Ex-Epic Games Staff Form New Development Studio

Epic formerly-Epic announcement!

Ex-Epic Games colleagues Shak Khavarian and Zack Estep (let’s call them Shak and Zack) have announced on LinkedIn that they are forming a development studio.

The announcement was made on LinkedIn at 5pm GMT, as Shak posted the following,

“Zack Estep and I have left Epic Games and are creating a new game studio. Our goal is to create a company that cares about the people who work there and create games that put player value above all else.

Great games come from great people. We believe the best way to make a great game is to have an extremely collaborative and open dev process where the team at large is brought in on the idea. 

We are in search of team members to shape the company and the first game we set out to make. If you are interested, or can recommend someone you think highly of, please reach our to either one of us via Linkedin DM. 

We’re excited to get things going. 

Picture unrelated.”

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What details can we gather?

So. What can we glean from the info we are provided with here? Not a lot, especially not from the image of two donkeys in the sun. 

For starters, though it may be impossible to know at such an early stage what kind of “first game” to expect from Shak and Zack, it is clear from their LinkedIn profiles what games the pair has worked on previously. 

Both worked for Epic Games for an impressive nine years each, and Shak was involved in marketing for Evolve and Fortnite. Zack has been involved in the Unreal Engine Virtual Production as a producer. But it will only be when the creative talent joins the team that more details are likely to emerge about new game titles. 

Final thoughts

Shak Khavarian and Zack Estep have given birth to a bouncing baby game studio, and their proposed plans for its future sound honourable. 

Follow PCZONE to keep an eye on all the latest news of their progress, and visit their LinkedIn pages to apply for the as-yet unlisted positions at their unnamed, yet probably epic, studio. 

Tristan Ovington
Tristan Ovington
Tristan enjoys narrative-heavy games and anything that's weird and indie is good too. Looking to the future, he hopes to one day design his own board game as the central pillar of his astoundingly unimpressive legacy.