Sony has announced it has invested $250 million in Epic Games, the developer and distributor of the popular game Fortnite, which is also the creator of Unreal Engine. In a statement, the Japanese company has revealed it now owns a 1.4% stake of Epic, and the deal will lead to building “a more open and accessible digital ecosystem for all consumers and content creators”.
Epic Games has remained impartial to cross-platform technology, but analysts predict that Sony might get an edge in the upcoming battle of PS5 vs Xbox Series X. Sony CEO Kenichiro Yoshida said Epic’s technology keeps it “at the forefront of game development” and that is best seen in the features of Fortnite.
Unreal Engine is also a key part of the gaming industry, being a fundamental toolset for building many popular games.
Epic CEO Tim Sweeney also said that both companies “have created businesses at the intersection of creativity and technology and they share a vision of real-time 3D social experiences”. This is obviously a nod to the Fortnite live concerts that took place earlier this year and Sony might be able to bring some of its know-how and users to the universe of the popular game.
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