One juicy gaming rumor that continues to swirl is that The Walt Disney Company could buy Epic Games and Fortnite. It remains to be seen if such a deal may materialize, and now a top boss at the House of Mouse has directly responded.
Speaking at Bloomberg’s Screentime event this week, Disney executive Dana Walden reminded everyone that Disney already invested more than $1.5 billion into Epic for an equity stake. But could talks progress to a full acquisition?
“Those are not the conversations we’re having right now,” Walden said. “But we have a great partnership.”
Disney and Epic are working together to create “transformational” new games. So far, they have showed up in Fortnite in a variety of ways, including the recent integration of Fortnite at Disney’s real-world parks.
Walden said people can look forward to even more to come in the next few years. “A number of launches coming up over the next two years … are going to demonstrate the value of this partnership,” she said.
Kevin Mayer–a former Disney and TikTok executive who now runs Candle Media–said Disney’s new CEO, Josh D’Amaro, will need to take “bold steps” to help Disney make more money and grow its stock price. One part of this could be buying Epic Games or another game studio, he said.
Technology reporter Alex Heath recently said on Matthew Belloni’s podcast, The Town, that he knows “for a fact” that some senior executives at Disney want to buy Epic Games and are waiting for the right moment. Other executives at Disney believe it would be a bad idea, Heath said.
Epic Games is a founder-controlled company, with CEO Tim Sweeney retaining full voting stock control. He has the ability to make unilateral decisions to control and secure Epic’s future.
Epic would not be Disney’s first potential acquisition target. In 2023, it was reported that Disney was interested in pursuing a purchase of Electronic Arts, but nothing ever came of that, and now EA has been sold to Saudi Arabia’s PIF.
Beyond Disney’s investment in Epic for Fortnite, some of Disney’s shows, like The Mandalorian, use Epic’s Unreal Engine to project scenes onto LED screens surrounding the physical set.
D’Amaro is a big believer in video games and has said he wants to do more in gaming going forward. Wall Street is looking for some kind of catalyst for Disney’s stock, and many have said further investments into tech and gaming could be a way to help get Disney’s stock price out of its 10-year slump. Disney stock exploded during COVID, but is actually lower today than it was a decade ago.
D’Amaro has floated numerous ideas for further Disney integration into Fortnite, including giving players the ability to book Disney cruises or watch a Disney movie on the platform.
Fortnite is a big push from Disney in gaming, but it’s just one small piece. Disney today has nine gaming franchises that have individually earned more than $1 billion.
