Yesterday, we went to a GDC appointment with "Epic Games China" to see a game called Mercenary Ops. Built in Unreal Engine 3 and filled with Gears of War-esque gameplay, it was revealed as the first project from "Epic Games China." As it turns out, that's not quite true. "Mercenary Ops is being developed by Ying Pei Games, which was formerly Epic Games China. However, as with our many development and publishing partners, they are utilizing Unreal Engine technology," Epic Games' US reps told The Verge.

More bizarre? "Ying Pei" in Mandarin means "Epic," making "Ying Pei Games" the equivalent of ... "Epic Games." According to Epic Games (the American one), "We do own a minority stake in Ying Pei Games and we do work with them as with our other Unreal Engine developers, but Epic Games is not developing Mercenary Ops."

Additionally, EpicGamesChina.com directs to the Ying Pei website, and we were told by reps yesterday that the studio is a "subsidiary" of Epic Games US. The game's publisher, "Delkans," is brand new to North American publishing and has two mystery owners from the tech sector, making this whole story all the stranger.