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133-438: Gears of War is a media franchise centered on a series of video games created by Epic Games , developed and managed by The Coalition , and owned and published by Xbox Game Studios . The franchise is best known for its third-person shooter video games, which has been supplemented by spin-off video game titles, a DC comic book series, eight novels, a board game adaptation and various merchandise. The original trilogy focuses on

266-563: A $ 1.5 billion investment from The Walt Disney Company . Pending regulatory approval, Disney will acquire a 9% stake. Disney plans to co-develop new games and an "entertainment universe" encompassing its properties with Epic. Part of this involved bringing more of the Disney properties to Fortnite ; while Fortnite had already featured numerous cosmetics based on Marvel Comics and Star Wars , Disney announced new plans to bring its classic animated characters and those from Pixar properties to

399-462: A commercially available game engine which also powers its internally developed video games like Fortnite and the Unreal , Gears of War , and Infinity Blade series. In 2014, Unreal Engine was named the "most successful videogame engine" by Guinness World Records . Epic Games owns the game developers Psyonix , Mediatonic , and Harmonix , and operates studios in multiple locations around

532-918: A digital replica of their likeness. Epic launched Fab, a unified marketplace for Unreal Engine Marketplace, Sketchfab, AetStation Marketplace, and Quixel assets, on October 22, 2024. In 2008, Epic acquired Utah based Chair Entertainment , developer of Undertow . Summer 2009 saw the launch of Chair's Shadow Complex , an adventure game inspired by the Metroid series. Epic announced in October 2018 that it had acquired $ 1.25 billion in investment from seven firms: KKR , ICONIQ Capital , Smash Ventures, aXiomatic , Vulcan Capital , Kleiner Perkins , and Lightspeed Venture Partners . The firms join Tencent, Disney, and Endeavor as minority shareholders in Epic. With

665-714: A dispute between Improbable and Unity Technologies over changes to the acceptable uses of the Unity game engine, Epic announced it was partnering with Improbable to launch a $ 25 million fund to help bring developers they believe affected by these changes towards solutions that are more open and would have fewer service compatibilities. Epic launched a $ 100 million prize pool in February 2019 for Fortnite -related esports activities that it plans to run from 2019 onward. To expand its esports initiatives, Epic Games hired Nate Nanzer from Blizzard Entertainment and their commissioner of

798-416: A fourth main title for Gears of War , but estimated that its budget would be at least $ 100 million . Additionally, they had suggested the idea of a multiplayer-only version of Gears of War that featured improved versions of maps based on user feedback, similar to the concept behind Unreal Tournament , but Microsoft rejected this idea. Epic recognized the troubles of being held to the business objectives of

931-500: A free add-on into the Unreal Engine. In April 2021, Epic completed another $ 1 billion round of funding to support the company's "long-term vision for the metaverse ", putting the company's valuation at $ 28.7 billion . The round of funding included another $ 200 million strategic investment from Sony. Sweeney remains the controlling shareholder with these additional investments. The Information reported that Epic Games

1064-691: A full free-to-play release expected in 2018. Following on the popularity of PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds , a battle royale game released earlier in 2017, Epic developed a variant of Fortnite called Fortnite Battle Royale , which was released in September 2017 as a free-to-play title across computer, console, and mobile platforms. Fortnite Battle Royale quickly gained an audience, amassing over 125 million players by May 2018 with estimates of having earned over $ 1 billion by July 2018 through microtransactions, including its battle pass system. Epic Games, which had been valued at around $ 825 million at

1197-699: A last-ditch offensive to destroy the Locust by detonating the Lightmass Bomb in their tunnels. Marcus is reinstated into the COG army to supplement their depleted ranks and joins Dominic Santiago in Delta Squad on a mission to map the Locust tunnel network in preparation for the bombing. Their unit is ambushed by Locust forces and sustain heavy casualties. Fenix is repromoted to Sergeant and leads Delta with two other soldiers, Augustus Cole and Damon Baird . While

1330-458: A marked zone on the map. In the mode "Guardian" (only in Gears of War 2 ) one member of each team is designated as the leader. As long as the leader is still alive, their teammates can respawn indefinitely. As soon as the leader is executed, their teammates can no longer respawn. Gears of War is a third-person shooter video game developed by Epic Games and published by Microsoft Studios . It

1463-780: A method to infiltrate and destroy the Swarm's hives from within as seen in the "Escape" multiplayer mode of Gears 5 . Gears of War: E-Day is an upcoming prequel set 14 years before the events of Gears of War . The game was officially announced on June 9, 2024, during the Xbox Games Showcase by Microsoft Gaming at the Summer Game Fest . Gears of War: Judgment is a spin-off/prequel, released on March 19, 2013. The characters include Baird, accompanied by Augustus "Cole Train" Cole and two new characters, Garron Paduk and Sofia Hendrik, who make up Kilo Squad. Kilo Squad

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1596-583: A military unit led by Sgt. Gabriel Diaz, who would later become Kait's father. Characters from the Gears of War series have made guest appearances in games outside of the Gears of War franchise. Marcus Fenix and Dominic Santiago are playable in the Xbox 360 version of Lost Planet 2 . General RAAM was announced as a playable character in Killer Instinct: Season Three during Microsoft's E3 2016 press conference on June 13, 2016, and

1729-564: A miniature figure pre-painted in light gray). These are controlled by an AI deck of cards: after each player finishes their turn, they draw a card from the AI deck and takes actions for each Locust creature. Players play cards and roll dice to take actions as well as to resolve shooting and defense. The game proceeds until the player team successfully completes the mission. There are seven different missions, each featuring different objectives and enemies in randomly generated map layouts. Since its launch,

1862-518: A missile strike against the Locust Horde. Fenix retains his role throughout the trilogy, where he plays a pivotal role in humanity's conflict against the Locust Horde. He cripples the Locust Horde in Gears of War 2 by flooding their subterranean civilization. In Gears of War 3 , Fenix discovers his father is alive and has developed a weapon that will destroy the Locust Horde and a new threat,

1995-595: A move which Sweeney called the start of the third major iteration of the company, "Epic 3.0". In 2006, Epic released the Xbox 360 shooter Gears of War , which became a commercial success for the company, grossing about $ 100 million off a $ 12 million budget. A year later, the company released Unreal Tournament 3 for PC and acquired a majority share in People Can Fly . In 2008, Epic Games released Gears of War 2 , selling over three million copies within

