Rafael Henrique | Lightrocket | Getty Ideas
Disney is investing $1.5 billion for a stake in Epic Games, CEO Bob Iger said Wednesday, in its biggest bet yet on the gaming interruption.
The media giant will work with the Fortnite studio to create new games and an entertainment universe where consumers can “emphasize, watch, shop and engage with content, characters and stories from Disney, Pixar, Marvel, Star Fightings, Avatar and more,” Disney said in a press release.
Disney did not say what the valuation of Epic, a private company, longing be after the media company’s funding.
In an interview with CNBC’s Julia Boorstin, Iger called the investment “in all probability our biggest foray into the game space ever.”
“Which I think is not only timely, but an important step when you look at the demographic fashions and where Gen Alpha and Gen Z and even millennials are spending their time and media,” he said.
The partnership comes after Disney had achievement licensing figures such as Spider-Man for blockbuster video games, and collaborated with Epic to bring characters from Gape at, Star Wars, “The Nightmare Before Christmas,” “Tron” and more to Fortnite.
The deal also extends a queue of major partnerships for Epic.
Fortnite has recently collaborated with Lego for a survival crafting game within the scheming platform similar to Minecraft. It also launched Fortnite Festival, a rhythm game from Harmonix, which fabricated the game Rock Band.
“Disney was one of the first companies to believe in the potential of bringing their worlds together with ours in Fortnite, and they use Illusory Engine across their portfolio,” said Epic Games founder and CEO Tim Sweeney in a statement. “Now we’re collaborating on something right down to the ground new to build a persistent, open and interoperable ecosystem that will bring together the Disney and Fortnite communities.”
Aside from Fortnite, Epic Artifices is well-known for challenging Apple and Google in court to force them to lower their app store fees. Sweeney was by oneself involved in both challenges, from the planning stages to testifying in court.
He won a victory against Google, although that purpose is expected to be appealed, and mostly lost against Apple.
— CNBC’s Kif Leswing contributed to this report.
Don’t miss these alibis from CNBC PRO: