Epic has acquired RAD Game Tools, the maker of game development tools for many years. They’ve stayed largely behind the scenes, but many gamers will recognise the colourful Bink Video logo, which has appeared in the openings of many a title over the years.
According to the post, its products and technology appear in close to 25,000 games and are leveraged by the world’s leading gaming companies, including Epic. Epic Games is the owner of both the Epic Games Store and the Unreal Engine, a powerful and popular game development tool. The statement further reads, “Epic and RAD plan to integrate RAD’s powerful technology into Unreal Engine to benefit the developer community and gamers alike.”
“Our work with Epic goes back decades, and joining forces is a natural next step given our alignment on products, mission, and culture,” Rad Game Tools founder and CEO Jeff Roberts said in the announcement. And it has seemingly only intensified recently.
Epic Games has used RAD’s technology before, specifically compression technology. This has allowed the developer to improve the load time of Fortnite, which is currently one of the most popular games in the world. The post further explains that as games become more “photorealistic and powerful, developers need best-in-class compression software that can manage increased data requirements without compromising quality.”
“Together, Epic and RAD plan to integrate RAD’s powerful technology into Unreal Engine to benefit the developer community and gamers alike,” Epic said in its initial announcement. RAD’s tools, notably, are already in use in current builds of Fortnite.
“We know first-hand how impressive RAD’s compression technology is. 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 Epic Games CTO Kim Libreri, in a statement.
Under the terms of the acquisition, RAD plans to continue supporting its current partners in games, film, and television production. None of its tools will become exclusive to games or products that use Epic’s Unreal Engine. Based on the announcement, RAD’s ownership is simply changing hands, and it’s otherwise business as usual. Further details of the deal, such as the cost of the acquisition, have yet to be officially disclosed.
