A recent deal where Sony invested $250 million into Epic Games has left some people wondering if there has been some underhanded financial arrangement the public is unaware of. Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney has gone onto Twitter to deny these allegations, stating that Sony's interest came from an earlier showcase of the Unreal Engine.
Last Thursday, Sony announced that it has made a $250 million investment into Epic Games, giving Sony a 1.4% minority stake in the video game and video game engine developer. Sony's CEO and President, Kenichiro Yoshida, said that Sony made its investment because "Epic’s powerful technology in areas such as graphics places them at the forefront of game engine development with Unreal Engine and other innovations." Yoshida also cited Fortnite's major success as an example of Epic Games' capabilities.
However, some people suspect that there's more to the investment that what was publicly mentioned. One Twitter user in particular that goes by the handle @SenninSage said "Did @TimSweeneyEpic not clearly say there was no financial arrangement or reason behind recent statements sounding heavily tilted towards Playstation 5? This officially now makes those previous remarks highly suspect, if not outright lies." Tim Sweeney, the CEO at Epic Games, responded with a tweet of his own, clarifying that Sony's interest in Epic Games most likely came from a demo of PS5 gameplay footage on Unreal Engine 5.
"Serious investment discussions followed from the Unreal Engine 5 demo we showed on PlayStation 5," Sweeney said about the investment deal "I guess they liked it!" He linked back to a tweet he made in May talking about the various projects they've been working on with Sony, including the Unreal Engine 5 demo on the PS5 and Epic Online Services, a free tool which gives game developers access to the kind of core online services that helped make Fortnite a major success.
Sony isn't the only big company to have a minority share of the Epic Games pie. Back in 2012, the Chinese conglomerate Tencent invested $330 million into Epic Games, granting it a 40% stake in the company. Since then, Tencent has announced a cyberpunk game known as SYN that will make use of the Epic Games technology.
Source: Twitter via IGN