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Former Epic president Mike Capps joins Remedy's board of directors
Mike Capps' summer vacation comes to a close today, as the former Epic Games president accepts a new role at Quantum Break developer Remedy Entertainment. Capps joins Remedy's board of directors and will help guide the growing studio of more than 100 employees. Remedy CEO Matias Myllyrinne emphasizes the need for experienced guidance. "Like any team, I think a good board is a combination of different kinds of skill sets, and different kinds of strengths that really come together. That's the way, in my experience, the best teams work," Myllyrinne tells GamesIndustry International. "Obviously Mike has a tremendous track record in the games industry. He's been very successful and has proven himself over and over again." Capps stepped down from his position as president of Epic Games late last year to take on a more limited advisory role within the company. Capps then fully broke away from Epic in March and considered advisory board positions at other gaming companies before settling on Remedy Entertainment.
Former Epic prez Mike Capps leaves advisory role [update]
Former Epic Games president Mike Capps announced this evening he is no longer affiliated with the developer. Capps announced late last year that he would no longer be president at the privately held company, but would stay on in an advisory role."So what's next for me? Games have been so good to me, and I'm delighted to have the time to give back. I'm a member of several game industry boards, and I'm proud to serve as an advocate for our art in Washington," wrote Capps on Facebook this evening. "I'm considering seats on a few company and advisory boards, as well as options for teaching at one of the world-class universities in the North Carolina Triangle area. And mostly, I'm focused on being a new dad in a few short weeks."Capps' second "retirement" gives us a good opportunity to repeat all the uncomfortable events of recent memory. Let's see, there's the minority purchase of Epic by Chinese company Tencent. The exits of design director Cliff Bleszinski, director of production Rod Fergusson and leads of People Can Fly. Then there's the terribly awkward situation of Impossible Games, established out of the Big Huge Games remains, which Epic shut down last month. Epic Games' next game is Gears of War: Judgment... judgment... judgment.Update: Epic has provided an official statement: "When Mike Capps retired last year, he stayed on the board in an advisory role. As we've been mapping out the future for the new Epic Games, we decided it was best to get a fresh start with the new management. We thank Mike for his years of service at Epic and we wish him well in retirement and fatherhood."
Epic prez. Mike Capps leaving position, will remain on board in advisory role
Epic Games president Mike Capps declared his "retirement" today from the position he's held for nearly ten years, noting he's been asked to stay on the privately held company's board in an advisory role."I'll continue to be available as a resource to Epic, to provide context or advice where I can. Whatever I can do to help in Epic's success, I'm in! I've got great confidence in our executive team," Capps wrote in his farewell on the company's site. "VP of Development Paul Meegan is new to our Raleigh HQ, but we've worked with him for years, and I can only contemplate this retirement knowing that he and VP of Operations John Farnsworth can manage development better than I ever did."Capps' retirement is the latest shake-up for the company this year, which has seen (wow, really, all of this?): the departure of design director and totem Cliff Bleszinski, the departure of director of production Rod Fergusson, the purchase of People Can Fly (which also saw the departure of key people), establishment of Impossible Games out of Big Huge Games' remains and that big question mark that exists about Chinese company Tencent's minority purchase.
Epic's Mike Capps on opening the door to Tencent and its 'unparalleled expertise' in China
Epic Games announced yesterday it sold a minority interest in the company to China's Tencent Holdings. It was the first time in 21 years the Unreal Engine creator and Gears of War and Infinity Blade developer accepted outside investment."We've always taken pride in being an independent developer of fun games and cutting-edge technology," Epic Games president Mike Capps said in prepared statements about why the company took a major investment deal after such a long time. "We want to assure our players and licensees that this transaction only brings more to the table in terms of what we can offer them.""Epic has worked with Tencent for years through our Unreal Engine licensing relationship," Capps added. "They have fantastic inroads into attractive markets and platforms, and Epic has been carefully weighing its options for the next generation of games for quite some time. We can learn a lot from Tencent, and strategically aligning with them was an easy decision."Capps explained that Epic will maintain all intellectual property rights and maintain the Unreal Engine licensing business. He wouldn't comment if this is just the prelude to a full buyout. Capps makes no secret of Tencent being a long-term partner, but notes Epic enjoys its independence.
Bulletstorm studio involved in new Gears of War game
It seems that last year's rumors were at least in part true, and that Bulletstorm studio People Can Fly is involved in the latest Gears of War project. Epic Games president Mike Capps admitted as much on Twitter, where he said, "YES YES YES!" when asked whether the recently announced Gears of War title had "involvement" from the Polish dev studio.Last November, a rumor popped up that People Can Fly were working on a prequel in the Gears of War franchise – not exactly an unsurprising move considering the studio's lack of financial success with its last game, despite critical acclaim. It's unclear how much involvement PCF has in the next Gears title, or if the game is a prequel, but Epic promises we'll hear more on Monday during Microsoft's E3 press conference.
