Epic Games is one of the fastest-growing gaming companies in recent years, having launched its own PC gaming storefront and a new Unreal Engine after the massive success of Fortnite. Recent investment funding yielded $1 billion for the company, a huge chunk of which came from none other than Sony.
The Sony Group Corporation invested $200 million of the overall $1 billion raised in Epic Games' most recent round of investments. It's a huge sum of money that Sony CEO Kenichiro Yoshida, said would "strengthen the collaboration" between the two companies. Other interests that invested in Epic Games in this round of funding include Appaloosa, Baillie Gifford, and the Ontario Teacher's Pension Board.
In a press release, Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney said the investment will, "accelerate our work around building connected social experiences in Fortnite, Rocket League, and Fall Guys." The $1 billion in funding brought the valuation of Epic Games to $28.7 billion total as of April 2021. According to Bloomberg, Epic Games was at about a $17 billion total valuation in June 2020, which means the company gained more than $10 billion in value in one year.
The Sony Group Corporation, known just as the Sony Corporation before April 2021, has had a close relationship with Epic Games since the company's rise and has been working directly with Epic since at least early 2020. In fact, Epic Games' Unreal Engine 5 debuted in May 2020 and was revealed first on the PlayStation 5 console, which at the time signaled a blossoming relationship.
In July 2020, Sony invested a larger sum of $250 million in Epic Games, which gave the company a 1.4 percent stake in the company as a whole. This further investment will increase that initial stake, but it will not give Sony much of a significant say in the company as a whole.
To compare, Tencent Games, for example, owns about 40% of Epic Games stock as well as the entirety of Riot Games. Although the completed $1 billion drive shifted many factors in Epic Games, after the recent round of funding Tim Sweeney will remain the controlling shareholder of the company he founded.
The popularity of Epic Games' properties, especially their free-to-play ones, seems to have interested Sony enough that some are speculating it is pursuing an exclusive relationship with the Fortnite developer, though neither Epic Games nor Sony has confirmed these theories.
While no major collaborative announcements have been made based on these large investments on either Sony or Epic Games' part, they nevertheless seem certain that having a stake in Epic is necessary for the future of PlayStation and their array of other properties.
Source: Epic Games