Sony invests $250 million in Fortnite maker Epic Games

Sony has invested $250 million for a minority stake in Fortnite maker Epic Games, the companies announced today. With the new money, Epic Games has raised $1.83 billion to date. The companies said the deal cements an already close relationship between the two companies and reinforces the shared goal to advance the state of the art in technology, entertainment, and socially connected online services.

[Daniel2183]

What games have epic released recently ? All I can think of is fortnite ?

[moongrim]

Its the only one they need apparently.

[Fantangoooo]

It does make a crap ton for them in revenue

[SierraGuy]

Rocket league?!!

That must be a cash cow 🐄.

[Unspoken]

See that comment marked spam up above?

Censorship at its finest. Exclusively on N4G with superfast loading of down votes and flagging the truth. Echo chambers can't get any better than this.

Epic is laughing all the way to the bank with Sony's 💰. I don't want to say I told ya so...but...🙄

Man, Sony fans have to be in such a dillusioned state, I think they are going to need some hugs after this one.

[Babadook7]

@above

What are you talking about? This partnership is beneficial for both companies. The cash helps Epic, and in turn Sony will make profit on their investment. Nothing wrong there. Furthermore Epic and Sony informed each other regarding next gen, for years. Thats a big win for both there too, and theres nothing wrong with any of that. Unless you're an xbox fan boy of course.

As for your comment marked spam. Many people are using the system to silence opposition. Which bites. I didn't see it but I only mark actual spam as spam.

[darthv72]

@dook... Epic is part owned by Tencent. If they need $$ they just get it from them. And MS also paid more than sony for the use of UE over the course of three console generations.

[morganfell]

What MS did generations ago is immaterial. This isn't Unreal 3 its U5. As Janet said, what have you done for me lately.

[CaptainCook]

Good job Microsoft acquired Gears of War IP from Epic lol

[StoneyYoshi]

Even if MS didn't, this investment doesn't give Sony any rights to control Epic or any of its properties.

[Harryvok]

It is a tired old franchise now. I'd be quite happy to never see another Gears game ever again.

[Hakuoro]

Godfall is going to be on PS5.

[dumahim]

And? That's published by Gearbox and developed by Counterplay.

[borneFROMblood]

I bet it's mostly for Unreal Engine

[rainslacker]

It'd be for whatever Epic does. Sony has a stake in the company. They don't control the company though. They'll get dividends based on whatever Epic makes, which is usually a lot.

Sony isn't likely to want to change up whatever Epic is doing. Restricting Epic's marketplace just means it isn't making as much money, which means less of a return. Epic I guess wanted an infusion of cash, and Sony gave it to them.

People saying it's anything more don't understand what investment means, and are reading more into it than is really there.

[morganfell]

Sony has Decima. And UE licenses are not that expensive

[ShadowWolf712]

Unreal Engine says hi.

[Father__Merrin]

any publisher that has fortnite really doesnt need any other game its a quality title and is free to play

[BLAKHOODe]

Well, there is that Unreal Engine thing. I hear it's in a few games.

[Kyizen]

It is one more game than Valve haha

[lelo2play]

All that praise from Epic has a explanation now...

[borneFROMblood]

*Invested* is not Paid
Sony still owns the money and they will get paid in huge back, they are making this bet anticipating the blowup with Unreal Engine 5.

[throne]

logic doesn't apply to them, they see what they want to see

[Atom666]

I mean...isn't it even more clear now that we learned it was a major investment? It's one thing if it was maybe 6 figures to do some cross promotion, but we're talking 1/4 billion Paid here.

[StoneyYoshi]

@Atom666

It isn't considered a Major investment. Article states they invested in a minority stake. You know what "minority" means right?

[MadLad]

@stoney

250 million is a large investment, even if it's into a billion dollar company.

[StoneyYoshi]

@TheRealTedCruz
Yeah its a large amount of money but its still a minority investment in the company like the article says...
250 Mil invested into a 17 Billion dollar company is definitely not a major or large investment.

[Atom666]

@Yoshi

That made be chuckle. Isn't this investment larger than the check they wrote for all of Insomniac?

Name me the marketing deal that comes close to 250mil. That's the point. They invested a truckload of cash here, and it's mutually beneficial to promote UE5 on PS5.

There's no reason or way to spin it as "no big deal." It's a meaningful move for both, and explains a lot of things.

[rainslacker]

Someone should explain what Epic gains from this besides $250 million dollars, and if they really believe that Sony felt that $250 million was what it would cost to get Epic saying nice things about them.

To me, if Sony's investment was contingent on having Sweeney say the PS5 was a good console, and talk up the SSD and other features of the PS5, that seems kind of like him selling out. One thing I've never considered Sweeney to be is a sell out.

Sometimes, the simplest answer is the real one....not some made up conspiracy or extrapolating extenuating circumstances to try and find an answer that doesn't exist. Epic has nothing to gain by talking up the PS5 now. It would tarnish their reputation, which has generally always been fairly neutral. Even when MS was funding Gears of War for them, they didn't hold back the PS3 tools for Unreal, nor were they prone to talking crap about it.

[JackBNimble]

It's only a 1.4% investment, that's a tiny sliver of the pie.
$250mil may seem huge to the average person but these are multibillion dollar companies.

This doesn't give Sony any decision making power over UE5 and it's not going to stop MS or anyone else from using this engine.

[Cmv38]

Y'all are truly weird. So the ps5 isn't actually any good, epic is just lying because Sony invested in them 2 months after the praise..... yeah ok