270°

Epic acquires Cubic Motion

Unreal Engine maker picks up the company behind facial animation tech in God of War and Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice

Read Full Story >>
gamesindustry.biz
Tech51496d ago (Edited 1496d ago )

This is insane news! how did this not make headlines? Cubic Motion is the lead company for mo-cap.
God of war, Spiderman, Hellblade, Ryse, The Order 1886, Until Dawn, Horizon Zero Dawn, Hidden Agenda, Squadron 42, Dark Pictures.
https://cubicmotion.com/cas...
https://cubicmotion.com/cas...
https://cubicmotion.com/cas...
https://cubicmotion.com/cas...
https://cubicmotion.com/cas...

now if you want your games to use Cubic motion technology you have to go through Epic.

bishup251496d ago

second biggest investment Epic has made. along with Quixel. i assume epic aims to deliver the ultimate game developing experience. Cubic Motion's tools have been valued at a high amount for a long time.

BiofourceGun1496d ago

it took me a while to look up the company but yeah, almost all of the best performance capturing in PS4/Xbox games comes from the same studio and tools. including DMC5, RE2 Remake, and RE3 Remake. Epic has just secured major dominance in game development tech.

CaptainCook1495d ago (Edited 1495d ago )

Cubic will be free with Epics Game Engine like all other softwares they've acquired. Hellblade used Unreal Engine. Other companies will still be able to license the software for their games.

DevilOgreFish1495d ago (Edited 1495d ago )

my best guess is Epic will provide a much more cost effective solution for indie developers.
as some may know already there are currently software tools ( which are supper expensive) that can utilize a smart phone as portable mo-cap studio. and for facial mo-cap. it may also be possible that Epic plans on making a similar version for free.

nyu11494d ago

@DevilOgreFish

Another company they acquired before this was 3Lateral. 3Lateral developed a 'runtime rigging' solution for facial rigs for Star Citizen and SQ42. It's pretty exciting stuff.

Something tells me we'll be seeing more of that going forward, in a free package possibly integrated into UE4.

rainslacker1495d ago

Umm...isn't this article a headline?

Also, just because Epic acquired them doesn't mean one would have to use Epic's engine to use the tools. Epic does license out it's tools outside the Unreal engine. The article even states from the press release that current partners will still be using the tools. This just allows them to offer it within the game engine, possibly for free, or as an added licensed technology for those who need it.

Yeah, you will have to go through Epic to license, but I don't see why that's such a big deal. It's not like Epic is a hard company to work with.

blacktiger1495d ago

nothing new, Epic owns game engine, this is what they do,

+ Show (2) more repliesLast reply 1494d ago
Tekken666341495d ago

so this is how epic intends on winning over the next gen eh? by buying out the factory and materials on what makes a burger taste good. wow. everyone is correct though, all of this gen's best performance captures comes from cubic motion. https://www.youtube.com/wat...
and not just games but movies as well.

porkChop1495d ago

Epic already provides the most widely used and most versatile engine on the market. This is smart business for them. Now their engine will come with industry-leading mo-cap tools built-in.

rainslacker1495d ago

Epic was probably already going to win over the next gen regardless of these acquisitions.

In any case, them acquiring these tool makers doesn't mean that they're restricting their use to the Unreal Engine. They may use these tools to help leverage their game engine, as it's an added value, or maybe they'll have it as an additional license within the game engine itself. If the former, then that's really good for smaller studios, because it means it's cheaper. If it's the latter, then it won't be any different than what's available to those smaller studios now.

nyu11494d ago (Edited 1494d ago )

This is good news.

With Cubic motion and 3lateral, Epic have stated that they intend on making digital human creation much easier. Currently, it's expensive and hard to have realistic characters that are well animated.

When this happens, it will be free, and even indie devs will have a much easier time making this stuff, and it might even be integrated into UE. This is great news for digital human creation. One of the biggest barriers in game dev will be cut down significantly. Epic doesn't have a great rep for EGS, but we know for a fact that they care a LOT about the game dev industry. They've already done so much on the dev side.

Those big studios can always do high quality stuff. Besides, I'm sure they can still license the technology here. I doubt they'll just stop providing those services.

Blu3_Berry1495d ago

I guess Epic wants to capitalize on it and they are the only ones who offer the technology. If a company wants to use it, they are gonna have to license it from Epic. As much as I hate Epic Games right now, I gotta admit this business move is very smart.

rainslacker1495d ago

Would it matter if you license it through Epic, or if you license it through the company that they just brought? What would be the difference to the developer? If it's like a lot of other of Epic's high end tools, chances are, they won't restrict it to the Unreal Engine.

