Breaking News from PU -Epic buys another Engine

**legacy-Anuban** · 05-12-2005, 01:45 AM

Epic Purchases Reality Engine - Virax -
5/12/05 5:15 PST - General Unreal News
EPIC GAMES PURCHASES REALITY ENGINE™ AND HIRES CHIEF ARCHITECT AND PRIMARY DEVELOPER, TIM JOHNSON
RALEIGH, May 12th, 2005 – Epic Games today announced that it has completed the purchase of the Reality Engine™ from Artificial Studios and hired its founder, and lead engine programmer, Tim Johnson. Tim will join the Unreal Engine 3 development team (effective immediately) and be part of Epic’s presence at the Electronic Entertainment Expo next week.

Epic has purchased the Reality Engine outright, including intellectual property rights, trademarks, and copyrights. Epic does not intend to continue sales, development, or support of the Reality Engine, but will review its technologies for inclusion into Unreal Engine 3. Developers who had purchased Reality Engine licenses prior to this sale will be offered upgrades to Unreal Engine 3 at significantly discounted prices, and should contact licensing@epicgames.com for more details.

&quotI am thrilled about joining the team at Epic Games" said Tim Johnson. &quotI’m a long-time fan of Unreal games and technology, and I am proud to be joining a company I consider to be a world leader in both game development and next generation middleware."

&quotWe’re very excited to have Tim Johnson join Epic Games," said Epic founder and CEO, Tim Sweeney. &quotHe brings six years of engine development experience to the Unreal Engine 3 development team, and he’s already brimming with ideas on how to improve our technology. Tim is a great fit for Epic – he clearly understands all sides of the licensing business, from engineering to customer support to business development. He will have a huge positive impact on our company and our engine licensees."

from http://www.planetunreal.com/
-----------------------------------------------///

This is even more great news for all of us Unreal and Epic fans ... They don't seemed to be worried about capital at all from this move ... always something going on in the business of gaming development. Now UE3 will be even better. WOW!!

**legacy-deathlesslife** · 05-12-2005, 02:31 AM

what is the real engine and what makes it so special?

**legacy-Scartissue** · 05-12-2005, 02:46 AM

Their site has some really nice screenshots.

Some say its buying out the competitor, some say its attractin a talented new force to the unreal team, some say its both.

edit: http://www.artificialstudios.com/compare.php seems like it can be quite useful.

**legacy-Rubberhead** · 05-12-2005, 05:56 AM

Well, the reality engine is another really nice engine.
Nowhere near UE3 tough IMO.
But now Epic bought it, what can I say?
Pwned!

**legacy-Dusk** · 05-12-2005, 12:19 PM

I can see why they bought it, so they can become the number 1 engine companies license for next gen games. But it is a little sad that this happened. I would like to see fierce competition between rivaling engines battling for companies cash, which would inturn give us gamers increasingly good graphics. But whats done is done, and I hope Epic benefits from Tim Johnson's services.

Also news about this purchase has steered me into the direction of Metrognome. A game that uses the Reality Engine and looks incredibly cool.

http://www.tarsier.se/metronome/