Sony Spends Another 200 Million on Epic Games

Last year, Sony decided to stake its claim in Epic Games, the creators of Fortnite and current underdog in the fight against Apple’s possibly unfair mobile monetization practices, by purchasing a $250 million minority share, which would help them, and I quote, “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”.

Well, history is repeating itself, because Sony is once again shooting money into Epic Game’s arm, contributing 200 million dollars to a 1 billion dollar funding bundle with the stated goal of helping bring Epic Game’s “vision of a metaverse” to life.

To quote o’ Tim Sweeney, Epic Games CEO:
 

“We are grateful to our new and existing investors who support our vision for Epic and the Metaverse. Their investment will help accelerate our work around building connected social experiences in Fortnite, Rocket League and Fall Guys, while empowering game developers and creators with Unreal Engine, Epic Online Services and the Epic Games Store,

And meanwhile, Sony CEO and President Kenichiro Yoshida had this to say:
 

“Epic continues to deliver revolutionary experiences through their array of cutting edge technologies that support creators in gaming and across the digital entertainment industry. We are excited to strengthen our collaboration to bring new entertainment experiences to people around the world. I strongly believe that this aligns with our purpose to fill the world with emotion, through the power of creativity and technology.”

Most of the other money in the fund comes from high-powered investment firms, who are probably less invested in the creation of a “metaverse” and more interested in getting phat stacks.

This also isn’t the only way Sony has shown its willingness to get behind Epic Games — just recently it was announced that Alloy, from the formerly PlayStation exclusive title Horizon: Zero Dawn, was just added to Fortnite as a skin. Which means they’re really getting on the Epic Games bus.

Let’s hope something good comes from it.