It's funny, but considering Epic's past criticism of Microsoft, it's highly unlikly - the free maps for Gears of War and then Unreal Tournament III pretty much canned for 360 because of the way Live works.

If Epic want to retain that freedom, Microsoft aren't going to offer it.

...we all know its gonna happen...

The sites dumb, still thinks Microsoft own Bungie.

Money would probably drive the decision, but they dont like some of the stuff Microsoft does. They dont like how Games for Windows works, they love user generated content, and they love treating their fans to free stuff. All of which wouldn't happen if they joined Microsoft. And why would they want to be bought out? They continue to pull in money with UE3 licensing, and they have the freedom to do what they want.

So, once again Microsoft doesn't want to have to hassle with actually "competing" but instead wants to buy up more and more so that they technically own the entire industry?

Whats that? Is that an entirely new set of anti-trust lawsuits on the horizon?! RUN!

If Microsoft did buy Epic, would this mean that they could stop the Unreal engine being used for PS3 games?

I wonder..

Epic won't let that happen, they're making enough money on their own and don't need "big brother" over their shoulders

Like PirateThom said...I know for a fact that CliffyB isn't very happy with the way Microsoft conducts its game business...unless it was a hostile takeover, I don't see this happening.

Why not just locked down every Gears of War sequel with Epic instead? I don't see how purchasing them is a good move for MS when most don't care for their UT engine. Unless of course MS has a crystal ball and somehow feels Epics next UT engine will revolutionize the industry.

I see some of you seem to think this is a good move but I was dumbfounded just reading the title "Could Microsoft acquire Epic games?"

The first thing I said to myself before reading comments is why would they want too?

The article and above comments already state how good a move this could be for microsoft but I think Epic would do better on their own.

To begin with, Epic's entire philosphy of open customisable games(in the form of Mods, taditionally) completely contradicts microsofts closed, highly regimented platforms. Epic has seen a real oppurtinity to expand this "open-ness" to the console world with the PS3 so to close that off would be a mistake. Unless, of course, being part of microsoft would allow Microsoft to ease up on their controls or at the very least develop ways to more closely police their gaming network once they have opened it up a bit.

Next you would have to consider the potential lost revenues from the Unreal Engine. Yes, I am sure MS would still offer it out (even for none Xbox games) but probably at marked up licencing fees and who would be surprised to see that future iterations of the engine would strangely always work better on MS hardware rather than competiters? Plus independant gaming companies would always prefer to buy an engine from another independant company where no biases would ever be involved.

I think Epic is on a good role at the moment being a great independant developer I hope they don't cash that in.

Overall though I think it would be a great move for MS.

they defenetley have the power to do it, so it could happen.....

EPIC and MSFT haven`t been seeing eye to eye lately.

i doubt it, but who knows?

Well if it happens expect Epic's games to go down hill very very quickly.....

MS needs to make HUGE moves for the Xbox 360. And getting EPIC is a leap forward. Gears 2 is SURE to come this year.
But i Have a feeling there is 1 GAME that will be the "Bioshock" of 2008...and that is "ALAN WAKE". Which is exclusive for the xbox 360.
LOOK IT UP GUYS. It will be a SUPRISE HIT.

Epic Bullshit.

The games made with those companies are more Xbox friendly anyway, and get most of their sales from the Xbox.

One thing for sure is MS is going to buy up someone this year, bet on it. Don't know who it will be but but I expect it to be a big one.

I personally believe Microsoft should concentrate on their core business which is making software. I believe It'll be better for the company (from a financial point of view) to abandon its 360 division and only make software (games) for Sony and Nintendo.

FROM ARTICLE:"Microsoft already owns Bungie, the develop of the wildly popular Halo game franchise, so a deal for Epic would follow precedent."

This guy is clueless! Still owns Bungie?!! Ok i believe him now. Probably same "source" told him that Bungie is still owned by MS.

hey why don't they buy SONY while they're at it? and rest of the world oh or maybe Epic doesn't want to be sold MS doesn't own Bungie not anymore MS made it clear a few times that it's fed up paying gaming devision bills

this could be huge

well it would suck if it was true because Mark Rein said that he saw potential in the PS3 and wanted to do something cool with it, he also said that he prefers it mainly because of the Modding capabilities

that being said- $1bn is a HUMUNGOUS amount of cash and i doubt Epic would refuse that kind of deal

the source is kinda dodgy though- it said that M$ still owns Bungie which it obviously doesn't

@hella whip - Don't they still own Bungie? I thought they just allowed Bungie to make what they wanted? Instead of being restricted to what MS wants?

