Their future is Epic: The evolution of a gaming giant
May 2, 2016“At our wedding, I got one of the last photos of the three of us together. It might be the last hurrah of us while we still worked together.”
In it, four beaming faces, all wide-eyed and smiling, look directly into the camera.
There’s Mark Rein, Epic Games’ co-founder and deal maker, leaning in from the left side, a genuinely happy look on his still boyish face. Tim Sweeney, employee number one and the other founder of Epic, leans slightly away from the camera, head almost imperceptibly tilted down, smiling. And in between the two founders is Cliff Bleszinski, arm wrapped around new wife Lauren, bow tie shining under a stubbled chin.
“That photo was right before the transition,” Bleszinski says.
On Aug. 4, 2012, the wedding photo booth captured a quiet, personal moment in the midst of what became a massive metamorphosis for Epic.
The month before, Tencent purchased 40 percent of the company. Months later, Bleszinski and a slew of other important figures left to retire, to start over, to find better fits.
It’s all led to what Sweeney calls the biggest change in the 25-year-old company’s history: Epic 4.0.
Read the full story on Polygon, where this original ran on May 2, 2016.