REALAS1495d ago

Epic is making major moves, and putting them in fantastic position to be a force in the industry for a long time.

Ausbo1495d ago

Will they ever make games again though?

harmny1495d ago

People said that before fortnite

Godmars2901495d ago

Its not like other companies do facial animation. This one is just a leader in the tech.

Godmars2901495d ago

Neat.

What does that mean for actual games rather than cutscenes?

Show all comments (31)
160°

Microsoft has ‘let Blizzard be Blizzard’ following its acquisition, studio says

Microsoft has 'let Blizzard be Blizzard' following the acquisition of the veteran developer according to World of Warcraft's executive producer.

Read Full Story >>
videogameschronicle.com
Kaii15h ago

Diablo 4 storefront being a cash grabbing shitshow does unironically attest to that, kudos.

XiNatsuDragnel13h ago(Edited 13h ago)

Okay i will be interested if they become old Blizzard but might as well be dead.

Vits13h ago

Shame most of the people that made Blizzard what they were, have already left a while ago.

ApocalypseShadow13h ago

I was about to say this. How can they be blizzard when they're no longer blizzard from yesteryear?

blacktiger3h ago

Rare was the thing I lost heart

victorMaje45m ago

Exactly. Blizzard hasn’t been Blizzard for a long time.
Oh how the mighty have fallen.

Knightofelemia9h ago

Blizzard is not the same Blizzard like it use to be.

PassNextquestion3h ago

Were you expecting Microsoft to hire everyone that had left Blizzard long before they purchased the company...

Microsoft has let the Blizzard company they purchased continue to be the Blizzard company they purchased.

Show all comments (12)
60°

Ubisoft's Recent Antics Have Me Fearful For The Sands of Time Remake

Hanzala from eXputer: "With Ubisoft's practices becoming increasingly anti-consumer lately, the destruction of The Sands of Time Remake looks almost inevitable."

thorstein18h ago(Edited 18h ago)

Hey Ubi, here's a gun, don't shoot yourself in the foot.

*Ubi takes gun, aims at foot, empties clip*

Chocoburger7h ago

At this point, only dummies have any hope left for Ubi-junk games.

190°

GTA 6 Publisher Take-Two to Layoff 5% of its Workforce and Cancel Games

Take-Two Interactive has announced that it will lay off 5% of its workforce and cancel some of its games in an effort to increase profits.

Read Full Story >>
insider-gaming.com
Knightofelemia1d 8h ago

I am curious as to what games got canned.

DarXyde1d 2h ago

Probably GTAV: Enhanced for PS5 Pro 🙂

Newmanator1d ago

$1 Billion + for GTA Online. Need to increase profit!

just_looken14h ago

They had a deal with netflix there were rumors of a bully remake and or port.

They also were deep into another version of gta iv like there crap gta trilogy remember all the takedowns.

roadkillers23h ago

It's a business tho..TakeTwo has 11,600 people, which means they let go around 600 people. There was probably a lot if bloat, but did anyone report about TakeTwo giving any "stimulus" to the employees laid off?

$35 million is being spent on severance pay. That's roughly $58,000 per employee, which probably includes continued benefits and pay after seperation. Can we get more of a report on how TakeTwo is supporting those let go?

roadkillers22h ago

^ That's if the averages worked out. We don't know if its like that or if a big shot got $30 million while others got dirt...

That's why we need journalists to dig in instead of these shallow news reports.

ConsoleAgnostic21h ago

Severance is great but the problem is the industry is experiencing layoffs all over, which makes it very hard for a lot of these people to get back into a job. The issue is these companies are expecting higher revenue every year, and when they have a year where they make the same amount or a little bit less all hell breaks loose. The only silver lining I'm seeing here is that a lot of these people will go on to create smaller indie studios and hopefully create something.

jwillj2k423h ago

There should be a law that says you can’t get rid of employees just for profits without executives taking a x % pay cut first. Encourage them to figure something else out.

redknight8022h ago

100% agree! I understand layoffs are a necessity sometimes but in addition to that, yeah, the CEO should not have their bonuses paid out that year; at the very minimum.

jwillj2k421h ago

Anyone who disagrees hasn’t felt the turmoil of being laid off.

Barlos4h ago

Exactly, and I'm feeling this right now for the second time in less than 2 years. I lost my last job 3 weeks ago.

blacktiger21h ago

They haven't even released the game, previous game made 10000% percent profits and then layoff?

Relientk7721h ago

Should be canceling the casino simulator sports games, but I know it's not them. It better not affect BioShock 4 and the Borderlands games

Show all comments (18)