Yesterday’s announcement of a $250 million Sony investment in Epic Games raised some questions about the recent praises of the PlayStation 5 console made by Tim Sweeney and other Epic Games executives.
As you might recall, Epic Games unveiled its Unreal Engine 5 with a stunning demo that ran in real time on the PlayStation 5 hardware. Tim Sweeney famously incensed Sony’s design decisions particularly with regards to the revolutionized storage solution, which he claimed to be ahead of anything available on PC. He later explained that Epic had been working ‘super-closely’ alongside Sony for years on the PlayStation 5, which eventually led to the Unreal Engine 5 demo.
At the time, Tim Sweeney also stated there was no deal or anything like that, which sounds a bit iffy in light of yesterday’s news. The Epic CEO addressed this matter with the following tweet yesterday.
Yes, here’s what I said back in May below. Serious investment discussions followed from the Unreal Engine 5 demo we showed on PlayStation 5. I guess they liked it!
Yes, here’s what I said back in May below. Serious investment discussions followed from the Unreal Engine 5 demo we showed on PlayStation 5. I guess they liked it!https://t.co/c9x4q1v87P https://t.co/XoOTR5hThU
— Tim Sweeney (@TimSweeneyEpic) July 9, 2020
Of course, whether you believe his story or not is entirely up to you. Still, Sony’s investment is really a minority stake that shouldn’t have a major impact on how Epic is handled.
