(RUMOR) Gamepro Editor: "Microsoft will buy Epic Games for $1 billion this summer!"

[Grecco]

I really doubt Unreal PS3 tech is "half" of Epics buisness.


Anyways Microsoft needs a big first party company to replace Bungie, they have the Gears franchise to replace Halo, and Epic wants to transition into Console development. I dont see why this wouldnt happen.

[WrikaWrek]

This would be crazy if true, but doesn't EPIC make most of its money with Unreal licensing? So MS would continue that?

From a megaton perspective i would laugh my ass off if this happened, whether its good or not.

[Prine]

This is a bullshit purchase if its for the games. I fucking hate Epic and thier games. Dont buy them MS

[xblarcade]

A billion dollars for Epic?

Well if you listen to Mark Rien (and really why bother anymore) they already cost MS 1/2 a billion dollars.

[MickeyKnox]

This is a bullshit purchase if its for the games. I fucking hate Epic and thier games. Dont buy them MS

You can relax, the chance of this happening (as stated in the article) are about as likely as you going down to Burger King and spending $1,000 on a Whopper.

[MWS Natural]

Off topic:

"Yes We Can"

You guys haven't heard this speech yet?

http://youtube.com/watch?v=jjXyqcx-mYY

[WrikaWrek]

This is a bullshit purchase if its for the games. I fucking hate Epic and thier games. Dont buy them MS

Epic would completely revamp the tech group at MS for in house games. From that perspective alone, MS would be buying an amazing team that would take MS in house tech to the next level.

Games Wise, Gears of War has tons of potential to grow, and the team at EPIC is quite talented, and UT is in need of a re-work back to the basis, but still.

Doesn't sound like a bad purchase at all, depending on how much you're paying. Again, the focus here would be how much the 1st party tech group would grow, and the fact that GOW would become a MS franchise.

They lost Bioware, i'm sure Bungie will once again sell itself down the line, Bizarre, i mean...MS is running out of targets.

Obviously i don't see this happening, MS is just in a real messy situation. They will lose Gears of War, as i don't see EPIC selling the IP, because the IP values EPIC as a company, and if anybody wanna buy it, they have to buy EPIC, that's the whole point.

[Sir Fragula]

Off topic: You guys haven't heard this speech yet? http://youtube.com/watch?v=jjXyqcx-mYY

Was that his Bob the Builder speech?

[Xisiqomelir]

Gates: "I will make you love me"

[DeaconKnowledge]

1 Billion dollars for 2 IPs, one that MS has near complete control over.

Yeah, this sounds stupid. REAL stupid.

[tak]

It makes sense for MS, but Mark Rein doesn't strike me as a person that is in love with MS.

[VictimOfGrief]

Gears of Cooking Mama.

Day one pal.... day one!

[Sweedishrodeo]

big fish eat the little one
big fish eat the little one



i dont like this

[Arkaerial]

do me a favor and ballpark how much UE3 licensing gets Epic just remember each license is around $500,000!

Actually they don't make it public but I remember hearing it was closer to 1 million. It cost $350,000 for the UE2 license. Here is a quote from Epics licensing.

Unreal Engine 2 Licensing Terms Representing years of development and powering numerous best-selling titles on multiple platforms, the Unreal Engine 2 technology is available for license on a per-platform basis. Three platforms are available: PC, Xbox, and PlayStation2?. A PC platform license is only required if you intend to ship a retail PC game. If you are developing a console-only title, you may freely use the PC code for development, testing and for its back-end game-server components (for multiplayer games). Note that a PC license includes the right to ship your game on all personal computer operating systems, including Windows and Linux, as well as MacOS? X; by paying once for the PC platform license you may ship on any or all of these operating systems at no additional cost. Royalty-Bearing License - For retail console & PC products A non-refundable, non-recoupable license fee is due on execution of the agreement. The cost is US $350,000 for one of the available Unreal Engine 2 platforms, plus US $50,000 for each additional platform. A royalty of 3% is due on all revenue from the game, calculated on the wholesale price of the product minus (for console SKUs) console manufacturer fees. In the case of massive-multiplayer online games, the royalty is also due on the additional forms of revenue including subscriptions and advertisements. Custom License Terms - For non-traditional products The Unreal Engine has been used in the development of many non-traditional products, ranging from mass-market educational games to custom training applications and the non-retail America's Army game developed by the U.S. Department of Defense. For custom applications that only require script access (rather than full C++ source), and only require redistribution to a small set of clients, the Runtime Edition is available and may be more suitable than a full Unreal Engine license. Where either full source code and support, or widespread redistribution is required, please contact licensing@epicgames.com to discuss custom license terms. Unreal Engine 3 Licensing Terms Unreal Engine 3 is available for license now, and is aimed at game developers who are targeting next-generation consoles such as Xbox 360 and Playstation 3, as well as DirectX? 10-based PCs. Several Unreal Engine 3 projects are already underway; however, pricing has not been publicly announced. If you are looking to develop a next-generation game, please contact us at licensing@epicgames.com to begin discussions.

