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Epic Blames Piracy For Shift Away From PC
Epic Games cut its teeth in the PC market with games like Jazz Jackrabbit and Unreal, but it's hard not to notice what appears to be more of a focus on console games. Aside from its Unreal engine, which the company licenses out to other developers, Epic's biggest push comes from its Gears of War franchise. Gears does appear on PC, but the series' console roots are tough to ignore. What's behind the apparent shift in focus from PC to console? According to Epic, the answer is relatively simple.
In an interview with Edge magazine, Epic president Mike Capps cites piracy as the primary motivation behind the move. The Sixth Axis has posted excerpts of the interview, in which Capps says "the money's on console."
“If you walked into [Epic's Offices] six years ago, Epic was a PC company," says Capps. "We did one PS2 launch title, and everything else was PC. And now, people are saying ‘Why do you hate the PC? You’re a console-only company.’
“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.”
Whether or not you agree with Capps, one thing's clear: The perception of piracy's effects has spurred the company to move to greener pastures. As a company, Epic's job is to make money. If something gets in the way of that goal, don't expect them to stick around solely out of loyalty for a platform that may no longer make financial sense.
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