Disney takes stake in gaming with 1.5 million investment in Epic Games
Disney CEO Bob Iger announced the company’s entrance into a strategic relationship with Fortnite developer Epic Games. The USD 1.5 billion investment according to Iger is the first step in creating a “huge Disney universe” in the world of games and entertainment.
“Disney was one of the first companies to believe in the potential of bringing their worlds together with ours in Fortnite, and they use Unreal Engine across their portfolio,” said Epic Games founder and CEO Tim Sweeney in a statement. “Now we’re collaborating on something entirely new to build a persistent, open and interoperable ecosystem that will bring together the Disney and Fortnite communities.

Image courtesy of Disney
“This will enable us to bring together our incredible collection of stories and experiences from across the company for a broad audience in ways we have only dreamed of before,” said Josh D’Amaro, Chairman, Disney Experiences. “Epic Games’ industry-leading technology and Fortnite’s open ecosystem will help us reach consumers where they are so they can engage with Disney in the ways that are most relevant to them.”
In his interview with CNBC where news first broke of Disney’s investment, Iger called the move the company’s “biggest foray into the game space ever”. In preparation for this, Disney took a number of steps to break into the gaming world including licensing of figures such as Spider-Man for blockbuster video games, and a previous collaboration with Epic to bring characters from the Marvel, Star Wars, The Nightmare Before Christmas and Tron universes to Fortnite. Such a move is “timely” according to Iger, as the company situate themselves in a position to cater to the upcoming Gen Alpha audiences, as well as continuing to engage their gen-z and millennial audiences as well.
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