Disney have been considering acquiring epic games in recent times. Will be taking a look at why it may occur and what this could mean for Star Wars in the future if such a transaction would happen.
On an episode of The Town with Matt Belloni, journalist Alex Heath revealed he has heard how some of powerful figures at The Walt Disney Company want Epic Games under their wings. Below is what the reporter had to say:
“I know for a fact there are senior executives in Disney who want them to buy Epic and are just waiting for that moment. And then there’s others who think it’s a bad idea.
So I think if Epic ever sold, if it ever decided to to call it quits on being an independent company, Disney would be the most natural home for it for a lot of reasons.
I think Josh (CEO) would want it. A lot of the executive team would want it. And the the deal would probably pay for itself honestly, in the first day when they announced it in the stock price, I think investors would look at this and go, man, this is a great linkup.”
Working Together So Far
As we know, Disney invested $1.5 billion into Epic Games to help bring a whole new experience in the game to life. Details are still fairly limited but it has been in development for quite some time. It looks to be some sort of virtual Disneyland.
This experience within Fortnite will allow players to enjoy the IP they love in whole new ways not found in the current version of the game. Star Wars is going to be part of this experience but again we don’t really have any idea how this will work.
More Than A Fortnite
It is also worth noting that Epic’s Unreal Engine is the driving force behind Lucasfilm and ILM’s Volume. What you see in the background of shots, which is put on the screens, is all in Unreal Engine 5. Whilst many would be quick to assume Disney just want their hands all over Fortnite, It’s more likely they actually want complete ownership of Unreal Engine for their productions.
Disney being the sole owner Fortnite would open up them to doing whatever they wanted in the game. They could even potentially look to have more dedicated gaming experiences made within Fortnite. In March, the companies partnered to release licensed Star Wars assets that can be used by fans. Many Star Wars games are being crafted as we speak by Fortnite players. You can learn more here.
I’d also like to point out that Disney’s new CEO Josh D’amaro has been fairly involved with the Fortnite experience collaboration. He also views video games as an important medium for storytelling and the future of Disney.
Where his predecessor Bob Iger admitted Disney were not very good at making video games, we are going to be in a new era for the company now. Gaming plans were paused during the search for a new CEO but they will be back underway now D’amaro has taken the reins.
Why Now?
This information actually comes at a relevant time. For those unaware, Epic Games laid off a thousand staff members last week. This round of layoffs was only about a year or so after the previous one which also involved another thousand people. That’s a lot of developers being made redundant from the company that has one of the most popular and lucrative video games in the world.
Recent player counts in January show The game had 36.1 million unique players across Xbox and PlayStation. In terms of competition, The second most played game when combining Xbox, steam and PlayStation players up was GTA V/GTA Online with 21.2 million. There’s a big gap in competition.
These layoffs aren’t for a lack of players but rather a lack of growth. There has been a steady decline in players over the past year. It does depend on the season though as the Star Wars season was one of the worst performing ones. Whereas it has picked up a little bit in the past month or so thanks to the latest season. Ironically, some of the key people behind this new, well-liked season were laid off.
That’s not to say an acquisition will easily happen. Epic’s founder Tim Sweeney still owns the vast majority of the company meaning he is the only one that can make the decision to be acquired. Although the recent layoff news has led to many people on social media going after Tim Sweeney.
He is known for running his mouth on Twitter a lot and during the previous round of layoffs the CEO said it was done to “stabilize” the business financially. That has not worked. If Sweeney is sick of dealing which such business decisions, an easy out is for him to sell his baby to The Walt Disney Company.
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