Disney And Epic Games’Partnership Signals An Exciting Future For Gaming And Fandom

Disney and Epic Games announce new gaming partnership.

Disney

Today, it seems that every company is slowly on its way to becoming a gaming company.

The Walt Disney Company and Epic Games announced today that they would collaborate on an all-new games and entertainment universe that will further expand the reach of Disney’s stories and experiences and that Disney will also invest $1.5 billion to acquire an equity stake in Epic Games alongside the multiyear project.

This news is welcomed in the gaming industry, which has had a very rocky couple of years. As more companies like Netflix focus on gaming, it was only a matter of time before Disney made a big move, and this move is of epic proportions.

With an estimated 3 billion gamers worldwide, gaming as an industry is worth more than the music and movie business combined. And with the increased interest and success of gaming IP across the mass market, like the Five Nights At Freddy’s movie crushing the box office and shows like The Last of Us becoming hits with both gamers and nongamers alike, this partnership bodes well for the future of gaming. It also signals that soon, every company will be a gaming company as more of the corporate world starts to give gaming the respect and the position it deserves as a colossal opportunity and the native space many inhabit on a daily basis. Gaming is becoming the next social network and their preferred communication platform. It already is for many Gen Z and Gen Alpa players.

Here are several reasons why this partnership makes sense and should be on every brand and organization’s radar:

Expands Disney’s IP library into the gaming space

This partnership can breathe new life into Disney’s vast IP library, revitalize IP that might not be remembered, and catapult popular and new IP to new heights. It gives Disney a chance to tread further into the gaming waters, knowing an audience will be there.

Imagine movies launching both in the theater but also in game and virtual merch or verch becoming as important a revenue stream to Disney as its branded merchandise already is.

It also expands the Disney parks experience further into the digital space, creating an experience in game even before parkgoers set foot in the park. Epic Games’ successful partnership with Lego showed that It was ready for bigger opportunities, and what could be bigger than Disney?

Provides a new channel for distribution

With the streaming business experiencing many ups and downs over the last few years, Disney+ can leverage virtual experience in virtual worlds to distribute its content.

The announcement stated that, in addition to offering a world-class games experience and interoperating with Fortnite, the new persistent universe they are working on will offer a multitude of opportunities for consumers to play, watch, shop, and engage with content, characters, and stories from Disney, Pixar, Marvel, Star Wars, Avatar, and more.

Keywords here are play, watch, shop and engage.

Access to a younger and growing fan and gamer audience

With Gen Z and especially Gen Alpha already socializing in games and spending more time and money in these gaming worlds, it’s smart for Disney to partner with Epic and reach new audiences across demographics and geographies.

Ushers in a new era of fandom and co-creation

It also signals a shift in how companies like Disney view their fans and how they are getting ready to co-create with them, something that many brands still struggle with. The announcement claims that, “players, gamers and fans will be able to create their own stories and experiences, express their fandom in a distinctly Disney way, and share content with each other in ways that they love.”

This co-creation and new experiences would be powered by Epic’s Unreal Engine, with is already used to create content for Fornite, Fornite Creative and lots of movies and TV. The Unreal Engine just became a lot more valuable and important for developers creating games and content for gaming, virtual and augmented reality, and spatial computing.

What Could The Future Hold?

So, while the press release didn’t include the word metaverse, it did talk about a new persistent universe. The official announcement on Disney’s corporate website read: “collaborating on something entirely new to build a persistent, open and interoperable ecosystem that will bring together the Disney and Fortnite communities.”

Less than a year ago, Epic Games’ CEO Tim Sweeney made fun of naysayers and the overblown news that the metaverse had died. Today’s announcement will probably bode for the future of virtual worlds and yes, the metaverse.

Tim Sweeney’s tweet from May 2023.

Screenshot from X

It could also prepare Epic Games to go public in the next years, which is someone that some of us have speculated could be on the roadmap for the company for a few years now.

Poet Muriel Rukeyser famously said, “The universe is made of stories, not of atoms.” And this statement rings true today more than ever with this news and its impact making waves across the virtual and physical worlds.

The Disney x Epic news made waves today in the virtual and physical worlds.

Cathy Hackl