Epic Games president retiring

Epic Games president Mike Capps is retiring. The executive announced today in a blog post that after ten years with the company, he is handing over his presidential duties and transitioning into an advisory role at the Cary, North Carolina-based Gears of War studio. Capps will continue to serve on Epic Games' board of directors.

Capps said his retirement was due in part to the impending arrival of a baby boy he is having with his wife. He plans to be a stay-at-home-dad "for a while" and added that he does not have much planned.

"I might do some teaching, spend more time on creative writing, and maybe get more active with a few charities," Capps said.

Capps is not the first high-profile Epic Games staffer to leave the company recently. He follows former design director Cliff Bleszinski, who left the company in October after 20 years to "chart the next stage" of his career.

Additionally, over the summer, producer Rod Fergusson left to join the BioShock Infinite development team at Irrational Games; and shortly thereafter, People Can Fly creative director and co-owner Adrian Chmielarz jumped ship after Epic Games completed its acquisition of the Polish studio.

Though Epic Games has lost numerous veteran developers and executives of late, the company recently hired former LucasArts president Paul Meegan as its vice president of development. Capps said fans should not worry about his retirement having any adverse effect on Epic Games, as he believes Meegan (an Epic Games alum himself) and vice president of operations John Farnsworth "can manager development better than I ever did."

It does not appear that Capps' departure from Epic Games will have an impact on the company's endeavors, as a representative from the firm said, "all of our project plans are moving full steam ahead as planned."

Epic Games is currently collaborating with People Can Fly on Gears of War: Judgement and is also working on PC-exclusive game Fortnite. In addition, the company is developing its next-generation Unreal Engine 4 technology.