In a joint announcement, Sony and Epic Games revealed that Sony will be making a $250 million strategic investment to acquire a minority interest in Epic Games, the company behind Fortnite, Unreal Engine, and the Epic Games store. The deal is still awaiting customary regulatory approval, but appears to be on the way to closing.
While investments such as these are not uncommon around the financial world, what kind of impact will this move have on gamers? Well, here’s a snippet from the press release sent this afternoon that may shed some light on that.
The investment allows Sony and Epic to aim to broaden their collaboration across Sony’s leading portfolio of entertainment assets and technology, and Epic’s social entertainment platform and digital ecosystem to create unique experiences for consumers and creators.
The statement is a definitely vague but it’s reasonable to assume that the two companies will seek to have their assets work together to mutually benefit each other if possible beyond just the innate perks that comes along with an investment.
Kenichiro Yoshida, chairman, president and CEO of Sony added the following:
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,
“Exploring opportunities for further collaboration” could mean a lot of things such as Sony games appearing on the Epic Games store, Fortnite crossing over into Sony’s Pictures or Music divisions, or them working together to improve the Unreal Engine experience for developers.
All that is speculation to be clear but it’s a few of the more interesting and plausible ideas that come to mind when Sony and Epic Games say that are interested in collaborating following this investment.
Tim Sweeny, founder and CEO of Epic Games concluded the press release with the following statement:
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,
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