2128-519: A name which incorporated "Epic" and "Mega" to make it sound like it represented a fairly large company (such as Apogee Software), although he was its only employee. Sweeney soon underwent searching for a business partner, and eventually caught up with Mark Rein , who previously quit his job at id Software and moved to Toronto , Ontario . Rein worked remotely from Toronto, and primarily handled sales, marketing and publishing deals; business development that Sweeney found to have significantly contributed to

2261-499: A naturally occurring substance that can be refined into a potent energy source. Imulsion solves Sera's energy crisis but ultimately creates great economic disparity as nations with direct access to Imulsion prosper, while other nations fall into financial turmoil. Sera's citizens balkanize into two warring factions: the Coalition of Ordered Governments (COG) and Union of Independent Republics (UIR). The ensuing 79-year strife, known as

2394-483: A new location in Cary, North Carolina , and would henceforth be known as simply Epic Games. Rein explained that " Unreal was first created by developers who were scattered across the world, eventually, the team came together to finish the game and that's when the real magic started. The move to North Carolina centralizes Epic, bringing all of the company's talented developers under one roof." Furthermore, Sweeney stated that

2527-421: A popular character and has been voted as the 19th top video game character of all time by the readers of Guinness World Records Gamer's Edition in 2011. In a poll conducted by Game Informer , Fenix was voted as the tenth best character of the decade. In 2009, GameSpot featured Marcus as one of the 64 characters in the "Greatest Game Hero" poll, in which he lost to Duke Nukem . The Age ranked him as

2660-496: A potential solution for ending the Swarm by having soldiers infiltrate their hives and planting venom bombs to take down all the Swarm connected. They are successful in infiltrating and destroying the Swarm hive. Although it fails to kill all the Swarm, it's an advantage the COG has in the war against them. Gears Tactics takes place a year after E-Day. Sgt. Gabriel Diaz, Kait's father and Oscar's brother, and Major Sid Redburn are tasked with assassinating Locust scientist, Ukkon, who

2793-609: A publisher and began to shift the company again. Coupled with their desire to move away from being beholden to a publisher, Epic Games observed that the video game industry was shifting to a games-as-a-service model (GaaS). Sweeney stated, "There was an increasing realization that the old model wasn't working anymore and that the new model was looking increasingly like the way to go." In an attempt to gain more GaaS experience, they made an agreement with Chinese Tencent , who had several games under their banner (including Riot Games ' League of Legends ) operating successfully as games as

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2926-594: A remastered version of Shadow Complex for newer consoles and computers in 2015, and their first foray into virtual reality with the release of Robo Recall for the Oculus Rift . The investment infusion from Tencent allowed Epic Games to relicense the Unreal Engine 4 engine in March 2015 to be free for all users to develop with, with Epic taking 5% royalties on games developed with the engine. In June 2015, Epic agreed to allow Epic Games Poland's departure from

3059-526: A respiratory condition known as Rustlung, caused by the inhalation of Imulsion evaporated by the bombings. The Locust reemerge and bring with them a force that can sink entire cities on the Jacinto Plateau. After the destruction of Tollen and Montevado, the COG fears the Locust are trying to destroy Jacinto. Threatened with extinction, COG leader Chairman Richard Prescott devises Operation: Hollow Storm, in which thousands of soldiers will be deployed into

3192-566: A secret lab in Mount Kadar where the scientists fled. Kait learns the Locust were the result of genetic experiments on human children sick with Rustlung and mutated with the DNA of creatures from the Hollow. The Sires were used to fertilize the stem cells of Myrrah, who was genetically immune to Imulsion. Myrrah was Reyna's mother, making Kait the next in line for queen. Kait disconnects herself from

3325-484: A service following these departures. Fortnite was to serve as their testbed for living games, but with the shifts in staff, and its engine from Unreal Engine 3 to 4, its release suffered some setbacks. Epic started additional projects; the free-to-play and community-developed Unreal Tournament , first announced in 2014, and the free-to-play multiplayer online battle arena game Paragon , launched in 2016 for Microsoft Windows and PlayStation 4 . Epic also released

3458-539: A service. In exchange for Tencent's help, Tencent acquired approximately 48.4% of Epic then issued share capital, equating to 40% of total Epic – inclusive of both stock and employee stock options, for $ 330 million in June 2012. Tencent Holdings has the right to nominate directors to the board of Epic Games and thus counts as an associate of the Group. However, Sweeney stated that Tencent otherwise has very little control on

3591-418: A specific type (Fragmentation, Smoke, Ink and Incendiary), and one pistol-type weapon. Players can either obtain ammo or swap out their current weapons with any weapon dropped by a downed foe or from those scattered around the various maps. Most weapons feature the "Active Reload" ability: either after a weapon has depleted an ammo magazine or when the player starts a manual reload, a meter is shown on screen, and

3724-436: A studio that provides highly detailed digital facial animations for both films and video games, in March 2020. Epic acquired SuperAwesome, a firm that has developed services to support children-safe games and services around games, in September 2020, as to incorporate these elements more into Epic's portfolio and to offer to other developers, particularly for games built around Epic's vision of metaverse games. Epic acquired

3857-425: A teammate; depending on game mode, the player may be able to recover from this state on their own, or may die after a short amount of time if not revived. When a combatant is down, a member of the other side may attempt to execute the downed player via a "curb stomp" or other brutal methods. Some types of damage will immediately kill the player with no chance of revival, such as explosive damage. There are five levels on

3990-516: A three-way conflict between humanity, the Locust Horde and their mutated counterparts, the Lambent. Gears of War: Judgment , a spin-off prequel to the series' first title, was released in 2013; it focuses on Damon Baird , one of Fenix's squad-mates. Gears of War: Ultimate Edition was released for the Xbox One and Microsoft Windows between August 2015 to March 2016. The fourth installment in

4123-460: A user's country. Across July and August, Epic raised an additional $ 1.78 billion in capital investment, bringing the company's post-money equity valuation to $ 17.3 billion . This included a $ 250 million investment from Sony , approximately a 1.4% stake in the company. The deal continues the two companies' technology collaboration after they had worked together on the development of Unreal Engine 5, but does not commit Epic to any exclusivity to

Gears of War - Misplaced Pages Continue

4256-526: A young recruit of Delta Squad who made an appearance in Gears of War 3 and Michael Barrick, a solo Gear found by Delta. The arc was 6 issues long and ended in May 2009. Two stand-alone comic book series were released. Issue 7, "The Quickening", followed the life of Tai Kaliso from his home in the South Islands to the torture den of the Locust Horde. This was released on June 9, 2009. The second stand-alone

