Scion to the Epic throne

Unreal franchise owner Epic Games has acquired Scion Studios, the new company founded by Americas Army designer Michael Capps, in a move which will double its development capacity.

Capps, who is currently CEO of Scion, will be taking up a new position as president of Epic Games, while Tim Sweeny will continue to serve as chairman and CEO of the merged company.

Although Scion Studios has not actually completed development on any projects, staff at the studio have significant experience of working with Epic's technology thanks to their involvement with Americas Army, the multiplayer title based on the Unreal engine which was funded by the US Army as a promotional tool.

"Mike has done an outstanding job managing development and establishing teams that were able to leverage the Unreal Engine technology," according to Epic co-founder and vice president Mark Rein. "The combination of Epicâs and Scionâs world-class development teams makes Epic Games an even stronger technology leader and one of the top independent game development studios in the world."

Epic is promising attendees at the Game Developers Conference next week a look at the company's next generation engine technology, with both the Unreal Engine3 and a more advanced version of Unreal Engine2 for Xbox on display at the show.