[~Devil Trigger~]

Today must be rampant rumor day, I do not like this.

GDC

[Mooreberg]

No.. seriously. Epic isn't worth 1B.

Was Rare worth $400 million?

I can definitely see Microsoft wanting to make sure they have Gears of War going forward, it's the "other franchise" after Halo they've been looking for. I just wonder if something like this were to happen (I don't think it will) if Epic would be allowed to keep developing engine technology for other platforms. They've worked to unseat id over the past half decade, would be weird to throw in the towel in that regard while they're still trouncing everybody.

[Amir0x]

Their best evidence for this prediction (according to Gameepro) is that Microsoft helped fund a project by this developer which happened to be successful.

And from that, they'd throw a BILLION DOLLARS to buy them? And they'd decide to announce something of THAT magnitude at GDC?

I'm surprised console manufacturers haven't purchased every developer ever with evidence this great!

[Nolan.]

Everthing seems to be a billion these days they don't even try to shift the numbers up much anymore with rumors.

[duk]

save the 1B and make xbox 720 much much better

[solid2snake]

ROFLROFLROFL...wait, what is he a fanboy of?

he is a super-duber ultra sonyfanboy. hey, i like PlayStation too, but this is just mind-blowing

[Firewire]

1 Billion dollars for 2 IPs, one that MS has near complete control over. Yeah, this sounds stupid. REAL stupid.

.

/thread

[GauntletFan]

If this happened, this would be the biggest and most influential acquisition of this generation.

Aside from the Gears and Unreal IPs, MS would have control over the Unreal Engine, which is the most used engine across the industry for both 360 and PS3 development.

[Xater]

Their best evidence for this prediction (according to Gameepro) is that Microsoft helped fund a project by this developer which happened to be successful.

Yeah and we all know how the Bioware buyout turned out.

[Ranger X]

LOL. ain't happening

[Nolan.]

With that billion they'd be better off buying Sega ip's that aren't likely to be used by them anymore. It wouldn't even cost a billion and it would still be better than buying epic. This had better be fake.

[No Means Nomad]

Does Dr. Evil work for Gamepro?

[Tieno]

This isn't even a rumor, it's a prediction...from Gamepro.


Yeah.

[Ninja Scooter]

With that billion they'd be better off buying Sega ip's that aren't likely to be used by them anymore. It wouldn't even cost a billion and it would still be better than buying epic. This had better be fake.

the Gears of War IP alone is more valuable than all those crap Sega IPs you speak of.

[LegendofJoe]

The management at MS will have hit a new level of idiocy if this turns out to be true. Bill Gates needs to shove a 24k gold boot up the ass of everyone on MS's executive board.

[Rapping Granny]

MS in before EA or Activion does.

[Riddick]

Their best evidence for this prediction (according to Gameepro) is that Microsoft helped fund a project by this developer which happened to be successful. And from that, they'd throw a BILLION DOLLARS to buy them? And they'd decide to announce something of THAT magnitude at GDC? I'm surprised console manufacturers haven't purchased every developer ever with evidence this great!

This is great news then. Sony is buying Insomniac Quantic Dream and NCSoft...