Mike Capps: Epic Games has a PC-exclusive game in the works
Gears of War and Fortnite dev Epic Games is getting back to its roots with a PC-exclusive project, creative lead Cliff Bleszinski and president Mike Capps announced today during a PAX East panel. "We might be working on a PC-only title," Capps teased, before Bleszinski picked up where he left off: "Let me say that again: we are working on a PC game."The panel is still going on, but we'll be sure to chat to the Epic folks as soon as it's over.Update: Epic Games prez Mike Capps told us after the panel that the unannounced PC project is currently underway, and that the current plans are to keep the game exclusive to the PC platform. Unsurprisingly, he wouldn't tell us anything else.
Mike Capps: New IP is 'radically different' for Epic
When Epic finally pulls the cover off its big VGA debut this Saturday, don't be surprised if what's underneath looks nothing like a muscly space marine. Epic's Mike Capps tells GamesIndustry.biz that the recently teased IP is "radically different" for the company's internal Cary, NC team. "So this is going to be one of those projects where we try something totally different, and it just went 'boom,' because everyone had this pent up energy to do something new," Capps told the site. Exciting! So, how does Capps and Co. plan to harness this new wave of intense funnovation? You'll never guess. "I can't wait for [the team] to get back to something like Gears in the future," he continued, "because it's sort of our bread and butter, and they're going to be more energized for it." Hooray for video games!
Infinity Blade 2 coming to iOS December 1
After pulling down $20 million in revenue on Infinity Blade (no seriously) it should come as no surprise that Epic just announced Infinity Blade 2 during Apple's iPhone 4S announcement keynote. Better yet: It's coming December 1. While Epic's Mike Capps insisted it's "only going to run like this on the iPhone 4S," it doesn't sound like the game will be exclusive to the new device. Also of note: Need, want, please, now.%Gallery-135728%
Seen@GDC Europe: Epic Games president Mike Capps' adorable laptop wallpaper
Hello Gears of War! As seen above, Epic Games prez Mike Capps has a taste for the ironic in his desktop wallpapers. So, what do we call this adorable little symbol ... COGKitty? Perhaps Hello Kitty of War? She'll chainsaw right through you with a lollipop!
Why Epic Games hasn't made Shadow Complex 2 (but 'never say never')
When Shadow Complex was released in 2009, it received critical praise and became a commercial hit. After Epic Games announced that Chair's next game would instead be an iOS title named Infinity Blade, many were curious as to what had happened to the obligatory, post-success sequel. "The reviews were great, it was a record seller for a single-player game on the platform, but at the same time we've got this mobile gaming push that's coming in strong," Epic Games president Mike Capps explained this morning during his GDC Europe keynote. "And the big thing for me was that we were looking what the iPhone could do, and the games that were on iPhone, and we thought there was a huge gap, so we put our engine team on the problem, and that's where we came up with Infinity Blade," Capps said. "We were thinking about the sequel [to Shadow Complex], we were ready and 'Maybe we should start working on this,' and instead stopped everything and went and made Infinity Blade." Capps expanded on the possibility of a Shadow Complex sequel when I followed up with him after his presentation. "Never say never," he offered. Of course, when Chair head Donald Mustard answered the same question earlier this year, he said that such a sequel is "a question of when, not if."
Five games in development at Epic Games, none from the Gears of War franchise
During an Epic Games culture-heavy talk this morning at GDC Europe, company president Mike Capps briefly noted several projects that are currently in some form of development at his company. According to a slide entitled "So what's our next story," there are currently "five new games at various stages of prototyping and development" at Epic Games. "We didn't multiply our team size by five, so you can assume they're smaller games," Capps said. While he's "not ready to announce anything" just yet in terms of consoles or what studios are working on said prototypes (People Can Fly? Chair? Internal?), he said that the PC is now the company's target platform, rather than a recipient of ported console games. I followed up with Capps after his talk, where he added that both People Can Fly and Chair are part of Epic's "big happy family," though wouldn't put any of the projects to one particular label. He also confirmed that the recent job listing on Epic's website is relevant to these five unannounced projects in development at the studio. The "Samaritan" tech demo, however, is not one of them.
