Sony has made an investment into Epic Games.
Sony and Epic Games have announced that the publisher has invested $250 million into the developer for a minority stake. This brings the two companies together even more, especially as the two companies came together in order to showcase Epic's new Unreal Engine 5 on the PlayStation 5 earlier this year.
"Epic's powerful technology in areas such as graphics places them at the forefront of game engine development with Unreal Engine and other innovations," stated Sony president and CEO Kenichiro Yoshida (via IGN). "There's no better example of this than the revolutionary entertainment experience Fortnite.
"Throughout 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."
"Sony and Epic have both built businesses at the intersection of creativity and technology, and we share a vision of real-time 3D social experiences leading to a convergence of gaming, film, and music," stated Epic founder and CEO Tim Sweeney. "Together we strive to build and even more open and accessible digital ecosystem for all consumers and content creators alike."
Epic Games revealed the Unreal Engine 5 earlier this year. The developer showed off a demo called "Lumen in the Land of Nanite" showcasing what the engine will be capable of. The demo was ran on a PlayStation 5 dev kit. According to Epic, the engine is intended to move game worlds from their currently static states into more dynamic states, where player actions have real-time direct effects on the world around. This is different than most other worlds today, which unfold in a pre-rendered style where players trigger a reaction, but it's the same reaction every time. The Unreal Engine 5 demo can be seen here.
