I think the next engine should be called the CliffyB, huh what do you think?????

slappyMCslappy

@TheUsedVersion: Im sorry Cliffy B is an idiot but Microsoft cant lose to much by getting its hands on this. They're caking and they need some more room to put their hands in their pocket. Not to mention Halo ending doesnt really fair well with the xbox.

Kuroh

Why are people taking rumors as fact?

astrixzero

Epic? Microsoft is trying to buy Super smash Bros. Brawl for 2 billion dollars.

All (bad)joking aside, this deal probably wouldn't go through, or at least it shouldn't.

KM91

keke look at M$ scrambling to get another Halo on their hands.

Kirkpad

Considering the state of Gears for Windows and UT3, Epic's not worth it anyway.

FellTheDabus

hooray for Independent Studios.

superbeast1370

Hey! Don't bad mouth Rare!

Hylian1

Oh great, MS can buy them up and force them to make crappy titles like every other developer they've purchased. *cough*RARE*cough*

cybereality

i just hope microsoft doesn't buy them that would reall be a slap to the face for anyone wanting to experience any epic games.

MXs219

They're probably not worth 1 billion. They've probably peaked on their engine purchases and what do they have after that?

Id and Renderware are proof that being the top engine supplier doesn't last forever.

All Epic has to offer aside from their engine is homo-erotic space marine shooters. They're not varied or innovational. I don't seem room for growth there either.

chiefpoopingpants

Classy reply to bullshit rumor. +1

Gouki4u

The source of this is Gamepro and Mark Rein. That's all I need to know about this.

RonJeremy4Pres

I could see 1bill being to little for Epic. Besides, it was a gamepro story, I hope people cansel their subscriptions with that trash.

Irenicus-the one and only

Epic licenses their engine for about half a million. Although, they now have a new site up not specifying that, so it could change. They get royalties, too.

Moonchilde

I'd actually say epic is worth more than two billion, simply from a strategy perspective. They control the Unreal Engine 3, one of the most popular engines used today. It is also used by a lot of games that may go cross platform, and I'm sure MS would like to keep games like Bioshock (although I think this is already in developement for the PS3) and Mass Effect 2 to themselves.

@IntelSilver:
Is that a Vegeta quote?

gamadaya

@baked ham: Yeah there's certainly the chance they could do that, I think it depends how much they want to hurt Sony versus how much they think they can make out of selling licences to PS3 developers. Perhaps Sony should offer $3 billion to steal Epic from MS and stop GeOW2 being made? ;)

photoboy

Uh, it's GamePro.

GhaleonUnlimited

Well there goes another good company down the drain in the hands of microsoft. Its a dam shame if its true.

Streeks1984

I say, they're worth over nine thousands!!!.....billions!!!
Ahem... sorry.

IntelSilver

Two billion? Waaaay too much...

7ucky

@Soldrak: I'd have to agree with you. Remember that Bungie also made the not-so-great Oni too. It's the people that make a studio, not the other way around. Look at what's become of Rare for instance. Many of the people who were there in the Nintendo days have been gone for quite some time now, even the Stamper brothers I think.

Nintenboy01

@BD: What the hell is so great about Bungie? I swear some of you Halo fans are really just too deluded.

Soldrak

Mark Riens' taking it to the streets again. Playing that public opinion like a broken flute :) I swear he's going to break some DoJ law one of these days with this big mouth :) I think he could be an excellent car sales man or even a lawyer... maybe even a drug dealer. If Epic is ever sold and he wants to continue working, I think mark has a bright future ahead of him ;)

okenny :)

If I were MS I'd wait for the Silicon Knights lawsuit to settle before I'd spent any money, imagine if they buy EPIC for a billion and have to pay SK millions afterwards :S

Kamizzle

After UT3's flop (in comparison to UT2k4), I say 500k. lol

Para

Buying Epic would probably be a good deal. It doesn't matter much to me as a gamer and that's the important part. Everyone talking about financials and such, that's cool, but its not what matters to us. Will we get better games because of this? Meh, maybe. When we get a new Gears game I hope the multiplayer is a bit more expansive than the previous offering (single player was great obviously).

I'm looking forward to seeing UT3 on the 360 too. Great game, and fast paced action just like I like it.

