Epic: We're working on five new games
Mike Capps says company is working on smaller titles
Epic is working on five new games, none of which are Gears of War related, president Mike Capps has told his GDC Europe keynote audience.
Commenting on the size of those projects, in answer to a question from the audience, Capps intimated that the games would be download or mobile titles, and certainly not on the scale of the AAA projects which Epic had previously focused on.
"At Epic we didn't multiply the studio size by five when we started working on these multiple projects, so you can make some assumptions about the size of those projects," Capps told the audience, when asked about spiralling development costs for AAA console titles.
That change of project pace, undoubtedly influenced by the successes of Shadow Complex and Infinity Blade, also means that the titles are less of a risky prospect in an uncertain market.
"Everyone knows the middle class is disappearing from the console business. Gears of War, I hope will do really well, but a pretty good game doesn't make its money back any more. A game like Homefront sells a couple of million copies and they close the studio, right?
"That's not enough any more. That's pretty depressing. You don't want to see what happens to an industry where it's Call of Duty, Halo and Gears and no-one else has enough money to make any games any more. That's not a fun industry.
"I can't bet my entire company every time I make a game, that's a really dangerous business," Capps added.