Epic Games has been on a bit of a spending spree of late. Not content with buying entire shopping malls, it has now also completed the acquisition of a Washington software developer.
Epic Games Snaps Up RAD Game Tools
The time is apparently ripe for large corporations to be buying smaller outfits. Nintendo recently bought out Next Level Games, and now Epic Games has joined the feeding frenzy, grabbing RAD Game Tools from the ocean of opportunity.
Epic confirmed via a news post on its website that it “has acquired the technology and business of RAD Game Tools.” RAD joins SuperAwesome and Hypersense Team in the Epic fold, both of which Epic also recently bought out.
RAD, a software development company based out of Kirkland, has seen its technology used across roughly 25,000 video game titles. So, buying it out is a shrewd move by the developers of the Unreal Engine…
What Does Rad Game Tools Offer Epic?
RAD Game Tools is the developer of compression technology; essentially software that makes games load, look, and play better.
Given that Epic Games developed the Unreal game engine, and developers build swathes of titles around Unreal Engine, it makes sense that Epic would want to incorporate RAD’s tech into its own.
Kim Libreri, Epic Games CTO, confirms this, stating:
We know first-hand how impressive RAD’s compression technology is, having used it to improve the load time and quality of our most popular games—including Fortnite. The RAD team includes some of the world’s leading compression, video and game dev tooling experts, and we are thrilled to welcome them to the Epic family.
The news post goes on to say exactly what this buy-out means in terms of Epic Games software:
RAD and Epic combining forces will allow even more developers access to tools that make their games load and download faster, and offer their players a better, higher quality video and gaming experience.
So, it seems like Fortnite is about to look even more visually sumptuous.
What Does the Takeover Mean for RAD?
Not a tremendous amount will actually change for RAD. It will still be able to continue supporting existing partners across media.
RAD will even still be able to maintain and issue new licenses to customers, whether or not they use Unreal Engine. Gracious of Epic Games, considering they now own the company and therefore, presumably, any money it makes…
Jeff Roberts, founder of RAD, remains suitably buoyant:
Our work with Epic goes back decades, and joining forces is a natural next step given our alignment on products, mission, and culture. We both believe that solid technologies enable developers to build beautiful, performant, and reliable experiences. We’re excited and humbled to join the amazing Epic team.
It makes sense, then, to continue this relationship and see what Epic Games can achieve, working much more closely with RAD, beyond what the two have already executed together.
Onwards and Upwards for Epic Games
Epic Games seems to go from strength-to-strength of late. With a string of high-profile buy-outs under its belt, and a relocation to swanky, converted-mall offices, not even legal wrangles with Apple could stop Epic in its tracks right now.