Sony has invested a further $1 billion into Fortnite maker Epic Games.
As announced earlier today on the official Epic Games website (opens in new tab), Sony has invested a grand total of $1 billion into Epic Games. This was alongside another $1 billion from KIRKBI, the company behind Lego, meaning Epic Games has just received $2 billion in funding from two massive companies.
“As a creative entertainment company, we are thrilled to invest in Epic to deepen our relationship in the metaverse field, a space where creators and users share their time,” said Sony CEO Kenichiro Yoshida. “We are also confident that Epic’s expertise, including their powerful game engine, combined with Sony’s technologies, will accelerate our various efforts such as the development of new digital fan experiences in sports and our virtual production initiatives.”
This all actually follows a similar investment from Sony into Epic Games last year. Back in April 2021, Epic Games announced a funding round of $1 billion from various investment parties, with $200 million of that number being made up of an investment from Sony.
So, this isn’t the first time Epic Games has received funding from Sony, but the sum were seeing today is considerably greater than the previous investment, even by multi-billion dollar company standards. It’s interesting that this comes off the back of a report last year, which claimed Epic offered Sony $200 million to make the PC versions of its games exclusive to the Epic Games Store. There’s never been any comment on the report from either party, however.
Check out our upcoming PS5 games guide for a complete schedule of all the exclusives coming to Sony’s new-gen console this year.