Sony Invests a Further $1 Billion into Fortnite Maker Epic Games

What is Sony getting out of this though? They could’ve acquired ember labs remedy games and maybe another studio

do sony still have to pay 5% royalties for using unreal engine like everyone else does?

@DnBSkillz This investment is unrelated to studio acquisitions. Sony doing this doesn't stop them from purchasing someone else. It's Sony Group Corporation, not SIE.

All those V-Bucks.

After The Matrix demo a few months back, I am very eager to see a fully fledged Triple AAA game using it to full effect.

I look forward to that day

I don't understand WTF Metaverse is. Isn't that Facebook's new craptacular platform? 🤔

@LiamCroft yes i know but Sony could of given that money to PlayStation for further investments

Sony really isn’t going in the direction I’d like them to. Guess they are following the money though, so as long as that lets them continue to make money to invest in stuff I like (such as VR) then I’m good. Would prefer them to actually buy companies so they can guarantee games don’t get locked up by MS though.

Metaverse 🤢 hate to see it lol

People saying this money should of been spent on other studios need to understand this isn't solely for playstation brand, Sony is more than just the PlayStation department, they do other technology, anime, music, films, TV shows and now dabbling in cars. So basically you're saying any money sony invest should only be for the benefit of the PlayStation side?

@PlayStationGamer3919 This is a Sony group investment, not Playstation. But it will ultimately help playstation if the parent company has a strong relationship with Epic games. Without knowing any details, i assume that - for instance - it could help Sony better integrate Unreal 5 into their platform, leading to better performing titles/help to make playstation the lead platform for 3rd party development (all guesswork) - but also as a major shareholder in Epic, they should make a lot of money out of their annual profits.

Also this metaverse thing...eurgh... will likely be important in Sony's other divisions, like smartphones, TV's etc in the future

That money should go to ember lab. Or get remedy.kojima production.about getting vanilla ware and level 5.word up son

Theres only one metaverse I want to be involved in but unfortunately ive completed persona 5 twice so no more for me

"in the metaverse field"

You are producing your own VR headset so this could be smart.

At the same time everything to do with the metaverse has been just terrible from having to shop for groceries much slower in the metaverse to virtual basketball coaches who will give you tips for $10 a month.

@Shepherd_Tallon Morbius has to pop up somewhere b/c his time in the theater seems short lived.

It makes sense with Metaverse- which it’ll be hit or miss. However, investing in the makers of UE 5 is certainly smart, especially after SE announced that Kingdom hearts 4 is moving from UE 4 to UE 5.

A few examples of uneducated/uninformed people making classic comments here.

SGC and SIE are different. Calm yourselves.

A very smart investment in an ever growing company. A lot of people don't realize that an investment doesn't always have to be an acquisition or something of the sort.

I can’t believe ‘Second Life but worse’ is being made out to be some revolutionary thing. Talk about cringe.

metaverse is nothing. it wants to be ready player one but our technology isnt there lol, im so glad Sony still develop games for us offline single campaign gamers.
i try and tell my nephew's get off this fortnight and v bucks con.

What's metaverse? That rubbish that Facebook is trying to pedal?

@Uncharted2007 if I’m thinking correctly, it’s their attempt at the Oasis. It’s not going the way they thought though. I saw a report of a mom who logged on, and her avatar was cyber molested by three other players within 45 seconds of appearing.

@placekicker oasis would be cool, the latter though 🤣

@trev666 We know from the Apple versus Epic lawsuit that Sony has a company license for unreal. That license is different from the contract of adhesion. We don’t know what the terms of that agreement are but we do know that epic considers it favourable to Sony.

@DnBSkillz I think it's called money.

@thefourfoldroot It just seems like a bad move to invest 1 billion in Epic now when they were obviously interested before at a much lower share price.

Another element that adds to my suspicions that Sony is making a big 'Playstation Home'-like project. We will see.

It’s a good move. UE is leveraged for movies a ton these days. The investment is for Sony as a whole, not just the PlayStation division.

Important to to remember that the 'Metaverse' is not a singular game or product. Not yet, anyway. People's understanding of the concept needs to be a little more fluid until it actually exists. But it is coming and like it not, it's going to be a hot topic in the coming years.

It might not be as exciting for us as a studio acquisition, but Sony's investment is a smart one considering the vast portfolio of tools and experience that Epic has in its portfolio.

@Rural-Bandit

UE5 is great, but don’t discount Sony’s first party engines.

ND Engine, Decima, Insomiac Tools, SP Engine. All really good engines that rival Unreal in both visual output and performance.

