The name RAD Game Tools may not be familiar to you, but you are undoubtedly familiar with their work. According to its website (which also seems to date back to 1988), it is a development toolset that has been around since 1988 and claims to have "at least one product built into almost every game shipped today. To date, it has been included in over 24,600 games and is installed in approximately 200 million end-user units annually." The company claims that.

I can't attest to these numbers, but I can say that they have been around for a very long time: I have fond memories of using the old Bink and Smacker players to view in-game cinematics for games like "Diablo" and "MechWarrior 2. [More than 30 years after its founding in 1988, the company is now part of Epic Games, which today announced plans to integrate its technology into its Unreal Engine. [Kim Libreri, CTO of Epic Games, said, "We know firsthand how great RAD's compression technology is from our experience using RAD to improve load times and quality for our popular games, including 'Fortnite. The RAD team includes some of the world's leading experts in compression, video and game development tools, and we are thrilled to welcome them to the Epic family."

Epic states that the partnership will allow "more developers to have access to tools that speed up game loads and downloads and provide better, higher quality video and game experiences for their players." However, RAD Game Tools also emphasized that it will continue to support existing partnerships in the game, film, and television industries, and that other companies, including those not using the Unreal Engine, will continue to have access to its technology.

"Our collaboration with Epic goes back decades, and given our alignment of products, mission, and culture, joining forces is a natural next step," said Jeff Roberts, founder and CEO of RAD Game Tools. Together, we believe that solid technology allows developers to build beautiful, high-performing, reliable experiences"

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Incidentally, Epic also recently acquired Megamall.