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January 28, 2011

Epic Games Takes Home 2010 Front Line Award From Game Developer Magazine

Cary, NC, January 28, 2011 — Epic Games has been honored with its fifth Front Line Award for best engine by Game Developer magazine. The Front Line Awards are presented each year, recognizing the best game development tools and technologies in the industry. Game Developer describes this year’s finalists as representing “the most innovative, user-friendly, and useful products from behind the scenes of the world’s best video games – whether they be for AAA console titles, smartphone games or social network games.” After the magazine presented the finalists, the winners in each category were determined by readers via an online survey.

“This is the sixth year in a row that Game Developer magazine has given Epic a Front Line Award for Unreal Engine 3 , including 2008, when we were inducted into the Hall of Fame,” said Mark Rein, vice president of Epic Games. “We appreciate the attention of our peers and thank them for recognizing our consistency in quality and performance. We make massive amounts of improvements to Unreal Engine 3 every year, so it is always evolving and breaking new ground. At every point in time, Unreal Engine 3 is the best engine in the business. The products we have made and our licensees have made showcase this. We will continue to develop the best game engine technology so everyone will benefit from better games.”

In the awards issue, Game Developer highlights Unreal Engine 3 through a piece written by Tripwire Interactive’s lead level designer, Adam Hatch. Tripwire’s 2005 title Red Orchestra won Epic’s previous Make Something Unreal Contest, and their newest title, Red Orchestra 2: Heroes of Stalingrad, set to release later this year, is already generating positive buzz.

Hatch credits much of Tripwire’s success to Unreal Engine 3, and praises Epic’s Integrated Partners Program, as well as our QA, documentation, and support, explaining, “The Unreal Engine’s extensibility has proved to be incredibly valuable for us, allowing us to create a triple-A title with a solid tool set. It means our small (25-man) team has the ability to compete with big production houses, without the production costs.”

A full list of the finalists can be found at the Front Line Awards site, with the winners announced in the most recent issue of Game Developer.

Epic Front Line Award history timeline:

  • 2005 – Unreal Engine 3 is the first ever public real-time demo on PlayStation 3 hardware.
  • 2006 – Epic releases Gears of War, a flagship game for Xbox 360 that sets the bar for the platform. Gears of War sells more than 5 million copies and wins more than 30 game of the year awards.
  • 2007 – Epic’s Unreal Engine 3 licensees flourish, with releases like BioShock from 2K Games and Mass Effect from BioWare. Both games receive multiple game of the year awards.
  • 2008 – Epic ships Gears of War 2, which continues to push the technological envelope. Gears of War 2 sells more than 5 million copies, wins dozens of awards and is named GamePro’s Best Xbox 360 game of all time.
  • 2009 – Epic and ChAIR release Shadow Complex, a downloadable game that shatters expectations and sales records. Shadow Complex wins numerous Xbox LIVE game of the year awards and is dubbed by IGN as the best Xbox LIVE game of all time.
  • 2010 – Epic and ChAIR take the stage with Apple to show off groundbreaking technology on iOS devices. In December, ChAIR releases Unreal Engine 3-powered Infinity Blade, which media call “the Best iPhone game ever” and report to be the “fastest grossing app ever.” The game wins IGN’s iPhone Game of the Year.

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