Epic Games

Epic Games was founded in 1991 by Tim Sweeney as Potomac Computer Systems, run from his parents' house in Potomac, Maryland. It became Epic MegaGames in 1992 and took its current name after moving to Cary, North Carolina, in 1999. Sweeney remains CEO and controlling shareholder, and Tencent has held a large minority stake since 2012.

Epic makes Fortnite, the Unreal Engine and the Epic Games Store, and publishes Rocket League and Fall Guys; earlier it built the Unreal and Gears of War series. Unreal Engine is used for games and increasingly for film, television, architecture and automotive visualisation, next to Epic Online Services, MetaHuman, Quixel and RealityScan.

The company is private and works as a network of studios in North America, Europe and Asia-Pacific, including Psyonix in San Diego, Harmonix in Boston, Mediatonic in London and teams in Montreal, Stockholm, Berlin, Seoul, Yokohama and Shanghai. After layoffs announced in March 2026 it has more than 4,000 employees. Unreal Engine is written in C++, with Blueprints visual scripting and its full source code available on GitHub.