Epic Games raises the bar of Unreal Engine by officially acquiring Cubic Motion's facial animation technology. Initially developed in 1998 for a first-person shooter game titled Unreal, Unreal Engine is a critically acclaimed game design engine. Its been used for the development of massively popular titles including Batman: Arkham City, Rocket League, and Mortal Kombat X. Since its inception, Unreal Engine has evolved through four iterations, the current one being Unreal Engine 4.
Founded in 2009, Cubic Motion is one of the world's leading developers of high-performance facial animation technology. Their team of Ph.D.-level computer scientists has developed award-winning technology, making the company sought after in the game development industry. Their facial rigs are capable of capturing immensely minute expressions, which is critical to the production of more natural-looking animations. Some of their famous work includes God of War and the critically acclaimed mental anguish-focused title Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice.
According to GameSpot, Epic Games hopes to utilize Cubic Motion's proprietary facial technology, audio pipeline, and other services to make Unreal Engine better than it has ever been. All acquired technology through the purchase is to be made available to all Unreal Engine developers. Through the acquisition, Epic Games has absorbed the entirety of Cubic Motion, including its employees. Furthermore, current customers and partnerships with Cubic Motion are to remain intact. Kim Libreri, CTO of Epic Games, said in a statement to gamesindustry.biz:
"Facial animation that conveys the slightest nuance of human expression is essential to crossing the uncanny valley. We believe that holistically combining Epic's Unreal Engine with 3Lateral's facial rig creation and Cubic Motion's solving technology is the only way to answer this challenge, and ultimately, to reach the pinnacle of digital human artistry with Unreal Engine."
Epic Games has consistently aimed to one-up themselves. In an effort to push the game development industry forward, the company has acquired a multitude of firms. Cubic Motion will be joining an impressive list of subsidiaries and divisions including 3Lateral, responsible for Unreal Engine's motion capture, Chair Entertainment (video game development), Cloudgine (cloud-based gaming tech), Kamu (anti-cheat software), Psyonix, Twinmotion, and Quixel. With the games industry quickly evolving, companies like Epic Games are racing to edge each other out. Similarly, Unity Technologies, creator of the Unity Engine which is responsible for games like Pokémon Go, has added seven companies to its catalog since the start of 2019.
Now that Epic Games plans to implement Cubic Motion's technology with Unreal Engine 4, the skill ceiling of game development has risen tenfold. Unreal Engine 4, already known for its magnificent quality and developmental features, will highlight the groundbreaking technology of Cubic Motion. As of yet, Epic Games hasn't revealed the first project to be developed on Unreal Engine with Cubic Motion's assets, but it will surely be brilliant.
Sources: GameSpot, GamesIndustry.biz