4389-414: Is a convict who is reinstated into the Coalition of Ordered Governments' (COG) military to assist a last-ditch mission to destroy the Locust Horde. Fenix led a famed military career in the COG's previous conflicts, but was arrested after leading a failed unauthorized mission to rescue his father, Adam. Fenix joins his close friend, Dom Santiago, in Delta Squad as they succeed in helping the COG military deploy

4522-477: Is able to start rebuilding. Gears of War: RAAM's Shadow is set nine years after E-Day, shortly before the Locust invade Ephyra. High General RAAM leads a siege against Ilima City to use as a stepping stone in reaching Ephyra. Zeta Squad is ordered to locate and rescue civilians for evacuation before RAAM's forces occupy the city. The occupation of Ilima is successful and leads to the Locust taking Ephyra. Gears of War: Judgment focuses on Baird and Cole during

4655-594: Is ambushed by creatures called the Swarm. Reyna and the other villagers are captured. With JD, Kait, and Del left - they recruit Marcus to save their people. The COG pursues the group after erroneously believing they are behind a string of kidnappings. The four reach a Locust burial site where they learn the Imulsion countermeasure caused the Locust to evolve into the Swarm and have been capturing humans to transform them into soldiers for their new army. The group receives assistance from Baird and Cole as they battle their way to

4788-415: Is an Xbox One and Windows 10 game developed by The Coalition and released on October 11, 2016. The game's plot is set 25 years after Gears of War 3 and focuses on JD Fenix , the son of Marcus Fenix , who joins his father and two new characters: Delmont "Del" Walker and Kait Diaz against the "Swarm", a new threat risen from the remnants of the Locust. Gears 5 is a sequel to Gears of War 4 . It

4921-499: Is inefficient at long distances, it is a popular weapon of choice at close-quarters as it is small and easy to aim, making it exceptionally useful for close-range combat. The Gnasher Shotgun, like many other weapons, can be used to bash opponents in melee, or in the case of grenades, can be stuck to a foe, exploding a few seconds later. In Gears of War 2 and Gears of War 3 , all four types of grenades can be planted on any reachable surface, detonating when an opponent comes close to it. If

5054-502: Is known for its "digital human" creations, using a combination of digital technology, motion capture, and other tools to create photo-realistic human subjects in real-time. Epic plans to add some of 3Lateral's features to the Unreal Engine. Agog had developed SkookumScript, a platform for scripting events in video games; on the announcement of this acquisition, Agog stated they will stop the development of SkookumScript to work more on Unreal Engine scripting support. Epic acquired Psyonix ,

5187-418: Is physically immortal by regenerating any damage done to him. Redburn reveals he was a guard at New Hope and was responsible for creating the Locust and Ukkon. Redburn is able to replicate the chemical New Hope used to counteract Ukkon's healing as a fail-safe. Diaz liberates a Locust prison camp and rescues Reyna, Kait's mother, from Ukkon's capture. Using the chemical, Reyna kills Ukkon. Diaz and Redburn abandon

5320-424: Is put on trial by another new character, Ezra Loomis. Gears Pop! was a spin-off for mobile devices based on Funko 's POP! toyline and released on August 22, 2019. However, the game was eventually discontinued on April 26, 2021. Gears Tactics is a turn-based strategy spin-off for Xbox One and Windows, developed by Splash Damage and released on April 28, 2020. Set before the events of the first game, it follows

5453-546: Is revealed that Adam knew of the Locust before E-Day and worked with Myrrah to solve the Lambent problem so the Locust wouldn't invade the surface, but was unable to provide a solution for them in time. Delta manages to locate Azura, liberate Adam, and release his countermeasure. Adam is killed by the radiation wave as he was exposed to Imulsion while developing the weapon. The countermeasure vaporizes all Lambent organisms, including Adam. The Locust are instead crystallized in an impenetrable shell. Marcus kills Queen Myrrah and humanity

Gears of War - Misplaced Pages Continue

5586-436: Is set three years after Jacinto's sinking. Prescott returns to the COG and reveals to Marcus that Adam Fenix is alive. After the helicopter crash, Adam was rescued and brought to a secret island facility called Azura where he has been working the past seven years on the Imulsion countermeasure, a targeted radiation weapon which will neutralize both the Lambent and Locust. The island was sieged by Queen Myrrah's remaining forces. It

5719-535: The Epic Games Store . As of April 2022, the company has a US$ 32 billion equity valuation. Potomac Computer Systems was founded by Tim Sweeney in 1991. At the time, Sweeney was studying mechanical engineering and living in a dorm at the University of Maryland . He frequently visited his parents, who lived in nearby Potomac, Maryland , where his personal computer , used for both work and leisure,

5852-590: The Hollywood Professional Association . Epic announced in March 2020 it was establishing a new multi-platform publishing label, Epic Games Publishing. Alongside this, the label had announced three deals with developers Remedy Entertainment , Playdead and GenDesign in which Epic would fully fund development and publishing (including employee salaries, quality assurance, localization, and marketing) of one or more games from each studio, but leaving full creative control and IP rights to

5985-470: The Overwatch League in May 2019. At the 2019 Game Developers Conference , Epic announced it was launching a $ 100 million MegaGrants initiative, allowing anyone to apply for up to $ 500,000 in funding to support game development using the Unreal Engine or for any project, even if not directly games-related, that would benefit the Unreal Engine. One of the first major funded entities under this

6118-535: The Unreal game engine . Tripwire Interactive won US$ 80,000 in cash and computer hardware prizes over the course of the contest in the first contest in 2004. Around 2006, the personal computer video game market was struggling with copyright infringement in the form of software piracy, and it became difficult to make single-player games, elements that had been part of Epic's business model to that point. The company decided to shift focus into developing console systems,

6251-497: The Xbox One and Microsoft Windows by The Coalition , after Microsoft acquired the rights to the Gears of War franchise from Epic Games in 2014. Gears of War 2 is a third-person shooter video game published by Microsoft Studios . It is the sequel to Gears of War and was released worldwide on November 7, 2008. The game uses a heavily upgraded version of the Unreal Engine 3 . Gears of War 2 takes place 6 months after

6384-505: The Xbox One and Windows 10 . A sequel, Gears 5 , was released in September 2019. All six installments in Gears of War featured several multiplayer modes that allowed players to compete against each other or team-up to battle AI opponents on Xbox Live . Gears of War became one of the best-selling franchises for the Xbox 360. The series puts emphasis on cover-based combat, in which players can use objects to avoid gunfire or safely engage enemies. The Gears of War games have been amongst