Bulletstorm worth making despite not being profitable, says Epic
Speaking with Kotaku, Epic President Mike Capps lamented Bulletstorm's financial performance, saying that the title "didn't make money for us." However, despite its relatively poor sales, Capps implies that the game was still worth making, and that Epic-owned developer People Can Fly is more to the studio than a content farm for the Gears of War series. "The next thing we do with People Can Fly will be great," he said. We loved Bulletstorm, so it's good to hear that lackluster figures in the consumer sector haven't blinded Epic to the FPS's stellar critical reception. Now that we think about it, a lot of games we've liked lately have been selling poorly. Maybe Joystiq is cursed? Maybe we shouldn't have stolen that gypsy's ice-cream. Or defiled that mummy's tomb. Or built our headquarters over this ancient burial mound. Whatever, this monkey's paw we got at that frogurt place should take care of it.
Gears of War 3 rating in Germany 'pleasantly shocked' Epic president
Epic Games president Mike Capps says he and the company were just as surprised as anyone else when Gears of War 3 obtained a classification in Germany. Last week, Gears of War 3 received an "18" rating from the German USK, making it the first Gears not to be indexed in the region. "I wish I could give you a list, because then I could tell you I wasn't shocked when I heard we didn't get indexed. I was very much surprised, I'll admit," Capps told us when we asked what changes Epic had made to the franchise formula to get the game rated. "To me, Gears 3 is not just more of Gears 2, but tons more. ... It doesn't immediately strike me as something easier to pass through. It's not a modified version there. We have a "no gore" filter, but we've had that for Gears. We didn't do anything special for Germany this time." Capps is, of course, happy that Epic can finally bring its biggest series to Germany. He told us the country was the developer's "second biggest support center for Epic products," and that Unreal Tournament was huge there. He also mentioned that several members of the company's staff at the Raleigh studio are from Germany, including their engine lead. So, is there any chance of Gears of War 1 and 2, perhaps in their Triple Pack format, being resubmitted for approval in Germany? "That's a fantastic idea." Capps said enthusiastically. "We didn't try to submit it at all. I don't think anyone thought to. We'll give it a shot."
Epic's Mike Capps: Game industry at 'an inflection point'
According to Epic president Mike Capps, the times are definitely a-changing for the games industry. Capps recently told Industry Gamers that the future of the games industry has not been so "uncertain" in twenty years. He questioned whether or not physical retail distribution of games will still exist in five to ten years, what will become of next-generation consoles and how PC gaming will fare. His number one concern, however, seems to be the current trend of incredibly cheap mobile games. The one thing "killing" traditional game creators, said Capps, is "dollar apps," adding that it could be hard to sell a $60 game to a consumer used to paying pennies. Capps isn't the first traditional game creator to express concern over the ever-growing stream of cheap games. During a GDC keynote earlier this year, Nintendo president Satoru Iwata had harsh words for inexpensive mobile games, asking whether or not they really offer a "high value." Nintendo's Reggie Fils-Aime recently offered similar comments, noting that Nintendo isn't interested in publishing the work of inexperienced developers, a stark contrast to the relatively open publishing structures in iOS and Android development. Of course, mobile developers aren't keeping quiet. Peter Vesterbacka, head of Angry Birds developer Rovio, recently fired back at Fils-Aime, stating that it made sense for traditional game publishers to defend their "$49 piece of plastic." For what it's worth, while Capps admits that times are uncertain, they are also "exciting" for developers and publishers that make the right choices. In other words, there's going to be a showdown.
Epic's Mike Capps talks about Epic Citadel and the future of iOS gaming
Gamasutra cornered Epic Games' Mike Capps (he of the very impressive Epic Citadel demo yesterday at the Apple special event), and Capps confirms that what you see running on your iPhone is the real deal -- Unreal Engine 3, with all of the bells and whistles that it has on the major HD consoles. The actual game that Project Sword will become is being designed by Chair (which is the same group that did the popular Shadow Complex game for Xbox 360), and we'll see the full project soon. Capps also confirms that UE 3 needs at least an iPhone 3GS to run, but he says that in terms of hardware, Apple's devices are right where they need to be. High-resolution textures are an issue (you can't install a 15gb game on an 16gb portable device), but the memory and speed are actually there, says Capps. "You've got 16 gigs of flash memory," he says, "which is way better, faster memory than what most people have generally on a home PC. So that stuff works really well." The biggest issue holding handheld gaming back is larger environments, but game developers are getting better and better at designing worlds that render quickly and well to all kinds of platforms. And Capps looks into the future, and sees even more possibilities for Apple and their product lines. "It doesn't take a whole lot of leaps of faith to say, 'Right now, I can display from my iPad to my Apple TV on a big screen TV.' How far away are we from 'that's my game console, and it's displaying wirelessly to my television set?' It's not far away." That's kind of a trippy thought -- that Apple had to finally move away from the Mac to earn a larger foothold in gaming. It's very heartening, as a gamer and an Apple fan, to hear Capps as excited as he is about the possibilities for iOS and the App Store. [via Joystiq[
