Investments are happening not only in sites like GGBET casino. Epic Games raised $2 billion in a funding round recently, and this success brings the value of the maker of Fortnite to $31.5 billion. The funds came from Sony and Lego. Each company is reported to have contributed $1 billion. The fundraising activity stemmed from the need to support Epic Games’ growth and its plans to build a metaverse.
The metaverse is not a new concept. The term itself has been around for 30 years. At that time, it was more of science fiction. It was Neal Town Stephenson, a science fiction writer, who first used the term in his novel, Snow Crash.
Today, the metaverse refers to a virtual world where people can meet, make transactions, find things to entertain and attend events. In essence, the metaverse is an alternate world for people. When they log in, they can go to places inside that world, find or meet new friends, communicate, send money, receive money, gamble, watch a concert, etc. The metaverse technology is available now; the most popular virtual worlds of this kind are the Sandbox and Decentraland.
Right now, Epic Games still has a single-class common stock, and the person controlling it is the CEO, Tim Sweeney, who is also the company’s founder. Tim said that the company wanted to reimagine the future of entertainment. They needed partners who shared the company’s vision and found this partnership with Sony and Kirkbi ( Kirkbi is the owner of Lego).
The investment will help Epic Games accelerate its plans for the development of a metaverse. They also plan to create spaces where people can have fun with their friends. The metaverse can also help people create immersive experiences, and companies advertise their brands.
This partnership is in direct competition with Microsoft. Recently, the tech giant reached an agreement to purchase Activision Blizzard for a whopping price of $75 billion. Satya Nadella, the CEO of Microsoft, said that the acquisition would open doors for Microsoft to enter the metaverse market. Furthermore, Satya said that the metaverse was expected to be the next big thing that would shape the way people communicate, have fun, play games, spend and do business online.
These developments now mean that Microsoft and Sony are in a long battle as to which company will dominate the world of gaming.
Meanwhile, the CEO of Sony, Kenichiro Yoshida, said that they were confident in the expertise of Epic Games. Sony believes that Epic has a powerful game engine. Coupled with the technologies of Sony, both companies will be able to accelerate the development of the metaverse. The company is looking forward to new digital experiences that Epic Games can bring to the table.
Epic Games created a successful virtual world through the Fortnite game. Fortnite was a success, and Epic Games surely nailed it. It has become a buzzword in the gaming community. Released in 2017, Fortnite is a shooting game that has three game modes. These game modes are:
- Save the World – you play against the environment, and your job is to complete missions.
- Battle Royale – you play against other players.
- Creative – it is a sandbox game where you can create an island for a battle royale.
It also developed the Unreal Engine, which a lot of game developers use. This engine can run a virtual world and allow people to create 3D avatars.
The CEO of Epic Games is a computer coder himself, and he still does a lot of coding today. He said that the metaverse had the potential to create a trillion-dollar market. It is going to be critical for companies like Meta of Facebook, Microsoft and Roblox.
To some degree, Sony seems to have become a serial investor in Epic Games. In 2020, Sony invested $250 million in Epic Games. At that time, the goal was to create what they called real-time 3D experiences. What they wanted to achieve was a convergence of gaming, film and music. The word “metaverse” was not yet a buzzword back then. However, it was clear that Sony was one of the first companies to believe in it.
Now, Lego seems to have realized that it cannot exist on physical toys alone. The company has just joined the bandwagon to secure its spot in the growing metaverse industry. According to Lego’s CEO, Epic Games is a smart choice as the company has a reputation for building playful experiences for its gamers. In addition, Epic Games is known to empower creators of all sizes. Even individuals who have never coded before can use the Unreal Engine to develop a game.
The direction of Lego is to focus on trends that will impact the future of the world. They plan to invest and engage with companies like Epic Games. They believe that Epic Games is in a position to help them achieve that goal and that it is a partner that has the same values as theirs.
The long-term plan is to make the metaverse more suited for augmented reality and virtual reality devices—things that you can wear on your eyes. The direction is also to combine as many technologies as possible in that universe.
