How Tim Sweeney Quietly Became the World’s Renegade Gamer Leader

Tim Sweeney was your classic young computer nerd in the ’90s, a gifted coder and tinkerer who didn’t quite finish his college degree before starting a business in his parents’ basement. Founder of Epic Games, home of the most popular video game in the world, Fortnite, he went on to become a billionaire and a quiet icon of the gaming industry.

Sweeney’s low-key profile suits his position at the helm of a company that’s risen to success by having a reverence for customers, employees, and other developers. Here are four ways in which Fortnite has forged gaming success on a people-centric platform:

1. By leaning into user experience as the best kind of marketing — Sweeney has a singular focus on gaming experience, and his marketing tactics have typically relied primarily on word of mouth, buzz, and social sharing. His games are revered by users across generations, from little kids to baby boomers.

2. By focusing on the wellbeing of his team — In interviews, Sweeney frequently lavishes praise and credit on his team, and talks often about hiring people with passion and holding them up as the reasons for his success. If you take care of your team, and inspire them, that reverence for care translates to more users.

3. By offering SDK kits — From day one, Sweeney’s games have come with software development kits (SDKs) in order to enable other developers to create more games. Sweeney’s SDKs were the foundation for Unreal Engine, which hundreds if not thousands of games are now built upon. When Sweeney started to offer SDKs, this was a counterculture move.

4. By tearing down “the walled gardens” of gaming — Sweeney is also known for railing against the gaming establishment in many ways. While typical app marketplaces take a 30 percent cut, the Epic Games store takes only a 12 percent cut, a move Sweeney rationalizes: “We chose this number to provide a super-competitive deal for partners while building an enduring and profitable store business for Epic.” For this reason, he’s adored by indie developers.

“Tim has always known, from the start, that the best way to achieve great results is to provide a better paintbrush to the artists.” — Cliff Bleszinski, design director at Epic.

Based out of Cary, North Carolina — 2,800 miles from Silicon Valley — Epic Games is no longer a gig in Sweeney’s parents’ basement. In fact, the company is building a shiny new headquarters purported to hold space for 2,000 employees. Yet the job that began as a basement hobby is still the job Sweeney holds today, although he’s now worth $7 billion.