Disney has its eye on Epic’s Fortnite. Or rather getting their IP inside Fortnite, with billion+ dollar equity investment in Epic. The House of Mouse wants into Fortnite, in a billion ways.
In addition to being a world-class games experience and interoperating with Fortnite, the new persistent universe will offer a multitude of opportunities for consumers to play, watch, shop and engage with content, characters and stories
Disney is investing $1.5b in Epic Games and building a new universe connected to Fortnite | VGC (videogameschronicle.com)
Stay with wrapping my mind around what sort of “new, persistent universe” inside of Fortnite this might be? The most recent example that comes to mind is what they did with Harmonix adding Rock Band into Fortnite, LEGO making their way into the Fortnite Festival.
Is Epic Games turning their failed game store into a re-imagined game store inside of Fortnite? A shopping mall anchored off Fortnite’s massive player base? This is a creative right turn versus trying to be an also-ran versus Steam (see: Epic Games Store Admits After 5 Years Still Unprofitable), This could be the pathway.
Or trojan horse.
Fortnite already has the gamers, so building a “shop” inside there — that’s the keyword in the quote, IMO — that really is a mini-virtual shopping mall. They will need to do more than this, however, which I guess is the festival component: provide games that anchor the mall inside Fortnite.
And hopefully more than just a bunch of minigames with Star Wars, Marvel, Avatar and assorted Disney characters running around.
This is all heavy speculation here, but it seems like a better direction than continuing to funnel free games into Epic Games Store that people are mostly digitally hoarding and not playing. Fortnite is the cash cow, so milk away, Epic. And now with Disney adding all their IPs to this virtual mall, the only thing that makes sense is a further expansion of what they did with the recent Fortnite Festival.
Am also looking at what Disney did with Dreamlight Valley, an impressive world that could be integrated with Fortnite in many creative ways.
Disney Dreamlight Valley is a hybrid between a life-sim and an adventure game rich with quests, exploration, and engaging activities featuring Disney and Pixar friends, both old and new.
Disney Dreamlight Valley on Steam (steampowered.com)
Found myself enjoying this more on Game Pass than thought I would in 2023. In a year where I didn’t play nearly as much Game Pass as deserved, this Disney game stuck out. It’s a really good fit for a Festival like inclusion inside Fortnite. My guess is, yes, something like this. Maybe not this exactly, but, well, something in this spirit, only adding more Disney IPs.
There’s also the MMORPG arena of Star Wars: The Old Republic. Imagine an MMORPG wing of a Fortnite Festival, complete with a way to access a shopping mall and portal to other games. Other than in VR, nobody has really ever tried anything quite like this.
Does Epic have this kind of expansion in mind for their way for “shop”ping inside Fortnite with Disney IPs? Or is it going to be something far less creatively like simply allowing Fortnite players to buy Darth Vader, Chewbacca skins to play? Surely, that path is obvious and easy, and hope it doesn’t go down like that. What do you think, friendly gamer readers?