The Japanese giant paid $250 million as strategic investment

Jul 12, 2020 18:06 GMT  ·  By

Sony Corporation and Epic Games have just announced they have agreed to start looking for ways to collaborate to bring more value to gamers and the gaming industry. For that to happen, Sony has decided to make a strategic investment of $250 million to acquire a minority interest in Epic through a wholly-owned subsidiary of Sony.

This is the first step towards cementing a close relationship between the two gaming industry giants. The official statement mentions that both companies will make use of each other's assets, technology, social entertainment platform, and digital ecosystems going forward.

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,” said Kenichiro Yoshida, Chairman, President and CEO, Sony Corporation.

Epic Games, the studio behind the Fortnite smash hit and owner of Unreal Engine, has recently launched its own digital distribution platform and started to sign exclusive deals with various game developers. Epic Games heavily supports NVIDIA's GeForce NOW streaming service and has remained impartial to cross-platform technology.

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,” said Tim Sweeney, Founder and CEO of Epic.

Sony now owns 1.4% stakes in Epic Games, a negligible amount that doesn't give it any leverage on the latter, but rather allows it to use some of its assets. We're quite curious to see what the collaboration between the two companies will bring in the future; it could be something big.