I would not be surprised if this happened. This would be a huge blow to the PS3 & Microsoft has over 40 Billion Dollars sitting around thanks to Yahoo not accepting that money. This can happen & hey Microsoft could also go after Insomniac eventually

I think MS owns like 49% of Bungie, meaning its second party dev now. MS now owns the Halo IP so no it won't come out on any other console expect for the Xbox brand and/or the PC platform.

Buying Epic would be a good move tbh but I doubt buying them for $1 billion would be that good of investment. So then UT4 and Gears of War series would be exclusive to the 360 and any new IP's. I still think that MS should of bought Bizzare (makers of PGR series), Bioware and a few other studios.

awesome another game studio ms can ruin by buying them and forcing them to make the games they want hopefuly this isnt tru cause i like epic and they are much better off without ms

Probably just BS, but makes a lot of sense on Microsoft's part.

Not only do they lock up Unreal Tournament and Gears of Wars as PC/Xbox360 exclusives (although isn't Gears a MS owned IP anyway?), but they also get Unreal Engine.

Gears is now arguably the biggest franchise on 360 (assuming Halo 4 doesn't drop any time soon!), why not take it (and Epic) in-house. Everything Epic creates seems to 'fit' the MS/360 business model and target market - big, brash, action orientated, western feel games.

Also MS can make money licensing the engine and using it for it's own exclusives. They can invest in UE to make it the best cross platform (i.e. PC and 360) engine and middleware solution while also making it less appealing for PS3 development.

Epic are a still a small developer. So it's no surprise that Silicon Knights etc have criticised them for not supporting the engine as well as they could. MS have the funds to strengthen the support and invest in engine development. It gives them a solid platform not just for 360 development, but also for future XBox's and PC's.

The reason this could be rubbish is because of Epic's slowly souring relationship with MS... They've already made clear their disappointment that MS are not being wholly cooperative letting user generated content on to the 360 for Unreal Tourney. And also, that they are not impressed with MS forcing them to charge for DLC.

On the other hand their relationship with Sony seems pretty strong. Maybe that concerns MS.

If MS pick up Epic it's probably a much better move than their purchase of Rare!! Personally the model I would like to see in the industry is big publishers employee independent devs for 1 off titles - the devs retain autonomy but get the funding and support of the big publishers.

I would.

still own bungie?????where does he get info like that?

Why would they though? Yeah they have Gears but that series would almost be over after this next one anyways. Then as for licenses for the engine right now Epic is really taking a beating from the lawsuits especially if Silicon wins. I think that there will be alot less people who get the unreal engine next time unless if there is alot of appeasement by Epic.

If MS does buy Epic it would be a huge blow to the compition due to the fact that

1. The unreal engine would be use exclusivly for MS.
2. The Gears series and UT series are exclusive. <--- Very huge factor
3. Mad advertising for said Gears and UT. (And we all know that MS knows how to advertise look at Halo for example.)

MS needs Epic and ID (even though Epic is overrated). Valve already hates the PS3. FPS trifecta complete. Sorry, but Insomniac and Guerilla cannot compete with the veterans.

If I am not mistaken there was a bid last year from MS to buy Epic. But it fall apart because MS wanted to keep Live closed and not open to mods and letting devs do what they want. But if this would happen I guess MS changed there mind and this would be really neat to see happen.

Plus if this could happen mods could be really great on the 360. Plus this would give MS another dev team that makes great games. I can't wait to hear more on this.

All i ever read is M$ should buy this or that bla bla bla

Yahoo said NO to M$ cuz they dont like M$ fact!
So now its they should buy epic or Logitech or this or that~

cuz they can? surrrrreeee...... window's and office royalties dont givem that much anymore so they need New ways to get Royalties errr money lol

and why epic all of a sudden cuz Gears is the only game anyone with a 360 has to look for and might go multi-plat? mabey not on PS3 but sure as heck on PC and Mac, so whats the point in 360 when u can get a beter version on PC and Mac?

And from the look of M$ game studios it would be horrid for any game studio to get bought out cuz M$ Sucks the life from it, bungie n Rare are good example's of what happins to a M$ bought company,
IT DIES.

And omg when will peapole stop listing to the dribble these Analist's and critics or editors of a magazine say cuz its so full of bull

although I wouldn't really want Sony to buy Epic either. Or Nintendo for that matter. I'm just not much into monopolization of the industry, where one company is free to hike up the prices however they want because There's no competition.

But after the debacle with Unreal Engine 3, I'm not so sure about this. A lot of developers are weary of using Unreal Engine now since it was first marketed as the savior of next-gen development, but has turned out to be a financial and creative hassle.

I'm pretty sure a while ago we heard news Sony was having epic create a new IP for them, how the heck does that work? Considering Sony may be funding it.

Getting swallowed by MS is more like a kiss of death, than a step forward.

Sometimes I wonder if MS intentionally tries to ruin the console games business for some darker sinister scheme to be revealed ;)

definitely