Epic lands controlling stake in People Can Fly

Unreal maker scoops up majority share after collaborating with the Polish studio on PC Gears of War; two collaborating on all-new mystery game.

Polish studio People Can Fly has a new air traffic controller, as Epic Games today announced that it has acquired a majority stake in the Painkiller developer.

The two companies began working together last year when People Can Fly approached the makers of Gears of War and Unreal Tournament 3 to evaluate the Unreal Engine 3 for a multiplatform title.

Since then, People Can Fly has worked on the PC version of Gears of War and is currently helping Epic design an all-new, unnamed intellectual property. Epic president Dr. Michael Capps explained that the 50-person studio's impressive contributions prompted the company's investment. "Working with this team of guys who love making over-the-top shooters was a blast, and we didn't want it to end," the executive said. "And their work was outstanding. The multiplayer levels they created for Gears PC look as good or better than the original."

For the studio's part, People Can Fly co-owner Adrian Chmielarz said working with Epic will alleviate some of the stress that goes along with being an independent developer, allowing his team to focus on making games. To date, People Can Fly has released the original Painkiller, the expansion pack Battle Out of Hell, and the Xbox spin-off Painkiller: Hell Wars. PlayStation Portable and PlayStation 2 installments of Painkiller were also announced in 2006. However, with no updates on either version since mid-2006, their current status is unclear.

People Can Fly's current project--the jointly developed intellectual property with Epic--is set to be shopped around to publishers this week at the Leipzig Games Convention.

Last year, THQ and People Can Fly joined up to work on a new intellectual property. However, that title was reportedly canceled earlier this year.

35 Comments

  • Mkherkzen

    Posted Aug 27, 2007 11:53 am GMT

    Now I'm proud of being a Pole Good job boys!

  • playstation_wii

    Posted Aug 21, 2007 7:17 pm GMT

    Epic's getting some big bucks!

  • IpodHero176

    Posted Aug 21, 2007 3:46 pm GMT

    It sounds interesting, I'll be following it.

  • sectorzero

    Posted Aug 21, 2007 2:08 pm GMT

    Sweet, I loved both those games. A game from these two should be awesome.

  • Shinedown220

    Posted Aug 21, 2007 1:42 pm GMT

    @ jake696 Gears was good, bit far from the best of all time. It was aslo overrated because of the graphics.

  • jake696

    Posted Aug 21, 2007 9:47 am GMT

    Everybody knows that the new mystery game will be Gears of War 2 or some kind of sequel to the best of all time

  • thatguy0130

    Posted Aug 21, 2007 8:31 am GMT

    I never knew that Poland had a development studio. That is awesome!

  • SavoyPrime

    Posted Aug 21, 2007 7:52 am GMT

    I think it's safe to say that the new intellectual property will be ANOTHER shooter.

  • bobekk

    Posted Aug 21, 2007 4:47 am GMT

    PL forever

    who would know that studio prepare GOW for PC...

  • Lonelynight

    Posted Aug 21, 2007 4:07 am GMT

    Cool

  • beckoflight

    Posted Aug 20, 2007 11:20 pm GMT

    I whould like to see the next PAinkiiler but with much higher dificulty & using the unreal 3 engine ...so maybe by these we can see the limits of hte UNREAL3 engine for its many caracters that it can support on screen ! I've been playing bioshock demo at max on my 2900 XT & R6V & alltough the effects are superb there are some areas were the textures are very faded ... it mite be the thing that jhon carmack whas talking !

  • i_DUB

    Posted Aug 20, 2007 9:02 pm GMT

    Yes! We can Fly

  • Pete5506

    Posted Aug 20, 2007 8:41 pm GMT

    since when can people fly

  • animemog

    Posted Aug 20, 2007 5:55 pm GMT

    I thought they were working on a game called "People Can Fly" at first. Now, that's an awesome title for a game.

    It's a shame.

  • imperial_agent

    Posted Aug 20, 2007 5:35 pm GMT

    "People Can Fly"

    there's something poetic about that

  • AL13NK1LL3R

    Posted Aug 20, 2007 5:25 pm GMT

    people can fly?? what, i'm confuse now

  • Genexi2

    Posted Aug 20, 2007 4:32 pm GMT

    This can only bring good to the table.

  • darthjay4289

    Posted Aug 20, 2007 4:03 pm GMT

    posted by diablobasher

    Oh great. Epic gets more fingers in more pies.

    Your becoming worse than EA! GET LOST!
    ------------------------------------------------------------
    Dude what are you talking about?!? I don't see Epic releasing a barely updated sports game EVERY YEAR.

  • Pastehunter

    Posted Aug 20, 2007 3:40 pm GMT

    I want my PSP Painkiller allready ... but Gears can do it to

  • abcdefgabcdefgz

    Posted Aug 20, 2007 3:38 pm GMT

    Yeah I like both developers. People can fly did a very good job with painkiller they were one of the first to actually use real physics by integrating the havok physics engine into there game engine. The game was most importantly simple yet fun. The game was also original which seems to be a key word game makers forget these days.

  • The_AI

    Posted Aug 20, 2007 3:24 pm GMT

    THE NAME LIES.

    *Ahem* That's a pretty cool thing that Epic essentially bought the studio that made Painkiller.

  • Fire_of_Contee

    Posted Aug 20, 2007 3:21 pm GMT

    Oh, i LOVED PainKiller......

  • Realist1101

    Posted Aug 20, 2007 3:21 pm GMT

    Painkiller+Unreal Tourn. Is a killer combo.

  • bysmitty

    Posted Aug 20, 2007 3:03 pm GMT

    Painkiller was an effing kick @$$ game!!! Hopefully they can pull something like that off again and help bring back the days when a FPS game was an FPS game. Running and gunning FTW!

    ...bysmitty

  • allmybase

    Posted Aug 20, 2007 3:01 pm GMT

    It's not every day you see Epic complement a development team for making levels that are on par or even better than their own work. I'll try to keep an eye on what they've got in the pipeline now....

  • LivingDeadNinja

    Posted Aug 20, 2007 2:58 pm GMT

    Ha Epic tries to do something positive to calm down the bad press they're getting...maybe unrelated but still.

  • PolishPunisher

    Posted Aug 20, 2007 2:56 pm GMT

    Sweet, they're Polish

  • diablobasher

    Posted Aug 20, 2007 2:53 pm GMT

    Oh great. Epic gets more fingers in more pies.

    Your becoming worse than EA! GET LOST!

  • YukoAsho

    Posted Aug 20, 2007 2:41 pm GMT

    Hm, Unreal Engine 3 version of Painkiller? OOoooo...

  • anyjabroni

    Posted Aug 20, 2007 2:30 pm GMT

    Cool, now maybe People Can Fly will be able to stick to release dates.

  • comthitnuong

    Posted Aug 20, 2007 2:19 pm GMT

    I think that the pair is great. I can't wait to see what they have coming.

  • dudy80

    Posted Aug 20, 2007 2:17 pm GMT

    Great news.

  • DV8Sharkey

    Posted Aug 20, 2007 2:05 pm GMT

    I wonder what the new game will be like, the Painkiller games were pretty cool, even considered underrated even though there wasn't alot to them gameplaywise.

  • runstalker

    Posted Aug 20, 2007 2:03 pm GMT

    This is good news. The Painkiller games (on PC) were really good underrated horror shooters. Their sense of world and creature design will be awesome in UE 3, especially since they're working with Epic and have access to better tools.

  • MigElite

    Posted Aug 20, 2007 2:01 pm GMT

    awesome

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