Some pretty big news for gamers and fans of Disney's various franchises has just been announced.
In a major initiative, Disney CEO Bob Iger has shared plans for a $1.5 billion deal between Disney and Fortnite studio Epic Games to create a new “games and entertainment universe” that brings Disney characters from franchises like Star Wars, Marvel, Pixar and Avatar together.
“This represents probably our biggest foray into the game space ever, which I think is not only timely, but an important step when you look at the demographic trends and look at where Gen Alpha and Gen Z and even Millennials are spending their time in media,” Iger added. “It’s pretty dramatic in terms of the amount of time spent in games, in fact some demographics are equal to or greater than how people are spending their time on movies and television.”
This new universe is being referred to as "something more akin to a social network," with “players, gamers and fans 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.”
“Disney was one of the first companies to believe in the potential of bringing their worlds together with ours in Fortnite, and they use Unreal Engine across their portfolio,” 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.”
“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 the ways that are most relevant to them.”
Check out the announcement teaser and more from Disney's press release below, and keep an eye on GameFragger.com for updates.
"Disney and Epic Games have engaged hundreds of millions of players through Fortnite content integrations, season collaborations, in-game activations, and live events, including the Marvel Nexus War with Galactus, which drew more than 15.3 million concurrent players. Unreal Engine is used to produce assets and content across the Disney portfolio including in the development of video games like Kingdom Hearts 3 and Star Wars Jedi: Survivor; in cinematic editing and animation for film and streaming; and in the creation of more than 15 Disney Parks attractions like Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run at Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge.
This all builds on Epic Games’ participation in the 2017 Disney Accelerator program, which seeks to impact the future of technology and entertainment."