Epic Games' Metaverse development receives a $2B investment

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Epic Games has announced a $2 billion investment in its metaverse development, with Sony contributing half of the funds.

According to a press release, Sony, which already owns a minority stake in Epic, has invested $1 billion in the Unreal and Fortnite developers to build "new social entertainment exploring the relationship between digital and physical worlds."

The other billion dollars comes from Kirkbi, the principal owner of The Lego Group. Epic announced a collaboration with Lego last week to create a family-friendly metaverse aimed toward children. According to the press release, today's investment would raise Epic's projected valuation to $31.5 billion.

“As a creative entertainment company, we are thrilled to invest in Epic to deepen our relationship in the metaverse field, a space where creators and users share their time,” said Sony Group president, chairman, and CEO Kenichiro Yoshida in the press release.

Read more: Manchester City to build world's first metaverse football stadium

“We are also confident that Epic’s expertise, including their powerful game engine, combined with Sony’s technologies, will accelerate our various efforts such as the development of new digital fan experiences in sports and our virtual production initiatives.”

The investment follows the introduction of Epic's Unreal Engine 5 last week, an engine that will almost certainly play a big role in constructing whatever non-Fortnite metaverse Epic has in mind. The metaverse is a trendy buzzword as IT companies build and define their own interpretations of the notion.

Epic appears to be ahead of the curve more than other firms, as Fortnite already embraces many of the "all-encompassing digital world" features that a metaverse is frequently touted as, making Sony's investment comprehensible in that respect.

Sony invested $250 million in Epic in July 2020, giving it a minority stake in the company in order to improve and expand collaboration on technology for digital ecosystems, specifically Unreal Engine. Despite today's investments, Epic currently has a single class of common stock outstanding, and Tim Sweeny retains control as CEO, according to the press statement.

The fruits of this collaboration and Epic's metaverse are yet to be seen and will most likely be for some time, but today's news is another significant financial step toward making those ideas a reality.