Epic Games owns People Can Fly – Video Games Update
Epic Games has revealed today that it had acquired a majority share in the Polish developer famous for the Painkiller games and Bulletstorm, People Can Fly, back in 2007.
This news comes as no surprise to gamers as People Can Fly (PCF) had already collaborated with Epic Games on Bulletstorm and is currently working on the next instalment in the Gears of War series titled Gears of War: Judgment for the Xbox 360 set to be released
in February 2013.
The news of the buyout comes right after the report that three lead employees from PCF have left the company just prior to their sale to Epic Games. The employees who have left include the founder of PCF, Adrian Chmielarz and two lead artists.
Epic Games has stated that the departure of the group was amiable and Epic Games plans to cooperate with Chmielarz for other projects in the future. Mark Rein of Epic Games has stated that PCF was looking for a new project and some cash to keep the company
from going bust and that is where Epic Games stepped in and took them under its wing.
“We hooked them up right away. They did a really cool prototype, awesome art and design," stated Rein. Epic Games had revealed that PCF has been working on the Gears of War games ever since the Polish studio was tasked to bring Gears of War 1 to PC. Now
PCF has finally been given full control of Gears of War: Judgment development.
Some gamers are worried that the departure of the three key personnel from PCF might adversely affect the production of Gears of War Judgment but Mark Rein has assured that it’s not the case. Rein also clarified the departure of Epic’s own Rod Fergusson
to Irrational Games, to work on Bioshock Infinite and stated that Rod was not directly involved in development of Judgment so with him going, there will not be any negative effects.
Does this mean that Epic Games is in control of the Painkiller series now? Gamers everywhere wouldn’t mind the next instalment in the series to be developed using the upcoming Unreal Engine 4. PCF meanwhile is hard at work on the Xbox 360 exclusive Gears
of War: Judgment which comes out in February 2013.
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