In a statement on its website, Epic Games has announced that it has acquired RAD Game Tools, a video game development tool manufacturer. The Kirkland, Washington-based company provides a variety of programs for game developers, including the Bink video codec, Oodle data compression, and Telemetry performance visualization.
RAD’s products and technology appear in nearly 25,000 games and are used by the world’s top gaming companies. The mission of both companies going forward is to integrate RAD’s state-of-the-art technology into Unreal Engine to benefit both developers and gamers.
“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,” said Kim Libreri, CTO of Epic Games.
As graphics in game development become increasingly realistic and powerful, developers must be able to depend on top-notch compression software that can handle increased data requirements without sacrificing quality. RAD team members will work closely with Epic’s rendering, animation, insights, and audio teams to implement key technology and upgrades across Unreal Engine.
“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,” said Jeff Roberts, Founder and CEO of RAD Game Tools.
Although Epic now owns RAD, RAD will continue to work with its previous game industry, television, and film partners, including those who do not use Unreal Engine. The acquisition of RAD is the latest in a string of takeovers by Epic. Since 2019, the company has acquired 3Lateral, Agog Labs, Psyonix, Twinmotion, Houseparty, Quixel, Cubic Motion, Hyprsense, and SuperAwesome. Earlier this week, Epic announced that it had also acquired a shopping mall in North Carolina that will serve as its future headquarters.
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