DoubleU invests $1.5 million in Epic Games

South Korea’s DoubleU Games Co. announced Friday that its subsidiary DoubleDown Interactive LLC invested $1.5 million in North Carolina-based Epic Games, Inc.

The online game developer is looking to enter the rapidly growing metaverse industry with the latest investment.

Epic Games released Fortnite in 2017, one of the most widely played online games around the world with 350 million users. Along with Roblox, Minecraft and Zepeto, Fortnite is one of the most popular metaverse platforms. 

Beyond Fortnite, Epic Games also has a real-time three dimensional creation tool dubbed Unreal Engine. Although described as a game engine, Unreal Engine can also be used in the production and simulation in the film, television, construction, and automobile sectors. 

The deal is the second such investment by DoubleDown Interactive since its listing on the Nasdaq on Sept. 1, 2021. Gorilla Private Equity and the corporate venture capital arm of NPC, a public company that manufactures plastic pallets and containers, led the latest investment. 

“This investment is for grabbing opportunities in the rapidly growing metaverse industry,” Kim In-keuk, CEO of DoubleDown Interactive said. He added, “We plan to invest further in ways that can complement the company’s core business.” 

In 2017, DoubleU Games acquired social casino developer DoubleDown Interactive from London-based International Game Technology PLC at $825.6 million. 

Write to Joo-wan Kim at kjwan@hankyung.com
Jee Abbey Lee edited this article.