TL;DR: It seems that excessive legal battles and losses in its online marketplace have not hurt Epic Games' equity valuation. It has nearly doubled its worth over last year and company stock is still not publicly traded. Capital comes from investment partners, the biggest of which is Sony Group Corporation. Epic just completed a billion-dollar round of investing, with Sony throwing in the lion's share of the pot.

Epic Games bumped up its equity valuation to $28.7 billion following a $1 billion round of funding. The company announced it gained an additional $200 million investment from Sony. This increased valuation comes despite recent reports that Epic has lost as much as $330 million throwing money at the Epic Games Store.

"This round includes an additional $200M strategic investment from Sony Group Corporation, which builds on the already close relationship between the two companies and reinforces their shared mission to advance the state of the art in technology, entertainment, and socially-connected online services," Epic said in its press release.

Variety notes that Sony boosted Epic's valuation last year to $17.9 billion with a $250 million investment for a 1.4-percent stake. Several other funding partners got in on this round, including well-known investment firms like T. Rowe Price Associates, Franklin Templeton, and Luxor Capital.

"We are grateful to our new and existing investors who support our vision for Epic and the Metaverse," said Epic Games CEO and founder Tim Sweeney. Their investment will help accelerate our work around building connected social experiences in Fortnite, Rocket League and Fall Guys, while empowering game developers and creators with Unreal Engine, Epic Online Services and the Epic Games Store."

Epic has only a single class of common stock outstanding and Sweeney still maintains controlling shares of the company.

Sony seemed eager to continue its partnership and is pleased with the company's performance in both the gaming and the digital entertainment industries.

"Epic continues to deliver revolutionary experiences through their array of cutting edge technologies that support creators in gaming and across the digital entertainment industry," said Sony Group's President and CEO Kenichiro Yoshida. "We are excited to strengthen our collaboration to bring new entertainment experiences to people around the world. I strongly believe that this aligns with our purpose to fill the world with emotion, through the power of creativity and technology."

Despite the Epic Games Store's lavish spending in the chase for exclusive content, investors seem confident in Epic's overall direction and performance. Part of the ease of investment comes from the money spigot they call Fortnite. Forbes noted, Epic's cash cow brought in $1.8 billion in 2019, down from $2.4 billion YoY.

Image credit: Sharaf Maksumov