Disney Reportedly Keen on Buying Fortnite Developer Epic Games
Disney executives are reportedly eager on totally shopping for Fortnite developer Epic Games sooner or later.
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 recreation, following Disney’s prior $1.5 billion investment in developer Epic Games.
Fortnite is the jewel within the crown of Epic’s portfolio — alongside its pervasive improvement toolkit Unreal Engine — and a big cash spinner. But the final 12 months has been rocky for the sport — one thing that led to Epic Games shedding 1,000 staff members last weekdue partially to a downturn in engagement by way of 2025.
Disney, in the meantime, is already closely invested in Fortnite, with a dozen 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 at 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 appears like a digital Disneyland park with numerous themed areas — and the thought it simply turned “Disney’s gaming platform.” Despite two years of improvement work, nonetheless, there’s nonetheless no suggestion of when it is going to lastly arrive.
Last 12 months, Sweeney blasted a Wall Street Journal report that claimed development of the mode was being hampered by slow decision-making at Disneyone 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 predicted to be born 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 govt who strongly backed the corporate’s funding in Fortnite was Josh D’Amaro — the identical one who not too long ago gained the race to grow to be the corporate’s new CEO. While his tenure has solely simply begun, it is believed that D’Amaro will need to rapidly make his mark within the function this 12 months — and he has beforehand remarked that the launch of Fortnite’s Disney mode might be a significant second for the corporate going ahead.
Just this week, former long-term Disney govt Kevin Mayer mentioned he anticipated D’Amaro to make “bold steps” this 12 months 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 instructed CNBC.
Fortnite itself has typically struggled to launch different modes for its recreation that stray too removed from its core battle royale proposition. Interest has been gained for the racing, music and LEGO modes it launched to fanfare in late 2023, and Epic has previously admitted that it’s struggled to fully explain to consumers that Fortnite is more than just a battle royale. But plans are seemingly afoot for some type of new period, as talked about by Sweeney in his e 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 told IGN that fewer people playing the game’s veteran battle royale was only one of its problems. The firm has spent years fighting costly legal battles with Apple and Googlewhereas 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 workers which have paid the value, whereas those that stay on the firm say they simply don’t know how Fortnite will look later this year and beyond with near 1 / 4 of the corporate’s workers gone. Perhaps the sport’s massive new Disney providing will flip it throughout?
Tom Phillips is IGN’s News Editor. You can attain Tom at tom_phillips@ign.com or discover him on Bluesky @tomphillipseg.bsky.social
