CSGO or Fortnite? In the run among the brilliant modern-day esports titles, this question continues to spark debates worldwide to this day. While we can’t provide you with a conclusive answer to this age-long question, what we can do is take a glance towards the numbers behind their game studios and their CEOs.
Valve and Epic Games – two of the super-giants in the world of modern gaming & esports. Among the top 10 esports tournaments of the world in terms of prize pool, these two companies hold 8 out of 10 places. As amazing as that fact is in itself, it isn’t surprising at all. DotA 2, a game by Valve breaks its own records every year in terms of prize pool with its yearly The International. What’s even more astonishing is that, in only three years since its release, Fortnite has gained itself a prize pool which most other esports titles can only hope to achieve.
Gabe ‘Logan’ Newell
Gabe Newell aka GabeN is the co-founder of Valve Corporation, which was created back in 1998. The video game company has revolutionized the gaming realm through titles like the Half-Life series and the Portal series. Half-Life had also sown the seeds for Counter-Strike, which would itself become a standalone esport title in the future. Two of the biggest names in the present multiplayer gaming scene – CS:GO and DotA 2 are both developed by Valve, the latter being a sequel to Defense of the Ancients – a mod from Warcraft 3.
A self-made millionaire, GabeN had dropped out from Harvard University in 1983 and success was soon to follow. He was picked up by Microsoft at first before eventually quitting in 1996, when he found Valve.
Steam, the digital video game distribution service was also developed by Valve and was released in 2003. Throughout the years, Steam has expanded itself to become the largest digital distribution platform for PC gaming. In 2017, users purchasing games through Steam totaled about $4.3 billion, which is at least 18% of global PC games’ sales. Needless to say, this huge success of Steam as a digital distribution service, along with other aspects like the community market have provided GabeN with a significant amount of wealth. Forbes estimates the current net worth of Gabe Newell being $3.5 billion. Gabe had entered the top 100 wealthiest people of the US in 2017.
Tim ‘Dean’ Sweeney
Timothy Dean Sweeney, aka Tim Sweeney, is the founder and CEO of Epic Games and also a billionaire like GabeN. Tim also created the Unreal Engine, a widely popular game development platform used in many modern day video game titles.
Tim, a student of mechanical engineering at the University of Maryland created the Potomac Computer Systems, which was later renamed to Epic MegaGames before finally being renamed to Epic Games in 1999. This week Epic Games revealed the first look at Unreal Engine 5, the next-generation game engine designed with features meant to make more detailed game worlds while dynamical running in real-time on modern gaming hardware.
The Unreal Engine 5 focuses on two key elements — geometric precision and dynamic lighting, therefore being well suited to the ray tracing and graphical processing power that new generation consoles and graphics cards are set to bring to upcoming games. Following the groundbreaking success of the Unreal Engine and their first-person shooter Unreal.
The Unreal Engine is one of the world’s most popular game engine developed in 1998 by Tim Sweeney. The Unreal Engine currently powers many modern games like Gears of War, Fortnite, PUBG, Tekken, Final Fantasy 7 remake, and many more. Since its development, the UE has been a popular choice among many video game developers. UE has been the backbone of many well-established titles such as Deus Ex, Unreal, Star Trek game series, several Tom Clancy’s games, Bioshock series, Infinity Blade, etc.
Besides insanely popular games like Gears of War, Unreal and the Infinity Blade series, Epic Games has developed one of the modern-day esports giants – Fortnite. Fortnite is a game that gamers across all the age groups are familiar with. Recently, it was seen breaking a concurrent player count. Travis Scott’s virtual concert garnered over of 12 million viewers which was organized within the battle royale.
Who wins today?
Now, for the moment of truth – Who’s richer? Let’s find out. According to Forbes, Tim Sweeney’s current net worth is a whopping $4.5 billion. Yes, you read that right. At present, Tim is richer than Gabe Newell.
While it’s true that the numbers currently put Tim ahead of Gabe Newell, it can’t be conclusively predicted about what’s to happen in the future. With Epic throwing a direct challenge at Steam by making GTA V completely free-to-keep for a limited time, Steam is expected to retaliate. Regardless, fans should always be prepared to see a swing in those numbers. The fight among the top two brands in the video game industry is set to continue for years to come.