6517-511: The "Mega" part of the name was dropped because they no longer wanted to pretend to be a big company, as was the original intention of the name when it was a one-man team. The follow-up game, Unreal Tournament , shipped to critical acclaim the same year, at which point the studio had 13 employees. The company launched the Make Something Unreal competition in 2004, aiming to reward video game developers who create mods using

6650-481: The COG after Prescott tries to kill them for learning about New Hope. Reyna joins them in their hunt of Ukkon's creations. Gears of War: E-Day takes place fourteen years before the first game on Emergence Day, the day on which the Locust Horde emerged on the surface of Sera to war against humanity, and follows Marcus Fenix and Dominic Santiago. Gears of War is a third-person shooter game, with its core concepts being derived from Resident Evil 4 ' s "over

6783-611: The COG becomes more authoritarian under First Minister Mina Jinn - prompting many civilians to abandon the COG and live off the land, known as Outsiders. After joining the military, both JD and Delmont "Del" Walker are forced to execute civilians during a protest in Settlement 2, prompting them to leave the COG and becoming Outsiders. They join the village of Fort Umson, led by Reyna Diaz and her brother-in-law, Oscar. Reyna's daughter, Kait, becomes close with JD and Del. Gears of War 4 takes place 25 years after human victory. Fort Umson

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6916-420: The COG invades Nexus, they learn the Locust are mutating into the "Lambent", organisms infected with Imulsion. They have been forcing the Locust out of the Hollow for the surface world. Acting on advice from Adam Fenix, Queen Myrrah intends to sink Jacinto and use the surrounding seawater to flood the Hollow, drowning the Lambent and denying the humans their last safe city. The COG intentionally sinks Jacinto before

7049-491: The Evacuation of Ilima, a city that appeared in ruins in Gears of War 2 as well as taking place from the perspective of Locust General RAAM. Zeta-Six is made up of Lieutenant Minh Young Kim from Gears of War , Tai Kaliso from Gears of War 2 , Michael Barrick from the comic book series and Alicia Valera. Supporting character Jace Stratton previously appeared as a member of Delta Squad in Gears of War 3 . Gears of War 4

7182-461: The Hammer of Dawn (completed by Marcus Fenix's father, Professor Adam Fenix) devastate one of their naval vessels. Six weeks after the COG and UIR agreed to an armistice, a race of subterranean creatures known as the Locust Horde emerge from Sera's depths and begin assaulting human cities, wiping out 25% of the world population in the first 26 hours, referred to as 'Emergence Day'. The Locust overwhelm

7315-462: The Hammer satellites as the Swarm starts to attack COG Settlements. Kait is captured by the Swarm and is connected to the hivemind, in which she controls the Swarm army, resulting in her Uncle Oscar's death. After being rescued, Kait reveals her visions and believes them to be messages from the Locust, as evidenced by her grandmother's necklace. Marcus has Kait find answers at the New Hope facility and

7448-438: The Hollow being flooded, the Imulsion has begun to pollute the surface - causing a pandemic that aims to turn all life into Lambent organisms. Chairman Prescott is believed to be hiding secrets from the population about the origins of the Locust and Lambent, and loses their trust. Prescott abandons the COG, forcing them to disband and live as nomads, surviving against the Lambent and Locust stragglers on their own. Gears of War 3

7581-535: The Hollow, locate the Locust stronghold, and eliminate them once and for all. Gears of War 2 is set six months after the Lightmass Offensive. COG soldiers, including Delta, are deployed into the Hollow and battle the Locust to stop their plans of sinking Jacinto. The COG discovers the Locust have been using a gargantuan worm to sink the cities. After killing the Riftworm, Delta is ordered to locate

7714-462: The Lambent. Adam releases his weapon but dies in the process. While successful in vanquishing humanity's enemies, Fenix is distraught over the death of his loved ones and comrades, including Dom and his father. He is consoled by Anya Stroud, one of his closest allies and love interest, who assures him their sacrifices have given humanity a new hope. Fenix transitions into the role of a supporting character in 2016's Gears of War 4 , set 25 years after

7847-411: The Locust and Lambent, while trying to find Marcus's father and end the war. In the end, a weapon developed by Marcus' father Adam Fenix is detonated, wiping out the Locust and the Lambent, as well as ending the war. RAAM's Shadow is a secondary campaign for Gears of War 3 introduced as a DLC. Taking place several years before the original Gears of War game, RAAM's Shadow follows Zeta-Six during

7980-493: The Locust assault. During the evacuation, a helicopter is shot down by the Locust and crashes into the Fenix Estate, presumably killing Adam. The COG's leadership court martials Marcus and sentences him to 40 years in prison. After losing Ephyra, the remainder of the COG retreats to Jacinto City. Gears of War is set 14 years after the Locust emerged, and four years into Marcus Fenix's imprisonment. The COG forces devise

8113-469: The Locust can evacuate, drowning them in their tunnels and destroying their civilization. Adam Fenix is revealed to be alive through a radio transmission. The remaining human population rediscover an island unscathed by the Locust War called Vectes. The Stranded gangs on the island threaten the safety of the COG, but the two groups ceasefire when the Lambent begin to emerge and overrun the island. Due to

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8246-448: The Locust stronghold by accessing intel from New Hope, a decommissioned COG research facility. The lab contains genetically altered humans called Sires, experiments on children ill with Rustlung that led to the creation of the Locust. Files there reveal the New Hope scientists fled to Mount Kadar to continue their work in solitude after the COG shut them down. The COG attacks Mount Kadar, where the Locust established their capital of Nexus. As

8379-513: The Pendulum Wars, consumes millions of lives with both sides locked in a virtual stalemate. The UIR develops the 'Hammer of Dawn', a system of satellites capable of delivering precise and destructive orbital-to-surface laser strikes. A contingent of COG commandos, led by Marcus Fenix , Dominic Santiago, and Victor Hoffman launch a daring raid on a UIR stronghold to steal the schematics for the Hammer of Dawn. The UIR surrenders after witnessing

8512-491: The Sonic Resonator fails to map the tunnels, Delta uncovers mapping data already created by Adam Fenix. Marcus retrieves the tunnel data from his father's lab, who had been studying the Locust, and successfully deploys the Lightmass Bomb. Many of the Locust are killed. The Locust Queen, Myrrah, pledges to continue the war effort. In the months following the Lightmass Offensive, the human population begins to suffer from

8645-642: The Sony PlayStation platform. Sweeney said that Sony had started talking with Epic about investing following the demonstration of the Unreal Engine 5 in May 2020. Epic purchased Cary Towne Center in Cary, North Carolina, in January 2021, which had been scheduled to be closed and demolished after 2020, to be their new headquarters and campus, with the conversion to be complete by 2024. Epic unveiled its MetaHuman Creator project in February 2021. Based on

