When Epic Games released their highly anticipated first-person shooter Unreal on May 22, 1998, the game’s publisher GT Interactive announced its arrival with the proclamation: “Unreal Is Real.” With the kind of hyperbole worthy of the extreme ’90s, GT Interactive declared that Unreal would not only revolutionize 3D action games but would reshape gamers’ perception of reality itself.

From a certain point of view this came to pass. Although Unreal was codeveloped with the Canadian studio Digital Extremes, Epic had supplied the 3D technology and editing tools, and had the most to gain. The successful launch of Unreal allowed Epic to license the game engine that powered its vast alien landscapes and cutting-edge effects to other game developers, reshaping how games are made.

The Unreal Engine, now in its fifth incarnation, is one of the games industry’s most popular software development tools, having powered popular series like Mass Effect, Assassin’s Creed, and Epic’s own extremely popular online “battle royale” shooter Fortnite. Unreal is the cornerstone of Epic’s transformation from a small shareware company into one of the most significant game developers and publishers in the world, with investments from media conglomerates like Sony and Tencent worth billions of dollars.