Sony has made a $250m investment in Epic Games, the video game development studio behind the hugely popular Fortnite game, ahead of the launch of the PlayStation 5 console later this year. The deal will give Sony a stake of around 1.4 per cent in Epic Games and gives the latter a valuation of $17.86bn.

The pair will aim to use the investment to ‘broaden their collaboration’ across Sony’s portfolio and Epic’s social entertainment platform to ‘create unique experiences for consumers and creators’.

“Epics powerful technology in areas such as graphics places them at the forefront of game engine development with Unreal Engine and other innovations Theres no better example of this than the revolutionary entertainment experience, Fortnite,” said Kenichiro Yoshida, Chairman, President, and CEO of Sony Corporation. “Through our investment, we will explore opportunities for further collaboration with Epic to delight and bring value to consumers and the industry at large, not only in games, but also across the rapidly evolving digital entertainment landscape,”

Sony’s investment virtually coincides with its failure to pique the interest of Leyou Technologies. The Japanese electronics giant lost out to Tencent on entering into exclusive talks with the Hong Kong-based gaming firm.