In recent news, Sony has successfully acquired a $250 million or 1.4% stake in Epic Games — a company that’s now best known for Fortnite and the Unreal Engine. It is said that Epic Games will still be able to work with other developers and platforms moving forward.
On July 9th, 2020, Sony announced an investment plan of $250 million to bolster its close relationship with Epic Games through a stake acquisition. Sony claims that this move will cement “an already close relationship” and reinforce the vision of the two since they share a “mission to advance the state-of-the-art in technology, entertainment, and socially-connected online services.”
The above information comes from website videogameschronicle.com. Additionally, the site notes that Epic Games will still be able to “publish games and license its middleware” on other platforms. However, the real question is, for how long?
While we wait for that answer, Sony has joined mega-corporation Tencent in the Epic stake-fest, given that in 2012 Epic Games received a $330 million investment from Tencent for a 40% ownership stake.
On the topic of Epic Games and stakes, Tim Sweeney — Founder, and CEO of Epic Games — said the following regarding the deal with Sony:
“Sony and Epic have both built businesses at the intersection of creativity and technology, and we share a vision of real-time 3D social experiences leading to a convergence of gaming, film, and music. Together we strive to build an even more open and accessible digital ecosystem for all consumers and content creators alike.”
Adding on to the above notion comes Kenichiro Yoshida — Chairman, President, and CEO of Sony Corporation — saying:
“Epic’s powerful technology in areas such as graphics places them at the forefront of game engine development with Unreal Engine and other innovations. There’s no better example of this than the revolutionary entertainment experience, Fortnite. Through our investment, we will explore opportunities for further collaboration with Epic to delight and bring value to consumers and the industry at large, not only in games, but also across the rapidly evolving digital entertainment landscape.”
Lastly, this investment deal between the two (Sony and Epic Games) is said to broaden their collaboration across Sony’s leading portfolio of entertainment assets and technology and Epic Games’ social entertainment platform and digital ecosystem to create unique experiences for “consumers and creators.”
