Sony is investing $250 million into Fortnite maker Epic games to purchase a minority stake in the company, according to a joint announcement both companies released today.
That doesn’t make Epic an official second party developer for Sony (think of the relationship Nintendo has to Pokémon developer Game Freak), but it does pave the way for both Sony and Epic to “broaden their collaboration,” according to the announcement.
$250 million only gives Sony a 1.4% stake in Epic, which a recent
Bloombergreport valued at about $17 billion overall, so don’t expect Epic to stop making titles for your best gaming PC, Xbox or even Nintendo Switch anytime soon. Still, the deal is a step forward for the relationship between both companies. After all, it’s not every day that a major console manufacturer buys part of a game dev known for cross-platform support, let alone the developer of the world’s biggest game.
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We ultimately don’t know what immediate benefit this holds for Sony, aside from holding stock in a profitable developer. But we wouldn’t be surprised to see Epic continue to announce future tech and games on the PS5 first in the future.