Epic's Epic Funding Round

Fortnite-maker Epic Games announced a $2 billion funding round yesterday. The deal is split 50-50 between Sony and a group operated by the founders of Lego, and values the game maker at $31.5 billion.

🎮💰 A deeper dive...

• This round represents the largest investment in the gaming space dating back to 2002, per research firm PitchBook; the previous three largest investments were also in Epic (including a $1 billion round last year valuing it at $28.7 billion).
• In a statement, the video game developer said the new funds will be used “to advance the company’s vision to build the metaverse and support its continued growth.”
• The investment comes days after Epic announced a partnership with Lego to build a metaverse “made for kids and families,” though further details were scarce.

🤝 Zoom out: The market for videogame companies is currently hotter than a Texas summer. One recent example: Microsoft agreed to the largest acquisition in gaming history in January, buying Call of Duty-maker Activision Blizzard for $69 billion.

• And the suitors aren't just software companies, either. Netflix acquired its first video game studio last September, globally launched its first game in November, and then purchased two more video game studios last month.