8778-437: The Swarm's hive, but discover Reyna has been forcefully integrated in their network. Kait separates and euthanizes her mother upon her request. Kait is given the necklace that belonged to Reyna's mother, which bears the symbol of the Locust Horde. Kait, JD, Del, and Marcus rejoin the COG and offer their intelligence to Jinn in order to help fight the Swarm. After Reyna's death, Kait begins to have nightmares and visions related to

8911-433: The Swarm, caused by Queen Myrrah, whose consciousness is still alive and connected to Kait's mind. Kait refuses to tell the others about her connection to the Locust out of fear. Marcus and Baird believe the Hammer of Dawn will be needed back online to defend against the upcoming war with the Swarm. Baird uncovers intel on additional Hammer of Dawn satellites at Azura. Gears 5 begins with Delta returning to Azura to launch

9044-461: The Twinmotion visualization tool used in architectural design in May 2019 from Abvent, and which they plan to expand and incorporate into their Unreal Engine offerings. Epic acquired Life on Air, the developers behind Houseparty , a social networking service , in June 2019. The monetary terms of the acquisition were not disclosed. Epic later shuttered Houseparty's app in October 2021, though

9177-613: The Xbox FPS Boost program. The video game music for Gears of War was composed by Kevin Riepl , who had previously worked with Epic Games on soundtracks for Unreal Tournament 2003 , Unreal Tournament 2004 and Unreal Championship 2 . The music for Gears of War 2 and Gears of War 3 was composed by Steve Jablonsky . The music for Gears of War 4 is composed by Ramin Djawadi . Ramin Djawadi continued to compose

9310-505: The activation of the Imulsion countermeasure in Gears of War 3 as they prepare for reinforcements in the upcoming battle of Azura. Following the end of the Locust War, the humans of Sera reform the COG, led by First Minister Anya Stroud, wife of Marcus Fenix. With the assistance of robotic DeeBees created by Baird, the COG builds New Ephyra and other walled cities known as Settlements. Anya gives birth to Marcus' son, James Dominic "JD" Fenix . Anya dies from complications during pregnancy, and

9443-445: The age of 18, Brand was kicked from the breeding farm she was born in, sent to Boot Camp and trained to be a Gear. She accompanies Delta and Sigma Squads as they investigate a mysterious beacon call from the place at which she was born, which was thought to have been destroyed by Locust. Epic Games Epic Games, Inc. is an American video game and software developer and publisher based in Cary, North Carolina . The company

9576-432: The already battle-worn COG forces during this surprise attack, causing them to retreat to the Jacinto Plateau, where the Locust cannot dig through its granite bedrock, and reluctantly bombard their own cities with the Hammer of Dawn to halt the Locust's advance. The ensuing scorched earth tactic destroys much of Sera's cities and human population. The COG continues to operate out of the COG capital of Ephyra and other cities on

9709-410: The campaign will offer a choice of paths the first player can select; if the second player is present, they will be forced to take the other path. The third and fourth players in Gears of War 3 will be separated between the paths of the first and second players. In these areas, all players generally have to work together to get them through the section, such as by one player providing covering fire while

9842-404: The characters they would like to see in an ultimate fighting game, adding, "If giant, hulking muscles and a foul tongue are all one needs to fit in with the fighting game crowd, then we might as well hand over the trophy to Marcus Fenix." Empire also ranked him the 45th greatest video game character, adding that "[o]f all the marines, in all the alternate galaxies, in all the fictional universes,

9975-430: The company and sold its shares in the studio; the studio reverted to their former name, People Can Fly. The Bulletstorm IP was retained by People Can Fly who has since launched a remastered version called Bulletstorm: Full Clip Edition on April 7, 2017, published by Gearbox Software . By July 2017, Fortnite was finally in a state for public play. Epic launched the title through a paid early access then, with

10108-450: The company's growth. Some time this season, the company soon had 20 employees consisting of programmers, artists, designers and composers. Among them was the 17-year old Cliff Bleszinski , who joined the company after submitting his game Dare to Dream to Sweeney. The following year, they had over 30 employees. In 1996, Epic MegaGames produced a shareware isometric shooter called Fire Fight , developed by Polish studio Chaos Works. It

10241-478: The conflict between humanity and the subterranean reptilian humanoid known as the Locust Horde on the world of Sera. The first installment, Gears of War , was released on November 7, 2006, for the Xbox 360 . The game follows protagonist Marcus Fenix , a soldier in the Coalition of Ordered Governments tasked to lead a last-ditch effort to destroy the Locust Horde and save humanity. Two subsequent titles, Gears of War 2 (2008) and Gears of War 3 (2011), featured

10374-477: The creative output of Epic Games. Sweeney considered the partial acquisition by Tencent as the start of "Epic 4.0", the fourth major iteration of the company, allowing the company to be more agile in the video game marketplace. Around this point, Epic had about 200 employees. A number of high-profile staff left the company months after the Tencent deal was announced for various reasons. Some notable departures included: Epic continued its goal to deliver games as

10507-461: The developer of Rocket League , in May 2019. Epic and Psyonix have had a past history, as Psyonix was originally founded a few miles from Epic's headquarters and had contributed to Epic's Unreal Tournament . Besides ongoing support for Rocket League , Psyonix developed an arcade-style car racing game inside of Fortnite , named Rocket Racing , which was added in December 2023. Epic acquired

10640-467: The digital facial animation firm Hyprsense in November 2020. In January 2021, Epic acquired RAD Game Tools , a company that makes a variety of middleware solutions for video game development which Epic plans to incorporate into the Unreal Engine. RAD's tools will still remain available outside of Unreal as well. Marcus Fenix Fenix debuted as the protagonist of Gears of War in 2006. Fenix

10773-532: The early months of the Locust War. With military cadet Sofia Hendrick and former UIR soldier Garron Paduk in Kilo Squad, they disobey orders and deploy the Lightmass Missile to the destroy Locust forces occupying Halvo Bay. The squad is court-martialed, but Kilo is acquitted due to their actions resulting in victory. A separate campaign, Aftermath , features Baird, Cole, and Paduk in the hours before

10906-451: The events of Gears of War 3 . Fenix has fathered a now adult son with Anya, James Dominic "JD" Fenix , who serves as the game's protagonist. In Gears 5 , Fenix returns to active service with COG to fight a new foe, the Swarm. During a heated exchange between Marcus and COG First Minister Mina Jinn, it is revealed that Anya had passed away at some point during the 25-year antebellum period due to unspecified birthing complication issues. He

