Right. I mean, people have their preferences and that feeds rivalry POV, but think about what technical professionals actually find interesting and compelling. Xbox has always favored off the shelf approach to Sony's heavier customization, what COULD they say about Series X "uhh... yeah lots of FLOPS/Ghz"? "More of the same" just isn't compelling because that happens every day in PC world, it isn't game changer like totally overhauled I/O controller stack architecture. This isn't about gimping Xbox, leveraging unique PS5 I/O is benefit for Playstation, but Series X isn't any worse off than PC, which is competive and innovative. Clearly Epic didn't just have detached technical interest as Carmack, but they were after all coordinating development of UE with Sony to leverage these features... They felt it worthwhile to develop around in the first place, which they wouldn't have done if they didn't think it was worth the effort (which is notable difference in PS5 vs PS3 for example).

Really the main area I see this triggering more competition with MS is if MS decides to pursue PC gaming store in serious way, maybe thu other purchase/tieup. Their own effort their wasn't exactly successful, and significant 3rd party stores are limited. Steam probably has the most presence and consumer engagement, but they have weak 3rd party relation currently with their high cut of sales, which is where Epic has been doing well. MS could lower that cut if they bought Steam, but they would have to pay premium atop high current business valuation. Although they could approach as merger with spun-off Xbox business added to JV. Doing a deal with CDPR with GOG would be other route, which could be interesting, but I don't necessarily see signs of that I would bet on it happening per se. I'm not really sure if MS sees the need for any of that. They already own Azure which Sony uses, so they could be getting cut of this business anyways. Growing their dev/publishing business is reasonable route forward, and they clearly aren't fixated on Xbox console itself with that, esp. with PC but not just.

LMFAO

I will the reveal was 2 mins tops

Sony can easily pull the game from Steam whenever they like it’s just one game after all. Not sure how MS “pays for PR every day” that’s news to me. I’d say the Fortnight deal is a precursor to their relationship today. 

I get your stance but you can’t fully disprove my concerns either. The UE5 demo only benefitting Sony despite MS being a actual user of it tells me the $250 million is buying a considerable PR advantage. 

I am assuming negative consequences for the Xbox brand, as a fan I can speculate. I said if I was a PS fan I’d have a field day so the console war pendulum isn’t lost on me. 

It's not a huge deal yet as long as Sony won't get more shares in the future but it explains a lot about how Sweeney and other guys from Epic tried their best to push PS more than anything.

Realistically this just means positive PR for PS and lesser acknowledgement of Xbox in future UE developments. Which I see now is no big deal in the grand scheme.
But it’s your rationalize comment that I think that’s more of a personal annoyance then any actual threat in the console brand war. 

From my perspective, Xbox has Coalition, Obsidian, InXile, Ninja Theory among others that are using UE4 and UE5 when it becomes available. The only PS studio that used UE was Bend for Days Gone (correct if wrong). A quality game but wasn’t a graphical showpiece of the engine either. The dev made high caliber PS Vita games in the past if I’m not mistaken.

So I guess it just boils down to the audacity of it. That 2 minute demo should have got Xbox gamers excited based on what Xbox studios who are using the engine would do on Series X. But instead it benefited solely Sony while they have only 1 studio that uses it.

Its just weird is all. Their $250 million is all ready proving to provide a considerable PR boost. I said my piece and gave credit to where it’s due. At least you know where I’m coming from. 

So they're valuing Epic at $17.8Billion? Seems expensive to me. Take2's about 17Billion right now and I'd rather own the company that makes GTA over Fortnite.

250m is peanuts.

It's a joke to even call it a minority stake.

Didn't Sony just recently 'give' $100m out to indie devs?

Probably doesn't.
Sony still needs to be elected to the board in order to even have a say.

This could potentially have been a counter move on Tom Sweeny's behalf to stave off tencent who owned 48.4% of Epic at one point... COVID is making the marketplace a very concerning time, especially when chinese investors are concerned.

Epics revenue is about 5-6~ billion a year, plus they have their store to fall back on and Unreal Engine has always been popular and well supported by the entire industry.
Valuation is also partly about future prospects and Epic is in a very good place.

Seems like a move for Sony to leverage their way into the PC market easier. That, and they can also get in on that Epic tech that made Mandalorian for their own movies. Highly unlikely that this affects MS in any way whatsoever. Epic makes money off licensing the UE out. Why would they gimp one of their biggest customers?

At least this explains the bizarre gushing Sweeney has been doing the last couple months. He always oversells the new Sony console versus PC stuff but he went HAM this time.