Fortnite creator and digital games seller Epic Games lost $273 million in 2020 in an attempt to make the Epic Games Store competitive with Steam, but losses like that appear to be a drop in the bucket compared to this latest funding round.
While at first that figure may have seemed alarming, it is clear that that loss is ultimately chump change to the PlayStation 5 manufacturer Sony.
Early April 13, Epic Games announced in a press release that it has "completed a $1 billion round of funding" to help the developer and publisher to be able to " future growth opportunities." Of that $1 billion, $200 million of it (a whopping fifth) came from Sony, a figure Epic seems understandably excited about. According to Epic Games, Sony's contribution "builds on the already close relationship between the two companies and reinforces their shared mission to advance the state of the art in technology, entertainment, and socially-connected online services."
As stated above, Epic has some lofty goals for its Epic Games Store. It recently added parties to take on Discord, in addition to already fighting a two-front battle against Steam and Apple (though the Apple fight is a legal one over Fortnite monetization on the iOS App Store). It is unclear what exactly Epic's ultimate end goal is for the Epic Games Store, but what is clear is that it plans on being proactive in disrupting every market it decides to get involved in, as well as creating and growing several revenue streams.
While perhaps not as rabidly popular as it was just a few years ago, Fortnite is also continuing to pull in millions of dollars and strengthen Epic's many unique entertainment partnerships. Beyond Fortnite, though, a strong link between Epic and Sony during the lead-up to the PS5's launch with an Unreal Engine 5 tech demo make it apparent that the two are on very close - evidently close enough that Sony leadership feels a $200 million investment would be a safe one. Whether that closeness will entail game or product exclusivity in the future remains to be seen, but it appears Epic Games and Sony could be working out something behind-the-scenes that may take a while to fully surface.
Source: Epic Games
