The Walt Disney Company’s new CEO, Josh D’Amaro, spearheaded the effort to invest $1.5 billion into Epic Games to create a new Fortnite experience. He’s a big fan of games and reportedly wants to invest more in gaming and now he’s drawn the praise of billionaire Epic co-founder Tim Sweeney.
Sweeney told The Hollywood Reporter that D’Amaro is a “great leader and a genuinely nice guy, too.”
Sweeney and D’Amaro have been working “closely” over the years to bring Disney characters to Fortnite and on “bigger plans” for the upcoming Fortnite project. This project remains largely a mystery, but Sweeney said it will be an “open game and entertainment universe.”
Regarding Disney’s prospects under D’Amaro, Sweeney said, “The company is in good hands.”
D’Amaro has big shoes to fill, as the person he’s replacing, Bob Iger, oversaw some of Disney’s biggest moves, including buying Pixar and Star Wars. Disney’s stock price surged to an all-time high of around $197 under Iger, but has since slid down and fell back to where it was around a decade ago.
D’Amaro recently spoke with ABC News and said he wants to be a risk-taker as Disney’s new CEO, but he did not elaborate on any possible moves he might make. D’Amaro takes over for Iger in March.
The incoming CEO has been talking about risk-taking for some time. In 2024, he said Disney should “never rest on past success” but should instead “always look for the next big idea, the next big challenge.”
“We have to adapt, or we are going to be left behind,” he said.
One of the big moves that Disney made recently was investing $1 billion into Open AI as part of a deal that also will see Disney characters come to Open AI’s video-generation tool, Sora.
