Who’d stand to gain most by buying Epic?

A few months back, the rumour was that Microsoft was going to buy Epic. But that’s unlikely, says a new opinion piece posted today on Developmag.com – because it’s tool companies that would have the most to gain from such an potential acquisition.

While Microsoft would gain both the game teams and the technology, the piece theorises, it has too few internal studios to really make such an acquisition worthwhile – and can’t jettison the engine’s PS3 support for risk of losing the middleware’s main USP.

Autodesk, on the other hand, deals with architectural and film/media customers as much as gaming ones, both areas in which Unreal Engine 3 has gained traction in previous months. It’s also a particularly acquisition-happy company, eating competitors and other ventures at an impressive rate.

For more on the topic, check out the opinion piece online now.