11039-604: The first $ 1 million in revenue, regardless of how they were published, retroactively starting from January 1, 2020. Bloomberg reported that Epic was nearing a $ 17 billion valuation in June 2020 once it had completed a new $ 750 million investing round from its previous investors and newcomings T. Rowe Price Group Inc. and Baillie Gifford. The company partnered with Christopher Nolan and Warner Bros. to acquire distribution rights for Inception , Batman Begins and The Prestige as part of "Movie Nite" on Fortnite's "Party Royale" island. The film live streams were based on

11172-458: The first game, where the Locust are attempting to sink Jacinto Plateau, and the COG forces have decided to launch a counter-offensive to stop them before they can complete their attempt. Ultimately the COG sinks Jacinto themselves to flood the home of the Locust (the Hollow) and drown them. A PC version of the game was originally planned before being cancelled by the developers, citing poor sales of

11305-499: The first month of its release. Epic Games released on September 1, 2010 Epic Citadel as a tech demo to demonstrate the Unreal Engine 3 running on Apple iOS , within Adobe Flash Player Stage3D and using HTML5 WebGL technologies. It was also released for Android on January 29, 2013. Epic Games worked on an iOS game, Infinity Blade , which was released on December 9, 2010. The third game in

11438-403: The first part was released in September 2009. The "other side" of the life of humans faced by total annihilation are shown. Birthing creches, or breeding farms, filled with women who are there to just to give birth. With humanity dying out and no people to replace fallen Gears, new humans are needed. The story focuses on an escapee from one of these centers named Alex Brand. Declared to be barren at

11571-458: The first two games; they are referred to as "acts" and each act is formed into a certain number of chapters. Players in Gears of War can carry four different weapons, with the exception of the fourth game, allowing two primary weapon slots that can carry weapons which include, but are not limited to: assault rifles, shotguns, a sniper rifle , grenade launchers and an explosive bow ; one grenade slot, which may be filled with up to four grenades of

11704-450: The former Potomac Computer Systems address at the time, fulfilling all orders that eventually came by mail. The final copy of ZZT was shipped by Paul Sweeney in November 2013. In early 1992, Sweeney found himself and his new-found video game company in a business where larger studios, such as Apogee Software and id Software , were dominant, and he had to find a more serious name for his. As such, Sweeney came up with "Epic MegaGames",

11837-407: The fourth greatest soldier in video games, stating that he is "one of the most badass soldiers in any game. The COG s wouldn't be the same without him." He was ranked as one of the best video game characters of the 2010s by Polygon staff and writer Charlie Hall, particularly his appearance and "I’ve probably spent more time controlling Marcus Fenix than any other avatar in all of video games. Over

11970-448: The game has received one expansion, Mission Pack 1 , which brought more weapons, two new missions and new enemies, including General RAAM. A series of novels based on the Gears of War series were written by Karen Traviss . The books expand on the games and detail events which occur in between installments. Gears of War: Aspho Fields was the first in an expected trilogy, although the total numbers of books has since grown to seven. Once

12103-535: The game. In July 2024, the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA), an actor labor union of which numerous video game voice actors are members of, would initiate a labor strike against a number of video publishers, including Epic Games, over concerns about lack of A.I. protections related to not only video game actors, but also the use of A.I to replicate an actor’s voice, or create

12236-447: The gruntiest, muscliest, most trigger-happy of them all is one Mr Marcus Fenix." GamesRadar listed him as one of the gaming's greatest badass mo-fos. In 2012, GamesRadar ranked him as the 94th "most memorable, influential, and badass" protagonist in games, saying "this dude's a legend both within the scope of his own universe as well as our own, starring in some of the best games on the Xbox 360." In 2013, Complex ranked Marcus as

12369-506: The hivemind, forcing Myrrah to possess Reyna's reanimated body. The Swarm, becoming stronger with their queen, launches an attack against New Ephyra. Using the Hammer of Dawn, the COG repels the Swarm attack. Kait vows to kill Queen Reyna before she can attack again. Gears 5: Hivebusters follows Jeremiah Keegan, Lahni Kaliso, and Leslie Macallister shortly after the Battle of New Ephyra. Victor Hoffman, and Cole's daughter, Hana, have devised

12502-623: The investment, Epic Games was estimated to have a nearly $ 15 billion valuation in October 2018. Besides expanding support for Fortnite and the Epic Games Store, these investments allowed Epic to acquire additional firms. In January 2018, it was announced that Epic had acquired Cloudgine , a developer of cloud-based gaming software. The company also announced the acquisition of Kamu, a firm that offered anti-cheat software called Easy Anti-Cheat, in October 2018. A year later, in January 2019, Epic acquired 3Lateral and Agog Labs. 3Lateral

12635-449: The main series, Gears of War 4 , is set 25 years after Gears of War 3 and follows Marcus Fenix's son, JD and his friends as they battle security forces deployed by a totalitarian COG government as well as the Swarm, a reconstituted version of the Locust Horde that once again threatens humanity. Gears 5 (2019) is the direct sequel to Gears of War 4 and revolves around Kait Diaz , a friend of JD, who embarks on an adventure to learn

12768-530: The metaverse that same month. The company announced in September 2023 that it was laying off 870 employees, along with divesting in Bandcamp to Songtradr and spinning off SuperAwesome into its own company. Sweeney said this move was needed to rein in spending, and did not anticipate there would be further layoffs in the future. Mediatonic reported a significant number of layoffs from their team, but remained part of Epic. On February 7, 2024, Epic Games received

12901-524: The most popular and most played titles on Xbox Live. The Gears of War series takes place in an alternate universe on Sera, a fictional Earth-like planet. Human civilization develops and endures a millennia-long conflict that leaves humanity on the brink of extinction. Sera's leaders broker an era of peace that ushers scientific advancements and a cultural renaissance. Humanity's population sporadically grows and demands more energy provided by fossil fuel and nuclear power . Sera's scientists discover Imulsion,

13034-439: The music for the next title in the series, Gears 5 . Gears of War: The Board Game was released in 2011 by Fantasy Flight Games . Designed by Corey Konieczka, it is a cooperative game for up to four players, including the option for solo play. Each player takes control of a COG (represented by a miniature figure pre-painted in red), fighting their way through randomly generated maps filled with Locust soldiers (represented by

13167-407: The occasional profanity" and adding: "Desperately in need of a hug, or maybe a tug, Fenix is the least likeable hero since Billy Zane played The Phantom ." IGN included him on the 2009 list of top 10 most overrated video game characters ("His personality consists entirely of grunting, shouting, and shooting. (...) Calling Marcus Fenix one of the definitive gaming characters of the current generation

