1970
Tim Sweeney, founder and CEO of Epic Games, was born in 1970 in Potomac, Maryland.
“He was born in the year 1970 in Potomac, Maryland.”
Topic
Epic Games
16 facts from 2 episodes, in date order. These are what speakers said on the shows, each linked to the moment it was said. They aren't independently verified.
1998
Epic released Unreal in 1998 after about five years of work, alongside the public launch of the Unreal Engine for other developers.
“So finally, after just about five years of working on this in 1998, Unreal comes out and along with the official unveiling of the Unreal Engine for game developers”
2010
In September 2010 Epic demonstrated Unreal Engine 3 running on iOS during an Apple keynote.
“Epic demoed on stage at an Apple keynote”
2012
In 2012, Epic Games sold equity for the first time, with Tencent buying a 40% stake for 330 million dollars.
“agrees in 2012 for the first time ever to sell any equity in Epic games.”
2014
Epic sold the Gears of War franchise to Microsoft in early 2014 as part of exiting the console game business.
“sell the Gears of War franchise to Microsoft. So they do that in early 2014.”
2015
In March 2015 Epic made the Unreal Engine free to use and began charging a 5% royalty on revenue from games published with it.
“And instead, the business model is switched to a 5% royalty on revenue that you would earn on your games after publishing.”
2017
Epic launched Fortnite Battle Royale in September 2017, and it reached 10 million active players within two weeks.
“They ship it in September 2017. Within two weeks, they get 10 million active players.”
2018
In October 2018 Epic raised 1.25 billion dollars from KKR, Disney and other investors at a 15 billion dollar valuation.
“Epic raises their first non-strategic capital raise. They raised one and a quarter billion dollars from KKR, Disney, and several other investors at a $15 billion valuation.”
2018
The Epic Games Store launched in December 2018 with a 12% revenue cut, and games built on Unreal Engine paid no separate 5% royalty on top.
“if you build your game on the Unreal Engine, the 5% revenue fee gets baked into the 12%.”
2018
Ben Gilbert calculates that Tencent's 330 million dollar stake in Epic was worth about 5.4 billion dollars at the 2018 valuation.
“That's now worth $5.4 billion if I did my dilution math right there.”
2018
The hosts say Epic had 5.6 billion dollars in revenue in 2018, about 3 billion dollars of it profit.
“they did $5.6 billion in revenue, $3 billion of which was profit.”
2020
On August 13, 2020, Epic pushed a Fortnite update offering a discount on V-Bucks for direct purchases, after which Apple and Google removed the game from their stores.
“finally on August 13th, 2020 Epic pushes a new version of Fortnite to the iOS app store”
Undated
Sweeney recruited Mark Ryan, formerly president of id Software, to lead distribution and publishing at Epic after Ryan fell out with Carmack and Romero.
“you can be our head of distribution and publishing”
Undated
Epic earned about 100 million dollars of revenue from the first Gears of War at a cost of about 12 million dollars, with Microsoft handling much of the marketing.
“Epic ends up making $100 million of revenue on Gears of War. It cost them $12 million.”
Undated
On Gears of War 2 and 3, the hosts say Epic's margins fell to roughly 30-40% as development and marketing capital needs grew.
“their margins end up shrinking significantly down to like 30, 40%”
Undated
Mitch Lasky says Tencent owned 49% of Epic Games and 51% of Riot Games, later taking full ownership of Riot.
“They owned 49% of Epic. They owned 51% of Riot, now 100% of Riot.”
Episodes