ICYMI: Earlier this week, Epic Games announced it had bought Cary Towne Center in a $95 million deal with Turnbridge Equities and Denali Properties. The video game developer plans to redevelop the former mall into a global headquarters campus by 2024 — featuring both office + recreational spaces upon completion.
So who is Epic Games and why should you care?
Founded in 1991 by CEO Tim Sweeney, Epic Games serves as a leading interactive entertainment company and provider of 3D engine technology. Epic is also a rapidly growing company — raising nearly $17 billion in investments over the past eight years.
The company originally moved its headquarters to Cary in 1999 after bringing on Mark Rein, the company’s vice president. Epic now has 35 offices worldwide.
Since 1999, Epic has released 20+ unique games including Fortnite, Robo Recall + Infinity Blade. And while the company is widely known for its games, Epic Games is also responsible for creating Unreal Engine, a complete feature set of graphical renderings, sound processing, and physics widely used by other developers. Unreal Engine 5 that will be available in mid-2021.
Epic currently has hundreds of employees + has been planning for a bigger headquarters since 2019. Originally, the company had planned a 450,000 to 550,000-foot expansion at their current location off of Crossroads Blvd. However, the Cary Towne Center acquisition will allow for more space and employees. It is estimated that the development will bring thousands of new jobs to the Cary community. Epic often hires locally and from nearby universities.
While plans for the new headquarters are still in the early phases, Epic is already working with the Town of Cary on its development + exploring ways some of this property might be used by the community.
One things for sure though — Epic Games is going to be calling the Triangle home for decades to come. 🎮
