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Forums - Sony Discussion - Sony invests $250m in Epic Games to acquire a minority stake

sales2099 on 09 July 2020
PotentHerbs said:
sales2099 said:

Everyone should just use the Slipspace Engine lol. Just makes a little less sense in giving royalties to a company that isn’t neutral anymore. 

Damn, well played Sony. Id have a field day with this if I was on the other side. 

Sony bought a 1.4% stake lol. 

And that’s 1.4% more then what MS owns. My initial view and it’s 4 possible implications, I stand by it. 



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chakkra on 09 July 2020
PotentHerbs said:
shikamaru317 said:
A partnership like this must be more than a little scary for Microsoft honestly. Microsoft has 12 different 1st party studios using Unreal Engine currently, plus alot of 2nd party studios most likely. To have your closest competitor owning a stake in the company that creates the engine that so many of your studios use seems scary to me. MS might want to look into moving more of their studios over to in-house engines after their current Unreal projects are done, either that or maybe acquire Crytek and turn CryEngine into a 1st party engine for their studios to use.

I don't see how Sony having a minority stake in Epic impacts Microsoft at all. Its not like they're going to make UE5 exclusive to the PS5.

I think we already saw a little bit of that impact during the UE5 demo. During months I was scratching my head trying to understand why so little mention of the XSX (not on the presentation itself but in the following weeks) seeing as how many MS's studios actually use the engine. I mean, logic would dictate that it would be in Epic's interest to keep the people who are using your engine happy.



Jizz_Beard_thePirate on 09 July 2020

So much for nothing going on behind the scenes lul



                  

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Jranation on 09 July 2020

Why didnt they made HZD a epic games exclusive on PC?



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PotentHerbs on 09 July 2020
shikamaru317 said:
PotentHerbs said:

I don't see how Sony having a minority stake in Epic impacts Microsoft at all. Its not like they're going to make UE5 exclusive to the PS5.

Best case scenario, the company that makes the Engine that so many of your studios use is acting as a PR mouthpiece for your closest competitor, which is something we've already been seeing since the PS5 Unreal demo, with Tim Sweeney doing multiple interviews praising PS5 while barely acknowledging Xbox Series' existence. 

Worst case scenario, Sony continues buying up Epic stock and uses their larger sway as a shareholder in a far more underhand way to attack Microsoft. Maybe not blocking Microsoft off from using Unreal entirely, but maybe attempting to get priority Unreal engine updates for their own studios, while Xbox studios have to wait longer to get those updates. 

I doubt Sony is underhanded enough to try something like that to attack Xbox, but you never know, business can get pretty cutthroat at times. In the unlikely event that Sony were to try something like that, it's better to have the majority of your studios on other engines, rather than the majority on Unreal. 

Honestly, that just seems like a bunch of fear mongering. 

Epic is not the only third party developer heaping praise on the PS5. Industry legend John Carmack, among other third party developers, have praised the SSD setup for the PS5. At this point in time, MS has bigger issues with the Xbox brand, than a lack of PR praise from a third party publisher. Also, you do realize Tencent has about a 48% stake in Epic as well?

Sony getting the UE5 engine optimized for the PS5 hardware doesn't mean it will be gimped for Xbox. It just makes it easier for third party developers, who use the UE5 engine, to more easily take advantage of the PS5 architecture. 



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LivingMetal on 09 July 2020
PotentHerbs said:
shikamaru317 said:
A partnership like this must be more than a little scary for Microsoft honestly. Microsoft has 12 different 1st party studios using Unreal Engine currently, plus alot of 2nd party studios most likely. To have your closest competitor owning a stake in the company that creates the engine that so many of your studios use seems scary to me. MS might want to look into moving more of their studios over to in-house engines after their current Unreal projects are done, either that or maybe acquire Crytek and turn CryEngine into a 1st party engine for their studios to use.

I don't see how Sony having a minority stake in Epic impacts Microsoft at all. Its not like they're going to make UE5 exclusive to the PS5.

A portion of money Epic makes from the Unreal Engine on Microsoft's titles goes into the pocket of Sony.  So in a way, Microsoft funds PlayStation game development.  Simply put.



PotentHerbs on 09 July 2020
sales2099 said:
PotentHerbs said:

Sony bought a 1.4% stake lol. 

And that’s 1.4% more then what MS owns. My initial view and it’s 4 possible implications, I stand by it. 

And? Why would Sony have more of a say than Tencent who benefits from all platforms?



PotentHerbs on 09 July 2020
chakkra said:
PotentHerbs said:

I don't see how Sony having a minority stake in Epic impacts Microsoft at all. Its not like they're going to make UE5 exclusive to the PS5.

I think we already saw a little bit of that impact during the UE5 demo. During months I was scratching my head trying to understand why so little mention of the XSX (not on the presentation itself but in the following weeks) seeing as how many MS's studios actually use the engine. I mean, logic would dictate that it would be in Epic's interest to keep the people who are using your engine happy.

Sure, I can see that, but I would argue that the UE5 demo with a PS logo slapped onto it, would generate more views/discussion/hype, than it would with Xbox marketing despite their in house use of the engine. 



LivingMetal on 09 July 2020
okr said:
From now on Tencent will gain influence on Sony.

No they won't.



gergroy on 09 July 2020

It’s a minority stake, it isn’t going to have any major impact on their business. Their game engine business can’t just cater to Sony or they will lose business from multiplat publishers. It might give Sony a bit more leverage for some fortnite stuff, but who cares. It is fortnite.

I think the biggest reason is to give Sony a bit of return from pc sales. I think, if anything, this news points to Sony looking to branch into pc sales a bit more than they have been...