Disney+ Loses 1.3 Million Subscribers Ahead of New Gaming Partnership
By Movieguide® Contributor
Disney is hoping to shake up the gaming world with a recent $1.5 billion investment in Epic Games, the video game developer behind Fortnite and Infinity Blade, after recently reporting a major subscriber drop.
Disney and Fortnite will work together on a “collaboration that will revolutionize the gaming and entertainment landscape,” according to EarlyGame.
With the partnership, given the codename “BullDog,” they will create a “persistent, open and interoperable ecosystem,” Tim Sweeney CEO and cofounder of Epic Games said in a joint statement with Disney.
“Players, gamers, and fans will be able to immerse themselves in this universe, create their own stories, and engage with their favorite characters in an entirely new way,” the website explained.
Even though Disney and Epic Games have been tight-lipped about the details of any upcoming games, including release dates, promo art for the Disney and Fortnite collaboration featured some familiar favorites—TOY STORY, AVATAR, FROZEN, MICKEY MOUSE and STAR WARS, just to name a few.
“This marks Disney’s biggest entry ever into the world of games and offers significant opportunities for growth and expansion. We can’t wait for fans to experience the Disney stories and worlds they love in groundbreaking new ways,” Disney CEO Bob Iger said.
“Disney was one of the first companies to believe in the potential of bringing their and our worlds together in Fortnite,” Sweeney added.
This won’t be the first Disney/ Fortnite collaboration. In 2020, Epic Games released Marvel Nexus War. Epic Games also integrated Disney elements in the Kingdom Hearts 3 and Star Wars Jedi: Survivor games.
The mega companies’ announcement comes on the heels of a significant drop of 1.3 million subscribers on the Disney+ platform following the increase in its ad-free service from $10.99 to $13.99/month in October 2023. Membership dropped from 112.6 million subscribers to 111.3 million from September 2023 to December 2023, per EarlyGame.
Iger said in May that the price increase was “to better reflect the value of our content offerings.”
Disney-owned Hulu also raised its prices from $14.99 to $17.99 per month for its ad-free option, while the ad-supported option remained at $7.99 per month for each streaming service.
As Movieguide® previously reported, it’s not just the cost increase that is to blame for the loss of subscribers but increasing left-leaning and immoral content that is causing consumers to tune out:
[I]n a misguided effort to build up their streaming catalog, Disney+ has accepted more media with immoral, sexualized content.
Disney+ has greenlit a new German original series, PAULINE, that follows a love story between a teenage girl and the devil.
“Pauline follows the eponymous protagonist, an 18-year-old who accidentally becomes pregnant – from a one-night stand. With school stress, the climate crisis and the downfall of society weighing heavily on her mind, something she doesn’t need at all right now is catching feelings, especially not for her one-night stand Lukas, who, as it turns out, is the devil himself,” Deadline reported of the series.
Movie-goers witnessed Disney’s lack of audience awareness last year after the company lost over $100M each of their animated movies, LIGHTYEAR and STRANGE WORLD. Both these movies, and now potentially the series PAULINE, is content directed at children under the age of 18-years-old.
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