...FOR ONE BILLION DOLLARS

[DevilWillcry]

I wouldn't mind seeing this happen, it's probably the only way MS will get ownership of the Gears IP.

[iosef]

$1B for Epic would be insane. They're a privately held company so they don't report revenue, but let's go off posts here and say that they're ~ 100 people (round up from 80) and have a typical video game industry revenue/head of $350K. That makes them a $35M company by revenue so a $1B purchase would be a ~30X price/revenue multiple. That's nuts. Software companies like this go for 3X to 10X revenues (mighty EA is a 5X revenue multiple -- $3B revenue, $15B market cap), so if somebody bought Epic you'd expect it to be ~ $90M at the low end and $350M at the mega extremely high end.

However, although the $$$ is clearly wrong that doesn't mean that this rumor is complete bullshit. Companies acquire other firms for strategic reasons -- that have nothing to do with their products or people -- all the time. You can argue that EA bought Renderware so that nobody else would have the advantage of a cross-platform dev kit, simply to deny competitors a resource. You could make a similar argument about why MS should get UE3 lock, stock, and barrel; just make it that much harder for anyone else to do a cross-platform X360/PS3 dev job.

[solid2snake]

why buy Epic, if you can get GTA5 and Madden 2XXX exclusive? these games would be more important than Gears of Mama.

[Mooreberg]

why buy Epic, if you can get GTA5 and Madden 2XXX exclusive? these games would be more important than Gears of Mama.

I'm pretty sure EA's contract with the NFL prohibits them from taking money from elsewhere to make it exclusive to one platform. If you want GTA, you have to buy the rest of Take 2 with it (not necessarily bad, but probably not what they're looking for).

Wasn't there some rumor a while back that Rockstar North could eventually break away from Take 2? If true, Take 2 would want to sell now rather than later.

[solid2snake]

I'm pretty sure EA's contract with the NFL prohibits them from taking money from elsewhere to make it exclusive to one platform. If you want GTA, you have to buy the rest of Take 2 with it (not necessarily bad, but probably not what they're looking for). Wasn't there some rumor a while back that Rockstar North could eventually break away from Take 2? If true, Take 2 would want to sell now rather than later.

Win = Take 2+Rockstar North |-Rockstar North

Win-Rockstar North = Take 2

[Spider_Jerusalem]

No.. seriously. Epic isn't worth 1B.

Rare says "lulz"

[open_mouth_]

MS buys Epic, Capcom, EA, and Rockstar North. One console future.

[NIghtWolf]

Fanboy mode on:

MS buying someone? impossible! They don't even try to do that, right Yahoo.



Epic is good though, hope they buy all the staff if true.

[Lightning]

I lol'd

Microsoft can have Epic.

[Jtwo]

Cooking Mama killer exclusive to 360 confirmed! \/

[jetjevons]

Well to be fair they would also get the Unreal Engine tech and all its future iterations.

[Mrbob]

Well to be fair they would also get the Unreal Engine tech and all it's future iterations.

No one will buy it though if its first party in house.

A billion dollars is a ton of money to spend on EPIC. Might as well keep partnering with them instead.

[Joni]

Well to be fair they would also get the Unreal Engine tech and all it's future iterations.

And nobody would use it because they'd have to pay one of their biggest competitors to use it. cfr. Renderware, Criterion and EA situation.

[sprocket]

I would sell.

[LittleTokyo]

A billion huh? How much did they spend on Rare?

[Joni]

A billion huh? How much did they spend on Rare?

$377 million

[WrikaWrek]

MS could buy Rockstar and the GTA IP with 1 billion. Obviously, this ain't happening.

[Elbrain]

Holy hell if this is true! It would be sad if Epic once bought turned out like Rare!

[squatingyeti]

Actually they don't make it public but I remember hearing it was closer to 1 million. It cost $350,000 for the UE2 license. Here is a quote from Epics licensing.

In the SK lawsuit against Epic, it was revealed they paid something like 750k for UE3 IIRC.

It doesn't make this story any more true. Haven't people learned, if you buy a company, you usually don't retain the talent.