Mark Rein Cracks Wise on Epic Buyout Rumors
A recent editorial in GamePro suggested that Epic would be purchased by Microsoft for $1 billion by the summer. In a response emailed to Develop, Rein did not comment directly on the rumors of an acquisition but noted that his company was much more valuable than the suggested amount.
"I have not seen the actual GamePro article but if they're going to make predictions about us selling Epic we would prefer if they started at $2 billion because we don't want anyone thinking that we're cheap," joked Rein. A smiley affixed on the end of the statement was omitted in several reportings of the quote, leading Rein to quickly clarify his comment.
"It was a joke," he wrote. "The point was that if someone was going to make a crazy prediction they might as well make it a really crazy prediction."
Since the announcement of a merger of Activision and Vivendi late last year, many studios have been eyed as prospective acquisitions for larger corporations, Epic Games among them.
The studio's high-profile releases and ownership and development of the ubiquitous Unreal Engine makes the company an attractive possibility for corporations looking to expand operations. Rein has repeatedly refused to rule out the possibility of a merger or buyout in several interviews.
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Visceral Monkey
replyWhatever. I went from being a big Epic fanboy to not really caring too much about the company or its games in recent years. Gears is a nice game and all, but the UT franchise has gone to shit and they've made it clear that consoles are their bread and butter. And that's fine, money is money, but my respect and admiration currently lays with companies like Valve and iD. If they get purchased and absorbed into MS, I'll shrug and move on I suppose.
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I guess they havent learned their lesson from, who was that company that made that awful Spy Girl game that came out when the 360 did? Didnt they pay serious money hats for that company?
Granted they delivered Kameo, one of my fav 360 games of all time but still for the money hats that M$ paid to own them should have at least gotten them a solid hit or two. -
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[deleted]
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Epic still fosters a lot of games by selling industry leading middleware, question is if microsoft would continue developing and selling the unreal engine outside of their own organisation. It would be a shame if the industry lost one of it's last really viable engine solutions, just like renderware was lost to EA.
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