Epic Games has announced that they have formed a new Seattle-based studio to concentrate specifically on Unreal Engine 4 development.
The name of Epic‘s new studio was not revealed, but the company did say that it would focus first on “engineering efforts” for the next-gen engine. Towards that end, they have seven programmer positions at the new Seattle studio listed on their Careers Center page.
Back in July, Epic Games announced that their upcoming PC game Fortnite is the first Unreal Engine 4 title in development. Though not specifically mentioned in the press release, it seems reasonable that this new studio would also be supporting development of Fortnite as they work on the next generation engine.
Full press release below:
Epic Games Launches New Seattle Studio
Seattle arm to accelerate Unreal Engine 4 development efforts
CARY, N.C. (September 6, 2012) – Epic Games, Inc. announces the establishment of a new Seattle studio, which will be initially focused on engineering efforts for its award-winning Unreal Engine 4 (UE4) technology. As of today, Epic is recruiting developers to work on its latest technological projects.
Epic is searching for exceptional programmers and support staff to collaborate with its engineering group, which maintains a median industry experience of 12 years. Epic is especially looking to hire senior-level talent specializing in online game services and the infrastructure to support them. Job listings for Epic’s Seattle office can be found at http://www.epicgames.com/careers/seattle.
“The proximity to key partners, the density of world-class talent and all the factors that make Seattle an attractive place to live convinced us that it is the perfect locale for Epic’s West Coast operation,” said Epic Games President Dr. Michael Capps. “We are looking to hire even more of the best engineers around to contribute to Unreal Engine 4, which we believe is set to change the way we all make games.”
The Unreal Engine, which has been commercially available and continually evolving since the mid-1990s, has been licensed for hundreds of popular games. Unreal Engine 3 (UE3), which operates on nine platforms, has been licensed to develop more than 300 games since 2006, when Epic shipped the original “Gears of War” game. UE4, revealed earlier this year, recently won IGN’s “Coolest Tech” Best of E3 2012 award, Game Informer’s “Best Tech” E3 2012 award and GamesRadar’s “Best Taste of Next Gen” E3 award.