されています。
7 日間の Magzter GOLD 無料トライアルを開始して、何千もの厳選されたプレミアム ストーリー、9,000 以上の雑誌や新聞にアクセスしてください。
すでに購読者です? サインイン
BONAPARTE: A MECHANIZED REVOLUTION
No sooner have we stepped into the boots of royal guard Bonaparte than we’re faced with a life-altering decision.
TOWERS OF AGHASBA
Watch Towers Of Aghasba in action and it feels vast. Given your activities range from deepwater dives to climbing up cliffs or lumbering beasts, and from nurturing plants or building settlements to pinging arrows at the undead, it’s hard to get a bead on the game’s limits.
THE STONE OF MADNESS
The makers of Blasphemous return to religion and insanity
Vampire Survivors
As Vampire Survivors expanded through early access and then its two first DLCs, it gained arenas, characters and weapons, but the formula remained unchanged.
Devil May Cry
The Resident Evil 4 that never was, and the Soulslike precursor we never saw coming
Dragon Age: The Veilguard
With Dragon Age: The Veilguard, BioWare has made a deeply self-conscious game, visibly inspired by some of the best-loved ideas from Dragon Age and Mass Effect.
SKATE STORY
Hades is a halfpipe
SID MEIER'S CIVILIZATION VII
Firaxis rethinks who makes history, and how it unfolds
FINAL FANTASY VII: REBIRTH
Remaking an iconic game was daunting enough then the developers faced the difficult second entry
THUNDER LOTUS
How Spirit farer's developer tripled in size without tearing itself apart