Long before Fortnite became a global phenomenon played by hundreds of millions, the company behind it was born in Montgomery County.
Tim Sweeney, the billionaire founder and CEO of Epic Games, grew up in Potomac alongside his two older brothers in what was then a far more rural part of Montgomery County. Sweeney, a natural tinkerer at an early age according to the Indian Express, spent his childhood building go-karts and taking apart radios and televisions to understand how they worked. He graduated from Winston Churchill High School in 1988 before enrolling at University of Maryland the following year as a mechanical engineering major.
While attending UMD, Sweeney became increasingly consumed by computer programming. According to interactive.org, to help pay for computer equipment and support his growing interest in coding, he operated a lawn-mowing business around Potomac. Although he initially pursued engineering, programming soon became his true passion.
At just 20 years old, Sweeney founded a small company called Potomac Computer Systems out of his parents’ basement in Potomac using approximately $4,000 of his personal savings. The original concept was not gaming at all, but rather a consulting business providing computer technical support, according to the Indian Express.
When the consulting business failed to gain significant traction, Sweeney decided to try building a video game himself. Traveling back and forth between his dorm room in College Park and his parents’ home in Potomac on weekends, he created ZZT, a puzzle-adventure shareware game that developed a cult following in the early 1990s.
The game became an unexpected hit, reportedly generating around $100 per day at the time. The success gave Sweeney confidence to shift fully into gaming, and in 1992 he renamed the company Epic MegaGames.
As the company quickly expanded beyond a one-person basement operation, Epic rented its first official office space in Rockville and began hiring local employees. By 1997, the company had reportedly grown to around 50 employees while continuing to operate in Maryland throughout much of the decade. In 1999, the company dropped the “Mega” from its name and officially became Epic Games before relocating its headquarters to Cary, North Carolina, where it remains today.
Since then, Epic Games has grown into one of the most influential gaming companies in the world, creating blockbuster franchises including Gears of War and Fortnite. Fortnite alone has attracted hundreds of millions of players worldwide and generated billions in revenue through in-game purchases.