13300-486: The opponent spots the grenade, they can detonate it from a safe distance by shooting it. All Gears of War games feature a campaign mode that can be played cooperatively with one other player. The two players take the roles of two COG soldiers, Marcus Fenix and Dominic "Dom" Santiago, as they fight the Locust. In the third game the campaign allows for up to four players to play together at the same time. The campaign mode features several levels of difficulty. At various times,

13433-435: The original PC version of Gears of War as well as concerns over piracy. Gears of War 3 is the concluding part to the trilogy. Originally with an April 6, 2011, release date, it was moved to September 20 to anchor Microsoft Studios' holiday portfolio for the Xbox 360. Gears of War 3 takes place 18 months after the end of Gears of War 2 . Marcus, Dom, and the last remnants of humanity must band together to survive against

13566-461: The plateau, such as Jacinto. The surviving humans outside the plateau and COG jurisdiction, known as Stranded, are left to wander through Sera's charred ruins. The Locust reemerge and begin a campaign of occupying human cities on the Jacinto Plateau to act as stepping stones. The Locust are eventually able to emerge and overrun Ephyra 10 years after Emergence Day. During the chaos, Marcus Fenix leads an unauthorized rescue mission to save his father from

13699-476: The player can attempt to stop the meter in a certain marked area. If the player stops the meter in the marked area, their reload will be completed faster than if they did not attempt an Active Reload, and if the player can stop the meter at a specific section of the marked area, they will gain a temporary slight damage boost with each reloaded shot and a faster reload. If the player stops the meter outside this area, their gun will become temporarily jammed and slow down

13832-467: The player can slide along cover, move between nearby cover, or vault over cover to race to a new point of cover. As the player takes damage, the "Crimson Omen" appears on the HUD , becoming more defined as the player nears low health levels. The player can regenerate their health by staying out of harm's way for a short while. Should the player take too much damage, they will become incapacitated unless revived by

13965-569: The reload time. While most of the weapons are based on standard shooter archetypes, Gears of War ' s signature weapon is the Lancer Assault Rifle , which has a mounted chainsaw bayonet that can be used in close quarter combat to instantly kill a standard foe. Another notable weapon is the Gnasher Shotgun , which is one of the most-used weapons in multiplayer modes for the series, as well as its most divisive. While it

14098-770: The revenue cut that it took for assets sold on the Unreal Engine Marketplace from 30% to 12%. Epic launched the Epic Games Store digital storefront to compete with services like Steam and GOG.com , not only taking a 12% cut of revenue compared to the industry standard of 30%, but also eliminated the 5% cut for games using the Unreal engine sold via the storefront. However the company also refocused its development efforts to provide more support for Unreal and Fortnite by ending support for Paragon and Unreal Tournament . The financial success of Fortnite brought additional investment into Epic Games. Epic Games

14231-460: The second player opens a switch that allows the first player to proceed. The competitive multiplayer mode in Gears of War features 8 players while in Gears of War 2 features up to ten players split between COG and Locust forces in a number of gameplay types. Modes include "Warzone" and "Execution", both similar to a typical deathmatch , and "Annex" and "King of the Hill" where teams have to control

14364-468: The series, Gears of War 3 , came out in 2011. In 2011, Epic's subsidiary Titan Studios was dissolved. At the 2011 Spike Video Game Awards , Epic Games announced their new game Fortnite . In June 2012, Epic announced that it was opening up a new studio, Epic Baltimore, made up of members of 38 Studios ' Big Huge Games . Epic Baltimore was renamed to Impossible Studios in August 2012. However,

14497-416: The shoulder" perspective, Kill Switch ' s cover system , and Bionic Commando ' s swinging action akin to moving between points of cover. The series focuses on using cover to tactically engage the enemy in battle to avoid taking damage. While behind cover, the player can fire blindly and inaccurately at their opponent, or can look around the cover and aim carefully, though exposing to enemy fire;

14630-440: The studio ended up closing its doors in February 2013. Epic fully acquired People Can Fly in August 2012, rebranding them as Epic Games Poland in November 2013 as they began work on Fortnite alongside Epic. Epic alongside People Can Fly made one last game in the Gears of War series that served as a prequel to the other games, Gears of War: Judgement , which was released in 2013. At this point, Epic had considered developing

14763-551: The studio, and sharing profits, following Epic's recouping of its investment, 50/50 with the studio. The company expanded their publishing options in October 2021 with Spry Fox and Eyes Out. Unreal Engine 5 was announced on May 13, 2020, with plans for an early 2022 release. Alongside this announcement, Epic released its Epic Online Services, a free SDK toolset for online matchmaking and other similar cross-platform play support features based on Fortnite . Epic further waived all Unreal license fees retroactively for games up through

14896-500: The team behind it was continuing to develop social apps for Epic's platforms. In November 2019, Epic acquired Quixel, the world's largest photogrammetry asset library which makes 3D models of objects based on real-world high-definition photography. Epic plans to open Quixel's existing library of models to users of Unreal Engine, while the Quixel staff will continue to build out its assets within Epic. The company acquired Cubic Motion,

15029-490: The technology from 3Lateral, Cubic Motion, and Quixel, the MetaHuman Creator is a browser-based application to allow game developers to create realistic human characters within a short amount of time starting from various presets, and then can be exported as pre-made models and animation files ready for use in Unreal Engine. Epic announced a partnership with Cesium in March 2021 to bring its 3D geospatial data as

15162-425: The third top Xbox characters of all time in 2008, commenting, "This was a new hero for a new generation of consoles, and he came in curb-stomping shooting and chainsawing his way to the top of the charts. But behind all this is a clearly wounded, perhaps even emotionally deadened, human being, and that really resonates as the game progresses. Fenix’s legend can only grow." That same year, IGN chose Fenix as one of

15295-754: The time of Tencent's acquisition, was estimated to be worth $ 4.5 billion in July 2018 due to Fortnite Battle Royale , and expected to surpass $ 8.5 billion by the end of 2018 with projected growth of the game. Player count continued to expand when Epic broke new ground by convincing Sony to change its stance on cross-platform play allowing players on any device to compete with each other in Fortnite Battle Royale . Fortnite has drawn nearly 250 million players as of March 2019. Fortnite ' s commercial success enabled Epic to make several changes to its other product offerings. In July 2018, it reduced

15428-409: The truth about her past and the connections between her history and the Locust Horde. Gears of War was developed by Epic Games. Cliff Bleszinski , who has previously worked on Epic's Unreal Tournament games, served as the series' lead game designer for the first three installments. He was inspired by gameplay elements from Resident Evil 4 . Kill Switch , and Bionic Commando . The series

