Disney and Epic Games Join Hands for New Games and Entertainment Universe Additionally, Disney will invest USD1.5 billion to acquire an equity stake in the Cary-headquartered gaming publisher, alongside the multiyear project
By Paromita Gupta •
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The Walt Disney Company and Epic Games have announced a collaboration to produce new games and expand the entertainment universe. "Our exciting new relationship with Epic Games will bring together Disney's beloved brands and franchises with the hugely popular Fortnite in a transformational new games and entertainment universe," said Robert A. Iger, Chief Executive Officer, The Walt Disney Company.
Additionally, Disney will invest USD1.5 billion to acquire an equity stake in the Cary-headquartered gaming publisher, alongside the multiyear project.
According to the official statement, prospective games will be interoperable with Fortnite, the free multiplayer game star offering of Epic Games. Consumers will now be able to play, watch, shop and engage with content, characters and stories from Disney, Pixar, Marvel, Star Wars, Avatar and more.
"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. 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," said Tim Sweeney, CEO and Founder, Epic Games.
The sowed association
The two giants have previously collaborated for in-game activations, and live events, including the Marvel Nexus War with Galactus which garnered 15.3+ million concurrent players.
Epic Games' Unreal Engine, a series of 3D computer graphics game engines, is being used to develop Disney's new gaming offerings including Kingdom Hearts 3 and Star Wars Jedi: Survivor; cinematic editing and animation and in the creation of more than 15 Disney Parks attractions like Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run at Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge.
Being home to some of the most iconic characters in cinematic history, Disney's games division shifted to a licensing business model in 2016. The entertainment conglomerate counts Marvel's Spider-Man, one of the best-selling superhero games of all-time, in its portfolio.
According to Disney, in the U.S., licensed titles from it regularly hit the annual top-10 best-sellers list.