Epic talks Project Sword, Unreal Engine on iPhone, and Apple TV as a game console
Following yesterday's dramatic announcement of Project Sword for iOS -- and the dramatic release of the free Epic Citadel tech demo -- Gamasutra spoke to Epic's Mike Capps about the games and the platform. Capps said that putting Unreal Engine 3 content on iPhone wasn't as hard as it seemed, thanks to the device's storage space that can come in handy for textures. "You've got 16 gigs of flash memory, which is way better, faster memory than what most people have generally on a home PC," he said. "So that stuff works really well. It's the big environments that get really complicated on the rendering tools for iPhone. But yeah, we've got some tricks for it." Capps has his eyes on the future of the platform, both for Epic's own games and licensees. "We've got a few of our licensees using [the iOS tools for UE3] now, who've been testing it with us. So we'll roll it out to existing licensees and then start opening up. I think [Epic VP] Mark Rein has a big plan for how they're going to roll it out and make sure everybody's using it." Capps also thinks there's potential to turn the new Apple TV into a game console of sorts. "... I can't wait to throw our engineers at it and see if we can get the latency we need to be able to play a game interactively over that wireless link to the Apple TV," he said. "I sure hope so."%Gallery-101015%
Epic's Mike Capps: PC piracy 'changed our business model'
Recent comments from Epic Games president Mike Capps in Edge Magazine (via Develop) show the developer's frustration with the PC piracy scene, as well as its hesitance to fully embrace the platform. "We still do PC, we still love the PC, but we already saw the impact of piracy: it killed a lot of great independent developers and completely changed our business model," Capps said. Of course, Epic's shift to console development (think: Gears of War) also makes a lot of cents ... err, sense. "And now, people are saying 'why do you hate the PC? You're a console-only company.' It's because the money's on consoles," he said. Capps' candid stance likely doesn't preclude future success on PC -- there's still fertile land out there -- but for now, Epic has prioritized console blockbusters. It's a shame it'll have to miss out on that $13 billion pie, though. We know how much Cliff Bleszinski likes his pie.
Epic has high hopes for Unreal Engine 4, not worried about CryEngine yet
With the Unreal Engine 4 targeted for use on the next console generation (whenever that is), Epic President Mike Capps is confident that the product will have "better dominance" than its already ubiquitous Unreal Engine 3. Speaking with Edge, Capps notes the next console generation is "really murky compared to last time," but sees the next-gen tech hanging around the mean streets of the PC market. Capps also isn't getting antsy about Crytek's CryEngine 3 being the best solution for developers. He explained, "They've positioned themselves strongly as the 'we're gonna be on console, push one button and it's great on all three platforms' engine. ... They've yet to ship an Xbox 360 game and we're five years in. It surprises me that people take them seriously as a crossplatform engine company. We don't know how to compete against a company that hasn't shipped yet. It's all potential, so we'll see." Crytek previously stated its next engine would arrive in 2012. Now, the real question: will Crytek or Epic even have "next generation consoles" to sell these newfangled engines for in the next couple years?
Epic president hints at new game announcement at E3
Epic Games president Mike Capps is already teasing some kind of new announcement at E3. Speaking to VentureBeat at the Interactive Achievement Awards, Capps responded to a question about possible new games by saying that "We might have a new one coming. I think E3 is going to be really exciting for fans of Epic." You can see him make this statement on video after the break. It might have a new one coming? Shouldn't he know? What kind of company doesn't keep its own president in the loop? Oh, we get it. He's being coy. So what's this new game? It could be the "Shooter from Epic TBA" listed in EA's schedule for early 2011. Which could be People Can Fly's "Bulletstorm." We suppose "fans of Epic" would be happiest with a sequel to one of the company's franchises, so a new Unreal, Gears of War or even Shadow Complex is always a possibility. It's probably not a new Jill of the Jungle. Which is too bad. [Thanks, Fintan!]
Overheard@DICE: How do you define indie?
"I find this talk offensive." -- A half-joking independent developer listening to Chris Taylor of Gas Powered Games and Epic's Mike Capps discussing being independent studios at DICE. But, how do we define independent? And is it different from being "indie?" We know that Mega 64 has a violent reaction about the latter question. Now, it's hard to imagine Mike Capps, who swims in a pool of Unreal Engine cash, being defined as independent. He even dryly stated during the conversation, "We became Microsoft five years ago." However, Chris Taylor, whose company doesn't have an engine that runs many of the games out there stated, "My children will probably not go to college because of Demigod." He also mentioned that in 2008 the company went from 125 people to 45 and then had to build back up again. But does a company's bank account make it independent or is it a state of mind? In fairness, Mike Capps was a last minute replacement for Double Fine's Tim Schafer, so the original pairing may have been less jarring. But, the indie developer got us thinking: what are the lines that define the perception of independence?
