Walt Disney Co. is buying a $1.5 billion fairness stake in Fortnite maker Epic Video games Inc. as a part of a collaboration involving Disney properties like Star Wars, Marvel and Avatar, the businesses mentioned Wednesday.
Followers will be capable to watch, store and play with Disney characters throughout the Fortnite recreation, in line with an announcement Wednesday. The deal additionally entails new titles and a collaboration with the corporate’s theme parks.
“This marks Disney’s biggest entry ever into the world of games and offers significant opportunities for growth and expansion,” Disney Chief Govt Officer Bob Iger mentioned in a launch.
Disney has had its ups and downs with video video games. In 2016, the corporate shut down a lot of its recreation operations after struggling to develop massive, profitable titles in-house. Now, Disney licenses properties to exterior builders and publishers like Electronic Arts Inc. and Sony Group.
Disney and Epic have collaborated for years, together with by way of Disney’s Accelerator program, the place firm executives mentor smaller companies. Epic has provided Fortnite gamers avatars based mostly on Star Wars, Marvel and Indiana Jones characters. Epic’s Unreal Engine software program has been used to develop Disney video games.
“Disney was one of the first companies to believe in the potential of bringing their worlds together with ours in Fortnite,” Epic’s CEO, Tim Sweeney, mentioned within the assertion.
The brand new mission will span a number of years, the businesses mentioned. Epic will develop the experiences internally.
The deal follows different collaborations between Epic and massive client merchandise firms. In 2022, Kirkbi, the household holding firm that controls the Lego Group, invested $1 billion in Epic to construct on-line experiences utilizing its model. Lego Fortnite, released last year, featured characters in blocky Lego model, and had as many as 2 million folks taking part in shortly after its debut.
