Epic Games, the creator of Fortnite, has teamed up with Lego and Sony in a massive billion-dollar deal for a joint metaverse. The American video game and software developer announced yesterday that Sony will inject $1 billion and Lego will also be investing a similar amount. This would push up Epic Game’s value to $31.5 billion.
Last week, Epic and Lego highlighted that they are co-developing a “family-friendly” metaverse for kids. Soren Thorup Sorensen, CEO of Kirkbi – the family-owned investment company behind Lego, said a proportion of their investment is focused on trends that will impact the future world. The investment will accelerate Kirkbi’s engagement in the world of digital play. The company, through the investment, will support Epic Game’s continued growth journey with a long-term focus on the future metaverse.
Tim Sweeney, Epic Games CEO, said the funds would help the company accelerate its work to build the metaverse. He highlighted that as Epic Games re-imagines the future of entertainment and play, it needs partners who share the company’s visions. Epic Games, the company which developed Unreal Engine, has found this in its partnership with Sony and Kirkbi.
Epic Games is renowned for the battle royale game Fortnite, which lets up to 100 players fight it out to be the last one standing. The company found itself caught in a heated dispute with Apple in 2021 over the iPhone maker’s App Store fees. The judge ruled Apple can no longer prevent developers from directing users away from Apple’s own payment system – a win for Fortnight.