Southrncomfortjm

conspiracy time.

Now that MS has a foot in the door in the games industry, it is time to start throwing their money around to reduce the scope of their competition.
/Conspiracy

Seriously though, the day the XBox was announced, I feared that MS would try to do to the gaming industry the same thing that they did to the PC world...steal, then buy people out. It honestly disgusts me the way they do business.

But hopefully that's just the crazy in my head talking and that could never really happen...but I wouldn't be surprised in the slightest.

Feel free to attack me now...I'm sure somebody will.

fulgore66

@BD:

There will always be growth every generation as the engine grows. It is one of the most expansive engines around.

EnigmaNemesis

i highly doubt that they will sell epic. they dont even nned the money all the kick ass games they make they dont need the help. And if thy were to be bought i would say about 3.5 to 4 billion dollars.

Prodigys Flawless

Everything I've seen in recent months suggest the Games & Devices purse strings have been cut. Things have been eerily quiet since Moore made his inelegant departure and Mattrick eased into obscurity in Moore's old job.

Throwing 10 digit sums around just to acquire exclusivity over a couple of IPs, one of which they own anyway, would be a catastrophic case of throwing good money after bad. And I very much doubt they can foul up existing agreements over licensing UE3, which is still the most widespread middleware of this generation. They can certainly make money from it, but they can't stop licensees making PS3 games with it.

This rumour seemed, and still seems hugely unlikely to me.

JudgeNutmeg

@photoboy: either stop offering a PS3 version or ensure that it's inferior to the 360 version it's win:win for them.

Wouldn't also be good business for them to just... increase the licensing fees for the Engine? If people are willing to pay the fees, Microsoft makes the loot, even if the games are selling on a competing platform, MS still gets paid. Sounds pretty win/win to me. Unless, of course, they strain Epic's relationship with every developer in the world that has licensed the engine by pissing them off with unwieldy fees and then nobody finds it fiscally responsible to license that engine anymore while there's a plethora of others out there they can license or potentially create themselves. I don't think they'd do that though. They'd have to be pretty stupid to take a good thing like the ammount of money the UE3 takes in and foul it all to hell by overcharging to the degree that, outside of in-house games, nobody's willing to license the engine anymore. Naah.

Aaah who cares, I really don't think MS will be owning Epic anyway.

baked ham

It sounds like GamePro didn't just "announce" Gears of War 2 when there was actually no such announcement to be made, but they're speculating a Microsoft buyout of Epic games, where it seems to me Mark Rein has never heard of such a deal before.

baked ham

And I'll bet my weight in candy that some people will read that quote as a serious statement? And someone will have to explain that no, Chocolate Bear With Cream Filling is not saying that Epic would accept a buyout at 2 bil...

He should have said "cheap whores" instead of just "cheap" - maybe then everybody would have picked up on the sarcasm? "Whores" is usually a good indicator that a statement shouldn't be taken too literally.

@faultymoose: Ha-ha! I would, like, totally buy that game. Like, wow.

And after this our exile

why sell for billions when you could sell for trillions!

Dimipapa

@7th_Ronin: Right...you should probably not talk out of your ass if you haven't done at least a little bit of research to back it up.

I would very much like to know why you think "the engine isn't that good." Epic has managed to license Unreal 3 out to several dozen game developers as well as a whole bunch of companies that aren't related to the game industry in any way at all. Unreal Engine 3 has one of the most comprehensive development packages ever released, as is easily the second best looking engine currently being used. The first, of course, is CryEngine 2 (which I prefer over Unreal 3). The point is, if the engine "isn't that good", and the development suite that's released with it isn't useful, then Epic wouldn't have been able to license the engine out to something like 60 separate companies around the world.

You know what else is "not that good"? MGS4. There, I said it. And I offer absolutely no reasoning or support to back up that opinion. It's just not that good. Oh shit, BURN on MGS4!

Atheist Jew

@7th_Ronin:

Yeah I'd rather have the ID's tech 5 engine as a 360 exclusive

JakeDunn

The "We're not worth X, we're worth MOAR" strategy didn't turn out so well for Yahoo, so would it work any better for Epic?

