In case you thought Epic Games, developers of Fortnite and the PC’s most hated storefront, couldn’t get any richer, they actually just announced today that they’ve secured $1 billion in funding for their Metaverse. Epic is now valued at $28.7 billion.
While a whole slew of investors came together to raise that money, perhaps the single most important contributor is Sony, who kicked Epic $200 million, one-fifth of the grand total.
According to a press release from Epic this morning, this “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.”
Tim Sweeney, founder and CEO of Epic Games, thanked all of the investors in Epic’s statement, saying that, “Their investment will help accelerate our work around building connected social experiences in Fortnite, Rocket League and Fall Guys, while empowering game developers and creators with Unreal Engine, Epic Online Services and the Epic Games Store.”
Epic has raised this money in pursuit of this idea they’ve dubbed “the Metaverse” which is, plainly, a connected universe of not just Epic’s properties, but kind of everything. It’s the multiverse for games.
You’ve likely seen the fledgling results of this so far with all the crossover content that Fortnite has had, from Street Fighter characters to tie-ins with Star Wars and Marvel. You’ve also seen it in the game’s expansion to hosting virtual concerts for the likes of Marshmello, J Balvin and Travis Scott. Which is all to say, Sweeney has been trying to make the Metaverse happen for a while, and he hasn’t really failed yet. This extra capital is really only pushing him and Epic that much further to its fullest realization, which is at least a tiny bit terrifying to think of.