Epic Games and the Walt Disney Company will be collaborating on a new combined universe that will change the way people experience Disney stories, the companies announced in a Feb. 7 press release .
Epic Games is most notable for creating the hit 2017 video game “Fortnite,” a game which has been popular with gamers of all ages since its release. It saw a recent resurgence in popularity last year, as in November 2023, Epic Games announced the new season of the live service game would be “Season: OG.” This meant that all items, including the map from 2018, would be brought back into the game’s primary mode, “Battle Royale.” It is also safe to say that this was a marketing success as, within a week of launching, “Fortnite” had hit a record-breaking number of 44.7 million players over the course of one day, according to “Fortnite”’s X page.
The game’s player count can partly be attributed to the fact that it is free to play. It can also be found on just about any platform that can play video games, with the exception of iOS, which did exist at one point, but was taken off the Apple app store due to a legal dispute between Epic Games and Apple.
The collaboration between Disney and Epic may not come as a surprise to players of the game, as this is not the first time “Fortnite” has featured other companies’ media. It also isn’t the first Disney and Epic collaboration. In August 2020, the battle pass, an in-game reward system containing items such as player skins and pickaxes, was revealed to be Marvel-themed. It featured characters such as Iron Man, Wolverine and Groot.
The universe will offer a variety of new ways for Disney and Epic Games fans alike to engage with the companies’ content, according to an Epic Games press release . Characters and story lines from various Disney, Pixar and Marvel works will be included within the collaboration as well. Players will have the opportunity to “create their own stories and experiences and express their fandom in a distinctly Disney way,” according to the press release.
Disney also has a history with Epic Games through the Unreal Engine, which is a video game engine created by Epic Games that is sold to video game developers by Epic to create the world and player models used in their video games. Disney has utilized the Unreal Engine in the past, with licensed titles such as “Star Wars Jedi: Survivor” and “Kingdom Hearts III.”
The companies also foresee an “all-new experience” that will be created, which may imply something other than “Fortnite,” and Disney will also be investing $1.5 billion into an equity stake of Epic, according to Epic’s press release. This would make their commitment to the collaboration non-negotiable. Considering “Fortnite” generated $4.4 billion in 2022, according to Business of Apps, it’d be unlikely that it stops receiving updates in the future.
“I’m a little skeptical,” second-year Jared Allen said. “I feel like they do a lot of big things and it can be really hit or miss. It could be really cool, but it might be a money grab.”
Allen is referring to the fact that all of the game’s skins are locked behind paywalls, something that can be off-putting for casual players. “Fortnite,” however, has certainly seen a trend in introducing more and more pop culture into the experience.
“We are in the third stage of ‘Fortnite,’” first-year Audrey Collins said. “It started out as a phenomenon, it was all over the internet, you could not escape it. After a year or so it transitioned into ‘Fortnite as an experience,’ with big live events and concerts with stuff like the Galactus event… Now ‘Fortnite’ exists as a platform. It exists for brands to advertise their content, a brand for promoters and content creators to promote their business.”
Collins also mentioned that it acts as a platform for Epic Games to finance their other crossovers, such as the usage of LEGO and licensed music.
Fortnite has gone from being a simplistic shooter game, to becoming a catalyst for a huge variety of experiences. Combined with the power of Disney marketing, the product may change not just the way video games are played, but the way media is consumed.