Epic Games acquires ArtStation to foster an online marketplace for artists
Epic Games has acquired ArtStation, which operates a marketplace for artists to sell their art, post jobs, and host portfolios — and it’s cutting the fees that folks pay to sell their wares on the site. The companies said the goal is to accelerate the development and growth of the creator community worldwide.
This partnership underscores both Epic’s and ArtStation’s mission to empower creators with the tools and platforms to thrive. Epic Games recently raised $1 billion, and it’s on an acquisition spree to gather all things that might be relevant to the metaverse, the universe of virtual worlds that are all interconnected, like in novels such as Snow Crash and Ready Player One.
ArtStation and Epic Games have shared a relationship since the marketplace debuted in 2014. Epic Games’ Unreal Engine team has supported ArtStation and last year, during the height of the pandemic, Epic gave ArtStation an Unreal Megagrant. CEO Leonard Teo said in a blog post that the grant helped immensely during an uncertain period.
