Epic Games president Mike Capps retires

The president of Epic Games, Mike Capps, announced he is retiring from his role and "transitioning into an advisory role as well as remaining on the Epic board of directors" via a post on the developer's official site.

Capps, who has a baby on the way, writes that he plans to be a "stay at home dad for a while" and pursue other opportunities outside the video game industry, including teaching, writing and charity work. He'll remain with Epic Games in a limited capacity, he says.

"Epic founder and CEO Tim Sweeney and other board members asked me to stay on the board, and I'm thrilled to do so as I'm truly excited about our future games and Unreal Engine 4," Capps writes.

"I've got great confidence in our executive team," Capps writes. "VP of Development Paul Meegan is new to our Raleigh HQ, but we've worked with him for years, and I can only contemplate this retirement knowing that he and VP of Operations John Farnsworth can manage development better than I ever did."

Epic Games named Paul Meegan, former president of LucasArts, as its new vice president of product development in November.

In a statement from the North Carolina-based Epic Games, a spokesperson said that all projects are "moving forward" and provided the following statement to Polygon.

"Mike Capps is retiring from his role as president of Epic Games to take on the ultimate boss battle of fatherhood and spend more time with his family. He will continue to serve on Epic's board of directors and advise on the development of our games. We thank Mike for the 10 years he's spent leading our studio, implementing practices that enable us to create amazing games and technology, and making Epic one of the best places to work."

Capps' departure from the Gears of War and Unreal Engine developer is the latest in a series of transitions at Epic Games. Gears of War design director Cliff Bleszinski left the studio in October after two decades with the company. Gears of War producer Rod Fergusson also left Epic this year to work on Irrational Games' BioShock Infinite as did three leads at Bulletstorm developer People Can Fly, which Epic acquired in 2007.

Epic Games has a handful of currently announced projects including Gears of War: Judgment, Fortnite, Infinity Blade Dungeons and the next-generation of its Unreal Engine.

Polygon has reached out to Capps for comment and will update with any response.