2020 has been an interesting year in business partnerships. As many tech companies are looking to diversify and strengthen their portfolios. Covid-19 has provided interesting circumstances and forced many companies to change their game plans. One partnership that has been building lately, has been Sony’s relationship with Epic Games. After a joint reveal, that saw the reveal of our first look at what the PS5 would be capable of. As well as the reveal of Epic Games Unreal Engine 5. There was little doubt that the two companies were comfortable working together.
Epic Games Scores Big
Today, it was announced by both companies that Sony corporation would be making a strategic investment in Epic Games. The investment worth $250 million, means that Sony corporation now has a minority interest stake in the company. This no doubt strengthens an already growing relationship between the two companies. In a report from Business Wire Sony’s President and CEO Kenchiro Yoshida had this to say about the investment.
“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,”
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This partnership is much bigger than just Sony’s PlayStation brand that many have associated this deal with. Epic Games has found a magic formula with Fortnite. The success that Epic Games has found with its digital Fornite events. That has gone from movie trailer debuts, to live concerts and everything in between. Sony’s music and movie divisions have been strengthening over the past few years. This partnership will bring a lot of value a variety of Sony’s divisions. As both companies focus on innovating in the gaming and entertainment sphere.
It will be interesting to see what other deals might be made in the upcoming months.