Disney Buys $1.5 Billion Stake in Fortnite Developer Epic Games
By Movieguide® Contributor
Disney and Epic Games announced a multiyear intimate collaboration as Disney buys a $1.5 billion equity stake with plans to deliver content in the future through Epic’s gaming platform.
“Our exciting new relationship with Epic Games will bring together Disney’s beloved brands and franchises with the hugely popular Fortnite in a transformational new games and entertainment universe,” said Disney CEO Bob Iger in a press release. “This marks Disney’s biggest entry ever into the world of games and offers significant growth for expansion. We can’t wait for fans to experience the Disney stories and worlds they love in groundbreaking new ways.”
“Disney was one of the first companies to believe in the potential of bringing their worlds together with ours in Fortnite,” added Tim Sweeney, CEO and Founder of Epic Games. “Now we’re collaborating on something entirely new to build a persistent, open and interoperable ecosystem that will bring together the Disney and Fortnite communities.”
The companies have worked together in the past with numerous character crossovers, including the “Marvel Nexus Galactus” event in 2020 that kicked off a Marvel-themed season of the game. Other Disney properties have also been featured, including Spider-Man and Jurassic World.
Disney has been in the video game business since the 1980s, but the company’s interest has fluctuated greatly over those four decades. Most recently, it restructured itself into a licensing model in 2016, handing over development to third-party sources. Its IP, however, remains some of the most popular, garnering over 150 award nominations, wins and other accolades in 2023 alone.
With the Epic Games partnership, Disney appears to be returning to the game industry as the company looks to engage the younger audience better.
“This will enable us to bring together our incredible collection of stories and experiences from across the company for a broad audience in ways we have only dreamed of before,” said Josh D’Amaro, Chairman, Disney Experiences. “Epic Games’ industry-leading technology and Fortnite’s open ecosystem will help us reach consumers where they are so they can engage with Disney in ways that are most relevant to them.”
After a down year in 2023, this move could be the change Disney needed to bring itself back to the industry-leading position it is known for.
“Disney’s investment in Epic Games tells you that conventional media and entertainment firms are finally ready to really dive into the games industry,” Joost van Druenen, a lecturer on the business of games at NYU Stern School of Business, told Inverse. “It’s a watershed moment in entertainment with video games at the center.”
Movieguide® previously reported:
Six years after its full release, the video game Fortnite is more popular than ever, thanks to a slew of new additions, leading it to collect more playtime than many other popular series combined.
November and December were Fortnite’s most popular months ever as the gaming staple’s playtime surged by 150% in November to hit 1.6 billion hours played in that month alone. December continued this growth as playtime grew by an additional 9%.
This staggering growth was largely fueled by adding three new game modes – Lego Fortnite, Fortnite Festival and Rocket Racing – giving players old and new a reason to boot up the game.
Straying from the game’s traditional battle royal system, each game mode added something new, like Lego Fortnite’s survival and building system or Rocket Racing’s competitive racing. The game’s traditional format also saw a return to its roots, allowing players to play its original map and game mode.
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