Epic secures $2 billion from Sony, KIRKBI to fund its metaverse plans

Epic Games, the guys behind Fortnite and the, well, ‘epic’ battle with Apple, have some big plans for the metaverse and they have just bagged a lot of cash for it. The company announced that they have received a $2 billion round of funding and added that it is going to be used to “advance the company’s vision to build the metaverse and support continued growth”.

Epic recently announced a partnership with Lego to create a metaverse for kids and this announcement was followed by the recent funding round. The $2 billion comes from Sony and KIRKBI. Sony has already invested in Epic before and KIRKBI is an investment group operated by the Kirk Kristiansen family, the founders of Lego. Sony and KIRKBI have invested $1 billion in the latest funding round, as per reports.

When Epic announced its metaverse plans with Lego, it did not share too many details about what and how things are going to go forward as they work on creating a “family friendly take on the metaverse”.

“This investment will accelerate our work to build the metaverse and create spaces where players can have fun with friends, brands can build creative and immersive experiences, and creators can build a community and thrive,” Epic CEO Tim Sweeney said.

Metaverse, as a concept, remains “nebulous”, but companies like Epic have been “one of the biggest proponents of the idea of a connected virtual world”. They have already been working on it through platforms like their very-popular game Fortnite and the Unreal Engine game-making toolset. They also recently launched an app that allows users to turn real objects and photos into 3D models.

As The Verge pointed out, Epic’s “metaverse concept even made a cameo at last year’s Epic v. Apple trial” when Sweeney called Fortnite “a phenomenon that transcends gaming”. Sweeney described Fortnite as “a real-time, computer-powered 3D entertainment and social medium in which real people would go into a 3D simulation together and have experiences of all sorts” - Fortnite as a metaphor for the metaverse.

Sony, on the other hand, acquired Destiny developer Bungie earlier this year, making its own “big push” into the virtual worlds’ space.

While the metaverse still remains largely in its conceptual form for now, Fortnite is probably the “closest thing we currently have to that vision through virtual events like concerts and a grab bag of pop culture tie-ins including everything from Marvel characters and professional athletes to, most recently, the late artist Jean-Michel Basquiat”.

Also Read: Fortnite maker Epic Games and Lego partner to build a metaverse for kids

Also Read: Epic Game's new RealityScan app can create 3D models of real objects instantly