People Can Fly spins out of Cary’s Epic Games

The Epic Games game development studio in Poland has reverted back to its independent roots and its original name: People Can Fly.

The Warsaw, Poland-based game development studio, which Epic Games had rebranded as Epic Games Poland, announced in a blog post on its website that it has returned to local ownership "to reflect the team's desire to create their own games, a move Epic supports."

Financial terms weren't disclosed.

But People can Fly said it is continuing to work with Epic, including contributing to the eagerly awaited "Fortnite" game and the Unreal Engine game development software.

Cary-based Epic acquired a majority stake in People Can Fly in 2007 and later acquired full ownership of the business. It rebranded the operations as Epic Games Poland in 2013. The Warsaw studio worked on Epic's blockbuster "Gears of War" games and “Bulletstorm.”

Epic Games founder and CEO Tim Sweeney said in a prepared statement: “We’ve been honored to work with this brilliant group of programmers, artists and designers throughout their history: first as a partner using the Unreal Engine, then as a studio within Epic, and now once again as an independent company.”

Sebastian Wojciechowski, who headed Epic Games Poland, is leading People Can Fly.

This story was originally published June 24, 2015 at 2:47 PM with the headline "People Can Fly spins out of Cary’s Epic Games."