Disney Fortnite? Mickey just invested $1.5 billion in Epic Games

It’s a big one move In the entertainment and video game industry. The giant Disney and publisher Epic Games (which we mainly know for Fortnite) come together to form what is described as “Wide and open world of games and entertainment”. As part of the announcement, Disney revealed that it is investing $1.5 billion in equity capital to Epic. The publisher also released an announcement video:

Without many details on the future consequences of such an investment, Disney explains that it wants to “join”

with its universe FortniteIncluding all his characters from Disney to Marvel, Pixar and Star Wars. As it stands, the entertainment giant seems to be announcing some sort of new Metaverse powered by Epic’s Unreal Engine.

In addition to normal Skins Fortnite Derived from the Disney license we’ve seen before, players can thus gain access to new game modes entirely dedicated to the Disney universe. In form, this investment is reminiscent of a joint contribution of $2 billion by Sony and KIRKBI in 2022 to start a collaboration with the Lego brand. Last year, we saw part of the result LEGO FortniteThe game was generally well received by critics.

For the moment, this is already the first announcement of the collaboration… but that does not concern Fortnite. indeed, Rocket LeagueAnother popular game from Epic and the smaller “Protected”, will soon receive an update on the theme of the series. The Mandalorian ; So you can customize your car with the Grogu (“Baby Yoda”) accessory.

“This is Disney’s largest entry into the world of video games and provides significant opportunities for growth and expansion.”, Disney CEO Bob Iger said in a statement. Epic boss Tim Sweeney added: “We’re collaborating on something completely new to create a sustainable, open and interoperable ecosystem that brings the Disney and Fortnite communities together.”

The only downside to the story is that while Epic has prided itself for years on wanting to develop a dedicated metaverse, the publisher laid off 16% of its workforce last September. Same thing for Disney, which last year spun off its division dedicated to Metaverse projects.