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Disney Reportedly Eager on Shopping for Fortnite Developer Epic Games

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Disney executives are reportedly eager on totally shopping for Fortnite developer Epic Games in some unspecified time in the future.

The declare comes from veteran tech reporter Alex Heath, through The Town podcast, who mentioned that senior executives had been ready for the precise second to make a bid for the metaverse sport, following Disney’s prior $1.5 billion funding in developer Epic Games.

Fortnite is the jewel within the crown of Epic’s portfolio — alongside its pervasive improvement toolkit Unreal Engine — and a major cash spinner. But the previous yr has been rocky for the sport — one thing that led to Epic Games shedding 1,000 employees members final week, due partially to a downturn in engagement via 2025.

Disney, in the meantime, is already closely invested in Fortnite, with a dozens of character skins and crossovers already a part of the sport (together with Star Wars, Marvel, Pixar and Disney animated characters) and a long-awaited Disney-specific mode that is set to supply followers a spot to play, watch, create and store.

“I know for a fact there are senior executives in Disney who want them to buy Epic and are just waiting for that moment,” Heath mentioned, “and then there are others who think it’s a bad idea. If Epic ever sold, if it ever decided to call it quits on being an independent company, Disney would be the most natural home for it for a lot of reasons.”

Here, Heath referenced the upcoming Disney mode — idea artwork for which seems like a digital Disneyland park with varied themed areas — and the thought it simply grew to become “Disney’s gaming platform.” Despite two years of improvement work, nonetheless, there’s nonetheless no suggestion of when it’ll lastly arrive.

Last yr, Sweeney blasted a Wall Street Journal report that claimed improvement of the mode was being hampered by gradual decision-making at Disney, one thing he claimed was “BS.” Still, that report said that the mode — introduced again in March 2024 — wouldn’t be prepared earlier than this fall, one thing which is anticipated to be borne out by actuality.

“Epic is a founder-controlled company,” Heath continued. “Tim Sweeney has full voting stock control and can make unilateral decisions and it’s really up to him. As we saw, he was the guy who went to bat against the App Stores, against Apple and Google to open those up. And it’s almost an ideological crusade when you’re running a company like Epic to do something like that. And he even acknowledges in the layoff email that it cost [Epic].”

One Disney government who strongly backed the corporate’s funding in Fortnite was Josh D’Amaro — the identical one who just lately received the race to change into the corporate’s new CEO. While his tenure has solely simply begun, it is believed that D’Amaro will wish to shortly make his mark within the position this yr — and he has beforehand remarked that the launch of Fortnite’s Disney mode will likely be a significant second for the corporate going ahead.

Just this week, former long-term Disney government Kevin Mayer mentioned he anticipated D’Amaro to make “bold steps” this yr and develop the corporate’s gaming output. “I think Epic or some other video game asset would be a great addition to The Walt Disney Company’s asset base,” Mayer informed CNBC.

Fortnite itself has usually struggled to launch different modes for its sport that stray too removed from its core battle royale proposition. Interest has waned for the racing, music and LEGO modes it launched to fanfare in late 2023, and Epic has beforehand admitted that it is struggled to completely clarify to customers that Fortnite is greater than only a battle royale. But plans are seemingly afoot for some form of new period, as talked about by Sweeney in his electronic mail on the layoffs. “We’ll be kicking off the next generation of Epic with huge launch plans towards the end of the year,” he wrote.

Announcing the layoffs final week, Sweeney mentioned Epic Games had reacted to a downturn in curiosity for Fortnite that started in 2025, although analysts informed IGN that fewer individuals taking part in the sport’s veteran battle royale was solely one in all its issues. The firm has spent years combating expensive authorized battles with Apple and Google, whereas bankrolling the Epic Games Store because it makes an attempt to rival Steam. And then there’s the explosive progress of Roblox, which Fortnite has now fallen far behind. Many followers really feel like it’s Epic Games’ personal employees which have paid the value, whereas those that stay on the firm say they merely do not understand how Fortnite will look later this yr and past with near 1 / 4 of the corporate’s employees gone. Perhaps the sport’s large new Disney providing will flip it throughout?

Tom Phillips is IGN’s News Editor. You can attain Tom at [email protected] or discover him on Bluesky @tomphillipseg.bsky.social