15561-435: The unexpected success of ZZT , caused in most part by the easy modifiability of the game using Sweeney's custom ZZT-oop programming language, that made Sweeney consider turning Potomac Computer Systems into a video game company. ZZT was sold through bulletin board systems , while all orders were fulfilled by Sweeney's father, Paul Sweeney. The game sold several thousand copies as of May 2009, and Paul Sweeney still lived at

15694-473: The user. Epic received another $ 1 billion each from Sony and from Kirkbi , the parent company of The Lego Group , in April 2022 for continued support of building out Epic's metaverse. These investments gave Kirkbi 3% ownership and increased Sony's to 4.9%. With these investments, Epic had an estimated valuation of $ 32 billion . Epic and Lego also announced their partnership to build a child-friendly space in

15827-409: The video game franchise was extended, author Jason M. Hough was promoted as the author for more tie-in novels set in the world. " Gears of War: Hollow " was the first comic book series based on the Gears of War games, released in December 2008. The series was published under DC's Wildstorm imprint and was written by Joshua Ortega , with art by Liam Sharp . The story arc followed Jace Stratton,

15960-472: The world. While Sweeney remains the controlling shareholder, Tencent acquired a 48.4% outstanding stake, equating to 40% of total Epic, in the company in 2012, as part of an agreement aimed at moving Epic towards a games as a service model. Following the release of the popular Fortnite Battle Royale in 2017, the company gained additional investments that enabled it to expand its Unreal Engine offerings, establish esports events around Fortnite , and launch

16093-558: The years, the old man has definitely grown on me." HobbyConsolas included Marcus Fenix on their "The 30 best heroes of the last 30 years." Computer and Video Games named him as the PC gaming's ninth worst character, contrasting him with Garrett (ninth best) and calling him "a mish-mash of Deckard from Blade Runner and Eeyore from Winnie the Pooh , constantly lamenting the situation and grumbling at any levity and delighting only in

16226-419: Was " Harper's Story ". In Gears of War 2 there are collectibles which describe the end of Sgt. Jonathan Harper, a Gears veteran. He was captured by the Locust during the events of the Hollow. He managed to survive the vile deeds of the Locust Horde and escape. He helped a family reach safety, taking the bullets into his own body before falling to the ground. Issue number 9 begins a new arc, " Barren ", of which

16359-516: Was also included as a playable character in Lost Planet 2 . Fenix was added as a cosmetic outfit with Kait Diaz to Fortnite Battle Royale on December 9, 2021, During Chapter 3 Season 1 in the Item Shop. Fenix is also the protagonist of Gears of War: Aspho Fields , a novel that expands his backstory while also providing a tie-in between the first two Gears of War games. Fenix is

16492-508: Was founded by Tim Sweeney as Potomac Computer Systems in 1991, originally located in his parents' house in Potomac, Maryland . Following its first commercial video game release, ZZT (1991), the company became Epic MegaGames, Inc. in early 1992 and brought on Mark Rein , who has been its vice president since. After moving the headquarters to Cary in 1999, the studio changed its name to Epic Games. Epic Games developed Unreal Engine ,

16625-402: Was guided by Rod Fergusson , the executive producer and director of development of Epic Games until 2012. The first four installments of the Gears of War series used a modified version of the Unreal Engine 3 engine. In January 2014, Microsoft acquired rights to the franchise from Epic Games. Canadian studio The Coalition developed Gears of War 4 , which was released on October 11, 2016, for

16758-527: Was initially released for the Xbox 360 on November 7, 2006, in North America, and on November 17 in Europe. It was released for Microsoft Windows on June 11, 2007. Gears of War follows Delta Squad's efforts to help deploy a Lightmass bomb deep in the Locust tunnels to wipe out the Locust threat. A remastered edition of the game titled Gears of War: Ultimate Edition was developed and released for

16891-536: Was launching a new scripted entertainment division in October 2021, bringing on three former executives from Lucasfilm to manage it, with initial plans for a Fortnite film. In February 2022, Epic Games announced that at least half a billion accounts have been created on its platform. Epic released the initial beta version of RealityScan, a mobile app that uses the tools from Capturing Reality and Quixel, in April 2022. RealityScan allows users to create 3D models that can be imported into Sketchfab using photos taken by

17024-476: Was one of eleven companies selected to be part of the Disney Accelerator program in 2017, providing Epic equity investment and access to some of Disney's executives, and potential opportunity to work with Disney in the future. Disney had selected both Epic and aXiomatic as potential leads in the growing esports arena. Epic's has used its windfall to support its products. In January 2019, following

17157-456: Was published by Electronic Arts . By 1997, Epic MegaGames had 50 people working for them worldwide. In 1998, Epic MegaGames released Unreal , a 3D first-person shooter co-developed with Digital Extremes , which expanded into a series of Unreal games . The company also began to license the core technology, the Unreal Engine , to other game developers. In February 1999, Epic MegaGames announced that they had moved their headquarters to

17290-408: Was released following the presentation's conclusion. Microsoft revealed on August 3, 2015, that the four Gears of War titles that launched on Xbox 360 — Gears of War , Gears of War 2 , Gears of War 3 , and Gears of War: Judgment — are compatible on Xbox One through the backwards compatibility program. In 2021, all aforementioned games got 60 FPS support on Xbox Series X and Series S as part of

17423-548: Was released for Windows and Xbox One on September 10, 2019. The game focusing on Kait Diaz, as she looks for the means to counter the Swarm, learning about the true origin of the Locust and their connection with her family. Hivebusters is a single-player downloadable content expansion pack for Gears 5 . Taking place before the events of the Gears of War: Hivebusters comic book series, Hivebusters follows Team Scorpio — Corporal Jeremiah Keegan, Lieutenant Lahni Kaliso and Outsider Leslie "Mac" Macallister — as they investigate

17556-482: Was situated. Out of this location, Sweeney started Potomac Computer Systems as a computer consulting business but later figured that it would be too much work he would have to put into keeping the business stable, and scrapped the idea. After finishing his game ZZT , Sweeney opted to re-use the Potomac Computer Systems name to release the game to the public in January 1991. It was only with

17689-699: Was the Blender Foundation in July 2019, having received $ 1.2 million from the MegaGrants funding, to help them to improve and professionalize their Blender tools for 3D art creation. Epic Games was given the British Academy of Film and Television Arts Special Award in June 2019 for its past and continuing developments for the Unreal Engine, a software which also earned it the Engineering Excellence Award from

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