Sony doesn’t have to rely on external engines as much as Microsoft does. As of now, the only internal Microsoft engines is Slipspace at 343, and Turn10’s custom engine for the Forza games. They do have access to ID Tech 7 now, though.

That’s an engine I’d love to see more developers leverage. That engine is a work of art. It’s the one Series X and PS5 compatible engine that allows for locked 120fps. Doom Eternal at 120hz is shockingly locked in at that framerate for such high visual quality with really impressive TAA.

@Rural-Bandit

I don’t think we are going to see what these consoles are really capable of until 2025. Even the next gen exclusive games on both platforms for 2023 are leveraging last gen engine versions and assets.

By late 2024 and into 2025 all of the big titles with next gen only engine features will be hitting at a good clip.

It was that way with the PS4. We didn’t really get to see what Cerny’s box was really capable of until Horizon Zero Dawn released. We had glimpses of it in other games. But as a complete package Zero Dawn was the first game that really showed off what it’s architecture could do.

Nice one, Sony. Pouring your very limited funds reserved for the PlayStation division into a metaverse, service based, microtransaction filled pile of crap, for what exactly?

Money that could've been better spent on.. oh I dunno, games for the PlayStation platforms?

The customers know the funds for PlayStation are limited and you waste it on this? Well, I hope something comes of that 'investment' because your customers want games.

All this talk of Ready Player One, and that's set about 20 years in the future. You should all be more worried that the time in which Sword Art Online is set is closer to the present day. 😳

@GADG3Tx87

Are we not getting games? We are still getting Ragnarok this year and there’s a ton of third party games coming out. I lived through the N64. And in those days we were lucky to get two games released per month.

While I dislike metaverse concepts, I get why Sony is investing more into Epic games. It makes sense from a financial standpoint. Epic is on top of the gaming world in terms of revenue and UE5 seems poised to take over third party development and even take over film.

@OrtadragoonX
I didn't say we're not getting games I said their limited funds are better invested in making games rather than funding a service f2p game that doesn't do much for PlayStation.

And I also lived through the N64 generation and grew up with the NES, SNES, and remember vividly the PS1 launch. Games were not exactly few and far between but they took you much longer to complete back then so they lasted longer. Finding secrets and working for months on unlocks as opposed to paying for 'unlocks' in the form of DLC these days.

Clearly Sony doesn't know how to a run a multi billion dollar business, they should be coming to random gaming sites to learn how to run their business.

Waste of an investment imo, better off buying a venerable gaming company at that price point, and using them to help build Sony's own metaverse and increasing market share especially when Playstation dominates the VR market and PS VR 2 should do fantastic

@Milktastrophe Yes they should, their arrogance almost led them straight to bankruptcy the last time, and I'm sure many of their sectors are still hemoraging money

Sony be interested in the studios that put 360 on the map.

@playstation1995 who says they are not trying to get the stray devs, slocap, ember, kojima and the deviation? They have more money.

@OrtadragoonX uncharted 4 looks better than hzd.

Infamous second son was a bigger jump than ratchet rift apart.

Expect less because of diminishing returns.

The next ND game won't be THAT much better looking than hfw.

@Rural-Bandit ue5 is great, but the most talented devs make their own engines.

You already said only haven is using it.
I think Sony Bend would use it too since they used ue4 but they could use the decima engine too. I know ff7 remake used ue4 but you rarely see it being used by the top of the cream.

@RevGaming

The environmental assets in Uncharted 4 are better, but Horizon’s scale and careful LOD use impressed me far more.

For character models, both are of equal quality but Uncharted’s facial animation was leagues better than Zero Dawn.

Both are amazing looking games and still hold up to this day. Which is proof of how good ND Engine and Decima are.

Hell, even KZ: Shadow Fall holds up to todays standards. All it needs is a 4K upgrade and TAA and it would look like a brand new game.

Maybe we might get a decent game from epic games on ps plus next month instead of the glorified demo we got from them a few months ago & the tiny Tina dlc

@UltimateOtaku91 epic games don't do much outside of games though & that's what they've invested this money into

I think is part of Sony $18B+ Strategic investments that was announced last year.

@RevGaming. All those are good choices.and sony did say they are buying new studios.so thats good news.word up son

@OrtadragoonX and facial animations are much better on u4.

Uncharted 4 looked better. Even my brother who plays only on xbox always mentions u4 as the best looking game of last gen.

@playstation1995 Well. Whatever they buy, they will probably only release one game this gen if it's a big blockbuster game. Which is fine, but they can't do much atm. There aren't many good options left. That makes sense at least.

@Rural-Bandit Wasn't impressed with the coalition thing. The character looked cool but everything around him eh.

Hellblade 2 looks phenomenal, but I don't think is the best looking game.

