Epic Games, the developer behind the popular video game Fortnite, has managed to raise $1 billion in a new funding round. This funding also included a $200 million investment from Japanese tech giant Sony.
This isn’t the first time Sony has reached out to help Epic Games as the tech giant invested $200 million last year.
Following the new funding, Epic Games is now valued at $28.7 billion. The newly gained capital will be used to develop social experiences for popular Epic Games’ titles such as Fortnite and Rocket League.
The funding comes at a time when Epic Games is fighting a legal battle against Apple for dodging the 30% App Store tax by introducing its own payment system in Fortnite. As a result, Apple removed Fortnite from its App Store and the two companies have been in a legal battle ever since.
Epic Games has accused Apple of acting as a barrier to entry for many developers and video game titles on the App Store. The developer has also accused Apple of collecting “outsized commission” on the App Store that serves as the only source of digital content.
Apple is countering this accusation by claiming that it has no monopoly when it comes to digital games. It still remains to be seen which company will win the legal battle, but several companies such as Microsoft have already sided with Epic Games.