An Audience With…Tim Sweeney

The head of Epic Games on how to maintain the biggest game and engine on the planet

- Jen Simpkins

The last few years have been transformative for Epic Games, even by its chameleonic standards. CEO and founder Tim Sweeney saw, in 2012, an industry on the precipice of change, and knew his company needed to change in kind. Fast forward to 2019 and Epic has created, in Fortnite, a true pop-culture phenomenon. Unreal Engine 4 has gone from strength to strength, its power improved off the back of Fortnite, its reach greatly expanded by it going free in 2016. Last year Sweeney and co-launched the Epic Games Store, a PC game marketplace offering the most attractive revenue share in the industry; this year it was followed by Epic Games MegaGrants, a no-strings-attached $100 million investment fund. Sweeney stands out not for his wealth and power, though he has plenty of both. Rather, it’s his apparent intent to use those things to benefit the game industry as a whole, rather than simply his own pockets.

Obviously, it’s a different story today, but a few years ago Epic was in a tricky place. Cliff Bleszinski said that, shortly before he left, you told him where Epic was going and asked him to make a choice: stay or go. What was your vision for the future of Epic then, and how close to it is the company that exists today?

Epic’s gone through generations of strategy and platforms. And as you know, the game industry is a very tough place. Every few years, the platforms change, the business model changes, and companies either change along with it, or they disappear pretty quickly. Prior to all of this, we spent seven years building the