Acquired
Epic Games
Every company has a story.
Learn the playbooks that built the world’s greatest companies — and how you can apply them.
Show Notes
We go deep behind the "epic" story of a plucky game developer from Cary, North Carolina (by way of Potomac, Maryland) which, after bootstrapping for its first 22 years, has quietly morphed into an $18b juggernaut that may become the most important technology company for the next evolution of the internet. And oh yeah, its founder, CEO and controlling shareholder? He cares more about land conservation than he does about money, he's beholden to no one and has the firepower of China's biggest internet giant behind him, and he's willing to stare down Apple, Google and anyone else who doesn't support his vision of an open and equal-opportunity internet future in a fight to the death. You'll want to buckle your seats for this one!!
Sponsors:
WorkOS: https://bit.ly/workos25
Intapp: https://bit.ly/intappceleste
Sentry: https://bit.ly/acquiredsentry
Anthropic: https://bit.ly/acquiredclaude25
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New! We're codifying our own Playbook notes and takeaways from each episode and posting them on our website. Check it out: www.acquired.fm/episodes/epic-games
Links:
MTV Cribs, "Tim Sweeney Edition": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lRGUKMKadJ8
Carve Outs:
Ben's "3 part carve out": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bErPsq5kPzE - original video demo of Unreal Engine for filmmaking
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gUnxzVOs3rk - Feb 2020, video on "The Volume"
David Asimov's Foundation Series: https://www.amazon.com/Complete-Asimovs-Foundation-Foundations-Prelude/dp/B01EFDEMS8
Sources: (available on Journal at https://usejournal.com/app/space/journal:space:project/7efa6d43-a601-4784-8e36-1edda2b1b451 )
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