Disney’s in-house gaming ambitions haven’t quite panned out as it’d have hoped. Sure, it’s got Insomniac’s Spider-Man games and the odd half-decent Star Wars title going for it, but those don’t technically count as “in-house” thanks to the company’s shift to a licensing model a couple years back. Now, it’s looking to buy its way to the top.
In a move that surprised nobody, The Walt Disney Company has thrown $1.5-billion (R28-billion or 1/29th of Twitter) bucks at Epic Games to acquire an equity stake within the company alongside a collaboration that’ll see the two build “an all-new games and entertainment universe that will further expand the reach of beloved Disney stories and experiences,” right inside Fortnite — one of the biggest games out right now.
“I’m here to talk to you about the Disney-Fornite initiative“
What that means exactly isn’t yet clear. According to Disney’s announcement, gamers will be able to watch, shop and play with Disney’s characters and worlds. The Avatar, Pixar, Marvel and Star Wars franchises were singled by name, though we expect there’ll be more to it when the collaboration comes to fruition.
“This marks Disney’s biggest entry ever into the world of games and offers significant opportunities for growth and expansion,” said chief oeprator Bob Iger.
But once the dust settles, what will the collaboration actually look like? It appears to be far more than a simple partnership that’ll see Disney’s characters get a couple of skins in the item shop before it calls it a day. The trailer we’ve embedded above does little more than show a couple of our favourite characters running around the Fortnite engine — something that’s been possible for years.
No, this feels more like the building of some sort of metaverse-like theme park, in which:
“Players, gamers and fans will be able to create their own stories and experiences, express their fandom in a distinctly Disney way, and share content with each other in ways that they love. This will all be powered by Unreal Engine.”
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If that sounds at all familiar, you’re probably remembering the launch of Lego Fortnite which ushered in a new era for the battle royale title after it received $2 billion in funding from Sony and the Lego family in April 2022. Our guess? The House of Mouse’s offerings will end up looking rather similar — with new games and “experiences” right inside Fortnite.
When that’ll be, however, we don’t know. Disney is keeping release details scarce for the time being, though we can expect a similar timeframe from the Lego Fortnite investment announcement and actual release in-game, which stood a whole 21 months apart.