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Fortnite - At A Glance
It’s September 2018 and in the one year since its release, Fortnite has become a phenomenon, with crossover into mainstream entertainment culture unlike anything since 2016’s Summer of Pokemon GO. So how did we get here?


At A Glance

1991
Oct 01
In the Beginning

Tim Sweeney founds Potomac Computer Systems in Potomac, Maryland. Since Sweeney is a college student, the business is headquartered in his parents house, because that’s where his computer is kept. He develops and publishes ZZT, an action-adventure puzzle game for MS-DOS.

1992
Jan 31
Epic MegaGames
Epic MegaGames

Thanks to ZZT’s surprising success, Sweeney launches Epic MegaGames.

1993
Jun 11
Epic Pinball is released.

It was the publisher's top-selling shareware game ever.

1998
May 22
Unreal
<em>Unreal</em>

Unreal, a first-person shooter game, introduces gaming developers to the Unreal Engine, a source-available game engine developed in Sweeney’s garage. Since then, over the course of four releases, Unreal Engine has been used to develop hundreds of other titles.

1999
Feb 02
Epic Games
Epic Games

Company relocates to Cary, North Carolina and officially changes its name to Epic Games.

2006
Nov 07
From PC to XBOX 360
From PC to XBOX 360

Epic releases its first console game, Gears of War, for Xbox 360 and grosses close to ten times its $12 million development budget.

2008
Nov 07
A Console Franchise
A Console Franchise

Gears of War 2 sells over three million copies in its first month of release.

2011
Sep 20
Gears of War 3 is released

During an internal game jam, Epic developers on the team reportedly come up with the idea of merging construction and shooter games. Whether they were dipping chocolate into peanut butter at the time has not been substantiated.

2012
Jun 04
Epic partners
Epic partners

Seeking to shift their business more to a gaming-as-a-service model, Epic partners with the China-based Tencent Holdings Limited, which acquires 40% of the company.

2014
Aug 07
Unreal Engine Marketplace

Epic launches the Unreal Engine Marketplace, a store where game creators can purchase digital content created by other developers and artists to use in their own projects.

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