Epic Games: 'We would have died three times' without Unreal Engine

Sweeney pointed to Ark: Survival Evolved and Rocket League as two smash hits that otherwise would have flown under the radar of an Epic Games focused on selling its engine to major developers working on big games for big publishers.

Opening up its safety net has paid big dividends for the studio When Epic Games began giving away its Unreal Engine last year to anyone who wanted it, it seemed like a bad idea to many casual observers of the video games industry.

The first Unreal Engine was released in 1998 along with its eponymous first-person shooter, Unreal.