^^Dr. Michael Capps is the president of Epic Games, Inc. based in Cary, NC. Epic has created multiple million-selling, award-winning titles in its “Unreal” series, as well as the 2006 Game of the Year “Gears of War,” which has sold over 4.7 million copies. Epic is also responsible for the Unreal Engine, which is the underlying technology for a wide range of games including 2K Games’ 2007 Game of the Year “BioShock” and BioWare’s 2007 RPG of the Year “Mass Effect.” Epic’s Unreal Engine 3 is the current holder and three-time consecutive winner of Game Developer magazine’s Front Line award for 'Best Engine.' Epic was also recognized as 2006 Studio of the Year by Spike TV, 2006 Developer of the Year by Official Xbox Magazine and 2007 Large Company of the Year by the North Carolina Technology Association.
Michael serves on the board of directors for two major industry organizations: the Entertainment Software Association (ESA), which supports the needs of game publishers; and the Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences (AIAS), which is charged with recognition of outstanding achievement in the entertainment software community. Michael is also an advisory board member of the Game Developers Conference (GDC), the industry's foremost convention for game developers, and he has served as board director of the International Game Developer's Association (IGDA), the world's largest nonprofit membership organization for game developers.
Prior to entering the game industry, Michael served as a professor at the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, California. He specialized in defense and entertainment collaboration, virtual reality and computer graphics. For his work in these areas, he was one of 50 graphics pioneers interviewed for the ACM SIGGRAPH documentary, 'The Story of Computer Graphics.' While at the Naval Postgraduate School, Michael was the producer, designer and lead programmer of the "America's Army" computer game. This unique project has been covered by print and televised media around the world, and the game was accessed over 30 million times in the first week of its release.
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