Microsoft has been taking a series of steps for a while now to close down the Windows ecosystem. They can't do it all at once, because there would be an industry uproar. But one little step at a time, they're trying to take it all over.
— Tim Sweeney
Epic started out with scripting languages in the first generation of the Unreal engine in 1998. I wrote that. There's a place in my heart that comes along with the simplicity of programming in a scripting language.
I have immense respect for Unity because they played a key role in establishing this indie revolution, empowering a huge number of people to get into game development.
Microsoft's intentions must be judged by Microsoft's actions, not Microsoft's words. Their actions speak plainly enough: they are working to turn today's open-PC ecosystem into a closed, Microsoft-controlled distribution and commerce monopoly.
The awesome thing about 'Fortnite' is it's brought a huge volume of digital commerce to Epic.
'Fortnite' is the same game on all platforms, including high-end consoles and PCs.
First, we want to have a direct relationship with our customers wherever we can. On open platforms like PC and Android, it's possible for them to get the software direct from us. We can be in contact with them and not have a third-party distributor in between.
When you search for Fortnite on iOS, you'll often get PUBG or Minecraft ads. Whoever bought that ad in front of us is the top result when searching for Fortnite. It's just a bad experience. Why not just make the game available direct to users, instead of having the store get between us and our customers and inject all kinds of cruft like that?
Games like 'Fortnite' are way more fun to play with your real-world friends, and they're so accessible that anybody can play.
Games have become a social phenomenon.
Epic has prided itself on providing software directly to customers ever since I started mailing floppy disks in 1991.
We see that as 'Fortnite' evolves, it's evolving beyond being a game.
You can't build an engine that's just good for one type of game anymore. The economics don't work.
I believe AR is going to be the primary platform of the future for both work and entertainment.
I've personally unsubscribed from Netflix twice because I've been frustrated with changes in their catalog.
With Epic MegaGrants, we're reinvesting in all areas of the Unreal Engine development community and also committing to accelerate the open sourcing of content, tools, and knowledge.
When we're building tools, we respect developers' complete creative freedom. It can be used for the development for anything that's legal.
Augmented reality will change the world more than a lot of other technologies. Traveling around to meet people will be much less important when you can stand in a room and chat with a virtual representation of a person that's so close to reality - it'll be a whole new level.
Every application designed for 2D interfaces will be obsoleted by AR.
The thing that excites me most technologically is the ability to use VR not just for games and displaying our content, but also for creating that content. We're putting a lot of thought into what the Unreal Engine editor looks like as a VR application.
Microsoft has built a closed platform-within-a-platform into Windows 10 as the first apparent step towards locking down the consumer PC ecosystem and monopolising app distribution and commerce.
Unity is a kind of engine for the everyman.
When lots of stores compete, the result is a combination of better prices for you, better deals for developers, and more investment in new content and innovation.
If you really care about a game, spending a couple of minutes setting up payment is perfectly reasonable. It's certainly happened with 'Fortnite.'
It turns out that the most powerful use of technology is to connect people together socially.
On open platforms like PC, Mac, and Android, Epic's goal is to bring its games directly to customers.
Fortnite, because of its visual style, it's widely acceptable to just about everyone. It's open up to a much wider audience than a realistic, military-style simulation.
I believe Microsoft has every right to operate a PC app store and to curate it how they choose.
Everyone has friends that are limited to one platform and ecosystem, whereas what we've built with 'Fortnite' is a friends system that works across seven platforms. You can have friends across Xbox and PlayStation and PC.
It's awesome to see other games picking up on battle royale, adding their unique spin to it, and advancing the state of the industry.
Epic Games and Microsoft have been close partners for more than 25 years.
We're a company that's gone through many cycles and evolutions, and every time we have a major success, we double down and use the money from that to fund our initiatives and so forth.
At Epic, we succeed when developers succeed.
I would play games long enough to discover what games were doing and how they were doing it. And then I'd spend the rest of my time building.
The YouTube revolution isn't a revolution in content consumption, although there's a huge number of content consumers. It's about how anybody with a camera or a smartphone can create a video and share it with the whole world.
All signs point to there being many virtual and augmented reality competitors, and not just a single, dominant company.
I've never met a skeptic of VR who has tried it.
If you hire great people, and they're all self-motivated, then you can get by without a lot of structure.
When gamers can play a game together with all of their friends, regardless of the devices they own, you have a much more compelling social experience. That applies to all multiplayer games.
I was really worried about the Windows RT project and these other efforts where Microsoft was creating versions of Windows that would be locked down and could force you to only install software through the Microsoft store.
We're trying to make our software available to users in as economically efficient a way as possible. That means distributing the software directly to them; taking payment through Mastercard, Visa, Paypal, and other options; and not having a store take 30 percent.
As soon as a critical mass of people in the world gained access to devices with high-end graphics and Internet connectivity, the rise of games like 'Fortnite' became inevitable.
We've been happy to be able to work with Sony and Microsoft to have the first game that honors everyone's purchases across iOS, Android, PC, Mac, and the console platforms.
That's the great things about games as social experiences. You play with all your friends across social groups. You see young girls as well as young boys playing. These are kids in school, people in offices, in pubs, all having fun together.
'Fortnite' has, I think, the most positive gamer community that's ever emerged from a game at this scale. I think it's partly because of the great community and partly because of the tone set by the game.
Unreal has to be an engine for everyone who wants to build a major game.
AR is going to play such an infinite role in our lives that we have to establish clear ground rules respecting everyone's rights. That means open platform and open ecosystems and protections that put user privacy first.
Do you remember the first three years of Steam? People absolutely hated that Valve forced you to launch their game through what some people called a virus at the time, which was the Steam client. But Steam led the digital distribution revolution: it was the first across all platforms.
The genre thing is overrated, and the platform decisions are overrated. It's what we see on 'Fortnite': so many of these gamers play on a variety of devices, so you can't say they're a mobile gamer or a console gamer. They're just a gamer.
We'll turn down crappy games that are submitted to the Epic Store.
