Mike Capps

Michael V. Capps or Mike Capps is an American video game designer who was the president of Epic Games, based in Cary, North Carolina from 2002 to 2012. In 2018, he co-founded a new artificial intelligence company called Howso.

Early life Capps attended the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, graduating summa cum laude with degrees in math and creative writing in 1994.

Career

Naval Postgraduate School Before entering the game industry, Capps served as a research assistant professor at the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, California from 1998 to 2002.

Capps was selected by the Army's Office of Economic and Manpower Analysis (OEMA) to head its development team that was charged with designing a fun military video game. Scion was acquired by Epic Games in March 2004. Under his leadership, Epic was named Studio of the Year at the 2006 Spike Video Game Awards, the North Carolina Technology Association 2007 Large Company of the Year, and the NCTA 2008 Top Industry Driven Technology Company of the Year.

Capps also successfully defended video games using free speech before the U.S. Supreme Court. He stepped down from the post of president in December 2012.

Howso (formerly Diveplane) In 2018, Capps co-founded and became the CEO of Diveplane Corporation, an artificial intelligence start-up company based in Raleigh, North Carolina, along with Dr. Chris Hazard and Mike Resnick. Diveplane has eighteen employees and is backed by $3.5 million. In September 2023, Diveplane rebranded as Howso alongside the release of the open source version of the Howso Engine in a critical step towards meaningful social impact. 2016, Beacon Award for Lifetime Achievement, North Carolina Technology Association Game Developer 50, Game Developer He also serves on the board of Epic Games. He also served as an advisor to the Game Developers Conference and the Video Games track.

He served on the boards of the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences, the Entertainment Software Association, the Game Developers Conference, International Game Developers Association, and Remedy Entertainment in Finland.

Projects

Video games

Design America's Army: Operations (Epic Games, 2002)

Graphic novels

Gears of War: Volume Two. Wildstorm, 2011.