Epic Games Purchases Reality Engine

Epic Games has completed the purchase of the Reality Engine from Artificial Studios and hired its founder, and lead engine programmer, Tim Johnson. According to the company, Tim will Unreal Engine 3 development team and will be at E3 next week.

What does this mean for Unreal Engine 3 I hear you ask, well if the information on the Reality Engine site is correct UE3 could be getting more features such as Dynamic Day/Night Lighting & Shadowing, Full Realtime Radiosity (PRT) Pipeline, Soft Full-Scene Realtime Shadowing and a GUI Editor.

Epic have stated that: "it does not intend to continue sales, development, or support of the Reality Engine, but will review its technologies for inclusion into Unreal Engine 3. Developers who had purchased Reality Engine licenses prior to this sale will be offered upgrades to Unreal Engine 3 at significantly discounted prices and should contact [email protected] for more details."

"I am thrilled about joining the team at Epic Games" said Tim Johnson. "I'm a long-time fan of Unreal games and technology, and I am proud to be joining a company I consider to be a world leader in both game development and next generation middleware."

"We're very excited to have Tim Johnson join Epic Games," said Epic founder and CEO, Tim Sweeney. "He brings six years of engine development experience to the Unreal Engine 3 development team, and he's already brimming with ideas on how to improve our technology. Tim is a great fit for Epic - he clearly understands all sides of the licensing business, from engineering to customer support to business development. He will have a huge positive impact on our company and our engine licensees."