It’s raining greenbacks on the American video game giant Epic Games. Almost a year after raising $ 1.78 billion, the group repeated the operation on April 13 for $ 1 billion, which now values it at $ 28.7 billion ($ 24 billion euros), compared to 17.3 billion last year. This amount reflects the current euphoria of players in the video game sector, who display brilliant health: since the start of the Covid-19 epidemic, the planet has never played so much.
And never have private investors been so fond of entering the capital of these companies. According to a report by Invest Game, 2020 was a record year in terms of fundraising, for a total of 5.9 billion – Epic Games already carrying out the largest operation of the period.
“An already close relationship”
Around Epic’s new funding round is more than a dozen investors, but one attracts particular attention: the Japanese video game giant Sony, which alone brings $ 200 million. This should bring its stake in the company to around 3%, far behind the historic investor Tencent (40%) and the founder, reference shareholder, Tim Sweeney, whose shares are respectively estimated by Forbes at 40% and 38%.
Epic Games has developed tools for developers, which have become almost essential for creating games of great realism.
However. Last year, he had already bet $ 250 million on Epic. The American company did not fail to underline the special place occupied by its Japanese partner. This new contribution of funds “Builds on an already close relationship between the two companies and strengthens their common mission”.
The American company is best known to the general public as the publisher of the game Fortnite, one of the most popular in the world. One example among others of its ability to successfully integrate an important social dimension into its titles and to carve out a prominent place in the mobile world – two areas in which Sony is not known to excel. But the company has other strengths that are of interest to Nippon. It has developed tools for developers, which have become almost essential for creating games of great realism. Even the cinema is seizing it now, which should not leave Sony Pictures insensitive. Finally, it has developed its platform for downloading dematerialized PC games, today dominated by the Steam site.
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