Epic Games Acquires Compression Software Maker RAD Game Tools

Epic Games has acquired RAD Game Tools. This is a game software company that makes software for compression and development tools, among other things. The company’s various products will be integrated into the Unreal Engine.

Epic Games has announced the acquisition, but as with almost all acquisitions, nothing is said about the amount involved. The acquisition is likely not subject to regulatory approval, as RAD Game Tools is not large enough to do so, so there will be no expected negative impact on competitors. In addition, according to Epic Games, RAD will continue to support existing partners and that it will continue to sell licenses, including to parties that do not use the Unreal Engine.

The acquisition appears to be primarily intended to get hold of RAD Game Tools’ technology; Epic Games says it will integrate that technology into its Unreal Engine. Epic Games gets its hands on both the technology and the company itself. Whether the acquired company will remain an independent unit under Epic Games or whether the employees will have to relocate to Epic Games offices is not said. The company does say that members of the RAD team will work closely with Epic employees who are involved in rendering, animation and audio, among other things.

According to the company behind Fortnite, the developer community and gamers will benefit from this. Epic Games says it knows firsthand how “impressive” RAD’s compression technology is, including “improving the loading times and quality of our most popular games,” such as Fortnite. Epic Games says that the best compression software is becoming increasingly important in games as the graphics become more powerful and photo-realistic these days.

The products of RAD Game Tools include, for example, Bink 2, a video codec for games that also offers HDR support. Other products include Oodle for data compression and lossless decoding, Telemetry, Granny 3D and The Miles Sound System 10. The technology of RAD Game Tools is said to be part of 24,600 different games and is in almost all contemporary games.

RAD Game Tools has been in business since 1988 and is based in Kirkland, Washington, USA, but the company also has an office in Japan. The company does not say how many people it employs, but does speak of a ‘small number of employees’.