People Can Fly regains its independence

People Can Fly, formerly Epic Games Poland (after the rebranding in 2013), announced today that it's returning to its original studio name following transfer of ownership to the local leadership "to reflect the team's desire to create their own games, a move Epic supports."

The Warsaw-based developer is known for the hit title Painkiller, which it created over a decade ago. The team eventually went on to work on Bulletstorm and Gears of War: Judgment, and more recently People Can Fly has contributed to Epic titles like Infinity Blade III, Fortnite, Unreal Tournament and other unannounced projects.

While People Can Fly is now once again an independent studio, it will continue to work with Epic. Exact details of the business transaction or ownership transfer were not provided. Studio director Sebastian Wojciechowski will continue to lead People Can Fly, and the studio is continuing to contribute to Unreal Engine 4, Epic's upcoming game, Fortnite, and an entirely new unannounced game.

Epic Games Founder and CEO Tim Sweeney said, "We've been honored to work with this brilliant group of programmers, artists and designers throughout their history: first as a partner using the Unreal Engine, then as a studio within Epic, and now once again as an independent company."

"We, as a People Can Fly team, are extremely excited about new possibilities ahead of us," said Wojciechowski. "We're going to work on a new game, while continuing to partner with Epic and use UE4. We're grateful to Tim and the whole Epic team for our long and successful collaboration."