True or not, the rumor that Microsoft is thinking of acquiring Epic Games for $1 billion USD has garnered a lot of comments from the gaming community. Mark Rein, vice president of Epic Games, responded to the offer saying that Microsoft is low-balling; Epic Games is worth more than $1 billion.
Over on DevelopMag.com, they have a comment from Rein, which said, "I have not seen the actual GamePro article but if they’re going to make predictions about us selling Epic we would prefer if they started at $2 billion. Because we don’t want anyone thinking that we’re cheap."
The article ends saying Rein "has refused to rule out the possibility of an acquisition – however his latest comments suggest that if someone were to make an offer for the studio, ownership of Epic would come at a high price." Epic Games is one of the largest independent developers in the world and maintains a heavy presence in the gaming market, including ownership of several key game franchises (Unreal Tournament, Gears of War) and its proprietary engine, the Unreal Engine.
Over the past few months, the gaming market was rocked when several hefty company mergers and acquisitions took place, such as NVIDIA to acquire AGEIA, Vivendi Universal Games (including Blizzard Entertainment) merged with Activision in an $18 billion deal and Electronic Arts acquired notable game developers Pandemic Studios and BioWare.
