At the Game Developers Conference (GDC) in Taipei today, Tim Sweeney, CEO of Epic Games, told the audience that the iOS title Infinity Blade is "the most profitable game we've ever made — in terms of man years invested versus revenue, it's more profitable than Gears of War." The mobile franchise passed the $30 million mark this January and Infinity Blade II made over $5 million in its first month on the App Store. Sweeney said he was "very, very surprised to see how fast smartphone and tablet devices are improving," adding that the pace was faster than Moore's law.

"in terms of man years invested versus revenue, it's more profitable than Gears of War."

The news comes from a speech on the future of gaming. Sweeney thinks the present $100-million-a-game development model isn't sustainable in the long run. He believes that the future of gaming is in freemium downloadable games and goes on to stress the importance of having one engine across all devices. As part of Epic's "Unreal Everywhere" strategy, the company wants to develop scalable games that won't require rebuilding for different platforms. Although Epic has been an important ally for Microsoft in recent years, Sweeney told GDC that "you might in the future see the Epic relationship span different publishers and different platforms across the world."