$2,000,000,000
Tim Sweeney
Net Worth
Born in (City)
Potomac, Maryland
Born in (Country)
United States
Date of Birth
15th December, 1970
Date of Death
-
Mother
Father
About
Founded by Tim Sweeney in 1991, Epic Games is an American video gaming and software developer company and was originally called Potomac Computer Systems. ZZT was the first video game released by the company in 1991 after the success of which Potomac came to be known as Epic MegaGames, Inc. in 1992. During the same Mark Rein, bought the company and is till date the Vice President of Epic. The original headquarters of Epic was in Potomac where Tim’s parents lived. In 1999 the headquarters shifted to Cary and the name of the company, for the ease of pronunciation, was changed to Epic Games.
One really can’t miss Sweeney while talking about Epic. Timothy Dean Sweeney is a video game programmer, billionaire, and conservationist. He always had a knack for mechanics and became interested in arcade games in the 1970s. The founder of Epic worked really hard to teach himself basic computer languages and programming.
Apart from being an exceptional developer cum businessman Sweeney is also known for his philanthropic endeavours. He has salvaged more than 50,000 acres of forest land conserving the life of more than 130 rare and threatened plants and wildlife species. And has also donated acres of land to other conservation projects such as the United States Fish and Wildlife Service and Box Creek Wilderness.
Early Life
Tim Sweeney was raised in Potomac, Maryland, at a young age, he became interested in tinkering with mechanical and electrical devices. At the age of 11, Sweeney spent weeks with his elder brother in california, who had access to IBM Personal Computers. He learnt BASIC and established his interest in programming. He became interested in arcade games when they began to become popular in the late 1970s, knowing that like the mechanics devices he took apart and repaired, there were those that had programmed the games in the machines.
Sweeney estimated that between the ages of 11 and 15, he spent over 10,000 hours teaching himself how to program using information on online bulletin boards, and completed several games, though never shared these with others. He also learned from his brothers concepts of entrepreneurship.
Road to Success
Epic has had an extraordinary journey and has recently been making the headlines for quite a few range of issues. In 2017 the company’s additional investment expanded with the release of Fortnite Battle Royale, along with an expansion in the Unreal Engine offerings. As a marketing strategy, Epic also organized sport around Fortnite. In the subsequent year, they also launched the Epic Games Store while going exclusive at the same time by offering free games to customers who used the store.
Tim has also won many accolades for his exceptional contribution to PC gaming. In 2012 he was inducted into the Academy of Interactive Arts and Science Hall of Fame for “changing the face of gaming with the advent of Unreal Engine and the commitment of Epic to bring both consumer and industry-facing technology to new heights. According to Forbes, he has a net worth of $5.3 billion whereas Bloomberg estimates his wealth to $8.5 billion.
Epic's success, so far, can be attributed to the analytic prowess and keen business instinct of Sweeney and definitely the support and allegiance of his employees. In spite of a rocky road Epic still leads the leadership board of the video gaming industry.
Challenges
Epic also filed lawsuits against Apple and Google for banning Epic games on their respective app stores. This happened in response to Epic bypassing their payment system so as to avoid giving cuts in sales. After the ban, the gaming company launched a consumer rights-focused campaign on social media - #FreeFortnite. The motive of the campaign was to make mobile app stores to be fairer to both developers and consumers. In a response statement, Google pointed to the fact that users can technically install apps from other locations, and said using the Google Play store was a "choice". "While Fortnite remains available on Android, we can no longer make it available on Play because it violates our policies." On the other hand, Apple made a statement that, "Epic agreed to the App Store terms and guidelines freely and we’re glad they’ve built such a successful business on the App Store. The fact that their business interests now lead them to push for a special arrangement does not change the fact that these guidelines create a level playing field for all developers and make the store safe for all users”. In the feud with Apple, Sweeney twitted from his personal account that the fight is not about money but for the 'basic freedom of all consumers and developers'. “At the most basic level, we’re fighting for the freedom of people who bought smartphones to install apps from sources of their choosing, the freedom for creators of apps to distribute them as they choose, and the freedom of both groups to do business directly.” Hopefully, the companies will come to an amicable solution.
