Josh D’Amaro took over for Bob Iger today as the new CEO of The Walt Disney Company, and one of his first orders of business was to give an update on the long-awaited Disney x Fortnite project.
During Disney’s annual shareholder meeting, D’Amaro said he recently reviewed some of the progress on the Disney x Fortnite project. “I was blown away by the possibilities,” he said (via DrewDisneyDude).
That doesn’t tell us much, of course, and it’s not surprising to hear D’Amaro speak so enthusiastically about the Fortnite project. After all, he is the person who spearheaded Disney’s investment into Epic Games in the first place. He’s also a regular visitor to Epic’s headquarters in North Carolina.
The Disney x Fortnite project remains very mysterious. When it was announced, Disney said it would be a “new persistent universe” for Disney fans to “play, watch, shop, and engage with” characters and content from its Disney, Pixar, Marvel, Star Wars, and Avatar brands, among others.
Disney and Epic also touted the ability for fans to “create their own stories and experiences” and share content with each other as part of this. Just this week, Epic announced new Fortnite tools to help users create their own Star Wars games.
Beyond this, D’Amaro recently said Disney could premiere movies in Fortnite, or allow people to book a Disney cruise from within the game.
D’Amaro has been a longtime advocate for gaming inside Disney. Beyond the Fortnite project, Disney does a lot in gaming by way of its licensing deals for its franchises, including the numerous Star Wars games in development. Experts believe gaming could be a key area for Disney to grow under D’Amaro’s leadership. And to that end, it was reported that Disney was planning to make further gaming deals, but those plans were disrupted by the search for a new CEO. Now that D’Amaro is officially the new boss, things could get back on track.
Previously, Disney developed games internally via its Disney Interactive Studios. That team closed in 2016 and Disney Infinity was shuttered as well, with Disney instead opting for more licensing deals.
In 2019, former Disney CEO Bob Iger spoke candidly about Disney’s struggles making and publishing games internally, admitting, “We haven’t been particularly good…”