Draconis

HAHA I just realised that some sites are claiming that Mark Rein "told us in an interview". Here's a link to the original thread:

[utforums.epicgames.com]

faultymoose

@Lixie:

well the unreal engine isnt that good, oke it shipped few games there n there.. aaa titles on top of that...

but look at the number of new aaa titles coming.. most of em are run by in-house engines... gta4, mgs4... name em, plus the new id tech 5 should be awesome so

7th_Ronin

"Mark Rein, while refusing to rule the possibility out..."

...a bit of unecessary media speak, ya think? I was part of the thread on the official UT3 forums that he posted the quote in, and it sounded to me, given the tone of the thread and the timing of his reply, that he was simply giving a good natured "No."

I can see how the rumor started in the first place now. Someone says "Hey, maybe Microsoft will buy out Epic, with GOW 2 on the way, y'think?" and next thing those interwebernet journoes are reporting how it's confirmed that M$ is buying out Epic to make GOW2 which will be set on Earth amidst World War 9 and involve impregnation of a Britney-Bot through use of your 'Hammer of Dawn' to create a cyborg half breed who will rid the universe of evil through with hair clippers, and will only be playable by those who purchase Vista Business Edition and donate a Kidney to the new Microsoft Black Market (tm).

faultymoose

Microsoft is fishing for another Bungie.

I doubt they'll find it here.

BD

If Microsoft came to control the Unreal Engine, do you think they would do anything that would make Sony developers believe they were getting an inferior engine for the PS3?

Lixie

I'm going to throw this one out. Microsoft thinks they're cheap. The Amount of money they throw around, it's quite small.

sUKi

Some stay dry and others feel the pain Chocolate Reiiin

I'm surprised hes actually basically put himself up for sale.

flukielukie

why does this remind me of Austin Powers movie?

"TOO BEEEELION DOLLARS!!"

icepick314

Mind you they are talking about Linden Dollars.

Jet Set

@Vistrix:

No I think you mean this

[www.wral.com]

timed exclusive for unreal 3 tournament (which hasn't been the expected success)

JakeDunn

It's definitely worth it for MS, if they can own the Unreal engine and either stop offering a PS3 version or ensure that it's inferior to the 360 version it's win:win for them.

Of course I get the feeling Epic have been trying to distance themselves from MS ever since Gears became a mega-hit. They will have likely realised they're the new Bungie/Halo for Microsoft and they're worried if they get swallowed up they'll be churning out Gears sequels for the next 5 years.

photoboy

With all the bigger guys buying up what indy studios are left lately i'd tend to believe this rumor.I also think MS will pay what it has to for Epic.The company has the pedigree and the talent that make the company well worth whatever MS ends up paying for it.

After the disaster that was/is Unreal Tourney 3 for the PC/PS3(game was well done but sales are abyssmal),it's not like those two platforms make the most money for the company anyway.The 360 is obviously the system that does the best for Epic as far as game sales go, and since the next two games up from Epic(360 UT3, and likely GOW2)are for the 360 it does make sense that MS would be showing alot of interest in making Epic part of the family officially.This move would still let Epic make games for the pc but obviously would end any development for the PS3.

Sugaray

@JakeDunn: Doesnt Sony already own exclusive rights to the optimized Unreal engine for console games?

Vistrix

Let me get this straight, some editor of a magazine shares his random thoughts relating to Epic and Microsoft in an editors note and the internet assumes Microsoft is going to do pay $1 billion for them...?

Is that the internet rumor so far?

Vistrix

hmm, unreal 3 engine 360 exclusive? future engines 360 exclusive, new ip's and gears 360 exclusive, how much is that worth?

JakeDunn

@BD: I'll wager that they are. Worth nothing? Epic would be an excellent top-tier investment for any company taking into consideration the Unreal Engine and their collection of IPs. Plus you get CliffyB.

I wonder just how much much they make from all the licensing they do of Unreal Engine. Anyone?

TheUsedVersion

Gotta hand it to Mark, he can be goofy and a bit off-kilter, but he's not a corporate goon.

Btw, the title...really? No, it's clever, it is...but really?

Snake726

I wager they're worth nothing, because there's no growth to be had there anymore.

BD