Fortnite Owner Epic Games Acquires Group Video Chat App Houseparty

Epic Games, the owner of gaming phenomenon Fortnite, has acquired group video chat app HouseParty, the latter announced in a blog post Wednesday. While the company did not disclose financial details, one person familiar with the matter who spoke to Calcalist on condition of anonymity placed the sum Epic Games paid at several tens of millions of dollars.

HouseParty is an app operated by San Francisco-based Life on Air Inc., which was founded in 2012 by a team of Israeli entrepreneurs. The app, available for iOS, Android, MacOS, and as a Chrome extension, offers a social network for video chatting.

“Houseparty brings people together, creating positive social interactions in real time,” Tim Sweeney, founder and CEO of Epic Games, said in the blog post. “By teaming up, we can build even more fun, shared experiences than what could be achieved alone.”