Sound investment. Might even bring benefits to the games division in time.
If there is going to be a fuctioning metaverse like in snowcrash, then there are only so many corps capable of building it, and epic is a good bet, with lego being a good brand to have on board to help market. Interesting stuff...

@SegaBlueSky Just like Virtual Reality has been just around the corner for 20 years, right? As far as the mainstream is concerned, it's still on the way.

So yeah, something resembling "the metaverse" is coming, but I guarantee you it won't look anything like...well, anything you see before 2030. There will be at least one or two generations of building it and throwing it out before anybody makes something useful - and it won't be relevant until the hardware to make it use is ubiquitous and affordable. Which means, not soon.

But there's a lot of money to be made convincing venture capitalists they'll miss the next great revolution if they don't invest NOW.

@RevGaming

Eh, I think that crown has to go to the Last of Us Part II.

It has a ton of flaws as a game, but no one can deride just how beautiful it is.

It took the ND Engine version from UC4 and took it to the next level.

Horizon’s strength was how carefully GG managed the LOD at different ranges. The game looked absolutely stunning at long range, something that couldn’t be said of other open world games at that time.

@Rural-Bandit

Historically speaking Unreal Engine combined with Japanese developers equals disaster. FF7 Remake is one of the few Japanese developed games on UE4 that actually runs well.

UE is a good engine, but it has some severe issues. Mainly related to performance. It’s a difficult engine to work with when your goal is the highest performance possible. You have to carefully manage frame timing in the game if you cap the framerate; if you don’t you end up with the patented “UE stutter” effect. It’ll run at a smooth framerate but the frame pacing will be all over the place.

It’s the exact opposite of ID Tech 7. ID Tech7 is optimized for high refresh rates while still maintaining visual quality.

It’s just a shame that developers aren’t using it. Doom Eternal is a masterpiece not with how it looks, but how it performs while still looking good. No matter what platform it’s on, the game runs like smooth butter.

@OrtadragoonX I agree. tlou2 looks better. I just mentioned my brother still thinks it's u4.

The flaws tlou 2 has is in its story and pacing. Everything else should be the bar for anything.

Yeah. HZD would be in my top 10 best looking games still.

@Rural-Bandit It didn't impress me in general. What was impressing was that it came from xbox.

I think HFW and Demon Souls Remake looks better.

I just think what they showed didn't have a lot of things in the environment. I would have to see like a huge detailed camp to really tell.

Hopefully this investment will give Sony some influence in getting key features of Unreal 5 implemented in VR. Epic have been largely dismissive thus far.

No surprise. They keep investing in promising stuff. Nothing to do with PlayStation funds.
Haters will hate whatever they do. 🙄

I remember when haters said Tim Sweeney was saying good things about the PS5 because Sony invested in them a few millions. They even called him and Lisa Su liars Haha
🙃

@playstation1995 You need to invest to make money and having a good collaboration with the people that own Unreal 5 wont be bad.

@Flaming_Kaiser. Unreal engine 5 is going to be incredible.sony will be buying more studios.so thats a good news.word up son

@Rural-Bandit Demon Souls looks better than Ratchet to me. Ratchet is a bit cartoony.

Nah. I'm not mentioning those games because of console war. They are legit the best looking games. I know re4 remake and the next rockstar game will be on that level too.

@Rural-Bandit Hahaha gotta stay quiet.

@Rural-Bandit I think you'll see Returnal on PC soon, but Spider-Man, Ghost and Tlou2 should be the next ones.

I wonder how many copies Spider-man sold. I would be very surprised if somehow they managed to get to 30m, but I think they rather add the games on ps plus or PC when they already sold enough on Playstation.

I don't think Gow and Starfield will look better than Horizon. Especially Starfield. I was looking at my ps4/ps5 screenshots and fallout 4 looked outdated during that time. I just think people are expecting too much from a studio that focuses more on lore, content rather than graphics.

@LiamCroft (and others along the way) that's a good point - its Sony Group Corp... which means it's a more strategic investment.

@Rural-Bandit I think zelda did not affect that much since it's a switch exclusive, but elden ring def did.

They haven't released sales numbers that often lately. Neither for gt7.

Ratchet sold well. 1.1m early on was good for the amount of ps5 were out there at that time. That's normal. Ratchet 2016 is not on pc so I doubt it.

Returnal sold well according to sony. That game's budget was on the low low for AAA, but I still think PC is coming.

Not so sure about smoking. For me hfw looks better.

Starfield won't look as good as Hellblade 2. Not even close. Their games have never been on the top tier on graphics. Looking at f76 and f4.

@Flaming_Kaiser If can get a PS5 and back the "option" to backup my saves locally with good games then im good.