Some of the gaming veterans and critic's analysis pointed out that though Epic was offering a better deal to game developers and publishers they were not offering anything equivalent to the consumers. The cost of the games on Epic Store is similar to those on Steam. 'There aren't as many quality live features or bells and whistles when you purchase a game on the Epic Games Store and the games aren’t any cheaper for it’ said one of the reviews. According to Epic, the flood of exclusive titles and capitalism, for that matter has made them very popular which in a way, not a fair move. As of August 2020, the equity evaluation of the company is US$17.3 billion
Gamers across the globe are of the opinion that in order to make amends for excluding games from Steam, Epic needs to provide a good user experience or rather a better experience because there are another half of the market forces that enable capitalism, it's called consumer choice.
Consumers have been wary of Epic Games reliability because their partial investment comes from Tencent which is a Chinese company. These concerns are governed by the larger mistrust in the Chinese government. To which Epic has assured its western users that Tencent does not have access to any data and neither is the company providing any data to the Chinese government.
Sweeney is of the opinion that video games should tackle politics only from a creative perspective and not from a marketing one and that game platforms themselves should be “operating as neutral venues for entertainment and employees, customers — everybody else can hold their own views and not be judged by us for that”, he went on to explain in a Twitter post. As the keynote speaker at the annual DICE Summit Sweeney even went on to add that, “We need to create a very clear separation between church and state… employees, customers and everyone else should be able to express themselves. We as companies need to divorce ourselves from politics… platforms should be neutral.”
Failures
When Ripples popped up between Epic and Steam, which is the de-facto platform of PC gaming when Epic decided that the new game Metro Exodus will be exclusive to the Epic Game Store. Many gamers who were used to playing new titles exclusively through Valve’s Steam Platform were angry. While some PC gaming fans are found it tiresome to navigate through the new store and install new software to play the game of their choice there were others who tagged this move as foul play by the CEO and Epic Games Chinese investors Tencent. Many users who had pre-booked the new title on Valve through their bookings were honored the fans were still upset by Epic's decision of going all exclusive. Epic later went on record to agree that it made a mistake by making the games exclusive.
There is no doubt that Epic has built a strong base with the game store and has also given a lot of money to a lot of developers. Meanwhile, it has also given a tough competition to Steam – a digital distribution service for video games by Valve. While some gamers are happy to see Epic giving Steam a tough time others are wary of Epics actions. There are pros cons of the battle between Epic and Steam, what has gained a lot of limelight is Epics revenue split – 88% goes to the publisher – as over Steam’s where only 70% goes to the publisher. At GDC (Game Developer Conference), 2019 Epic revealed that their game store had
more than 80 million users out of which 40% were exclusive users i.e. they did not have a Steam account. Some of the gaming veterans and critics analysis
pointed out that though Epic was offering a better deal to game developers and publishers were not offering anything equivalent to the consumers. The
The cost of the games on Epic Store is similar to those on Steam. 'There simply aren’t as many quality life features or bells and whistles when you purchase a
game on the Epic Games Store and the games aren’t any cheaper for it’ said one of the reviews. According to Epic the flood of exclusive titles and capitalism, for that matter, has made them very popular which in a way, not a fair move. As of August 2020, the equity evaluation of the company is US$17.3 billion Gamers across the globe are of the the opinion that in order to make amends for excluding games from Steam, Epic needs to provide a good user experience or rather a better experience ’because there is another half of the market forces that enable capitalism, it’s called consumer choice’ Consumers have been wary of Epic Games reliability because their partial investment comes from Tencent which is a Chinese company. These concerns are governed by the larger mistrust in the Chinese government. To which Epic has assured its western users that Tencent does not have access to any data and neither is the company providing any data to the Chinese government.
Achievements
Wired magazine awarded him a Rave Award in 2007 for his work on Unreal Engine 3, the technology behind the blockbuster Gears of War.|In 2017, Sweeney was the recipient of the Lifetime Achievement Award at the Game Developers Choice Awards.