c/pcgaming · by alessandro@lemmy.ca · 151d

Disney Is Reportedly Eyeing a Full Acquisition of Fortnite Creator, Epic Games, For $1.5 Billion

https://techweez.com/2026/03/31/disney-eyeing-full-acquisition-of-fortnite-creator-epic-games/

127 points · 39 comments · view on lemmy.world

39 Comments

ryper@lemmy.ca · 100 pts · 151d (5 replies)

In February 2024, Disney invested $1.5 billion to acquire an equity stake in Epic Games, the maker of Fortnite, as part of a multi-year project to build a new games and entertainment universe.

An outright acquisition of Epic would be a second attempt at the same ambition, only this time with a company Disney has already paid $1.5 billion to understand.

The article's headline is wrong or misleading. Disney isn't looking at buying Epic for $1.5b, that's what they've already invested in Epic. There is no mention of a proposed acquisition price in the article.

thingsiplay@lemmy.ml · 25 pts · 150d (2 replies)

I was skeptical, immadiately. Can't imagine Epic Games worth "just" $1.5 Billion. A terrible title.

scutiger@lemmy.world · 8 pts · 150d

Yeah, Fortnite makes a billion a year. I can't imagine the entire company would sell for so little.

d00ery@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 150d

"Today we’re laying off over 1000 Epic employees. I'm sorry we're here again. The downturn in Fortnite engagement that started in 2025 means we're spending significantly more than we're making, and we have to make major cuts to keep the company funded. This layoff, together with over $500 million of identified cost savings in contracting, marketing, and closing some open roles puts us in a more stable place."

https://www.forbes.com/sites/paultassi/2026/03/24/fortnite-financial-loss-leads-to-over-1000-layoffs-at-epic/

Less than a week ago they fired a bunch of staff because due to (falling) profits. It's disgusting, all these people suffer so that the c-suite can get a nice payout when if / when Disney buys.

ChicoSuave@lemmy.world · 7 pts · 151d

No valuation means this is hype and no substance.

Railcar8095@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 150d

1.5 billions is a steal for Fortnite alone. I clicked only for how absurdly low it seemed.

woelkchen@lemmy.world · 51 pts · 151d (4 replies)

While I don't doubt the intention to buy Epic, I doubt the main interest is because of gaming. Unreal Engine is making massive inroads into film production, see https://www.unrealengine.com/en-US/blog/forging-new-paths-for-filmmakers-on-the-mandalorian

4am@lemmy.zip · 10 pts · 150d

It’s also being used in medical fields. My dentist has a scanning camera tool that creates a 3d textured model and uses Unreal for rendering.

lost_faith@lemmy.ca · 2 pts · 151d

/AFK (on yt) make some great vids

srecko@lemmy.zip · 2 pts · 150d (1 reply)

That can't be the reason to buy a company that is worth 20+ billion dollars. Gaming industry is bigger than movie industry and games are raking in huge ammounts of money. Shooting in unreal movio studio is nice thing to have but not really game changing, you could probably build a blender pipeline for it for a several million dollars.

woelkchen@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 150d

That can’t be the reason to buy a company that is worth 20+ billion dollars. Gaming industry is bigger than movie industry and games are raking in huge ammounts of money.

I didn't claim that gaming plays no part in that. My personal opinion is just that it's mainly (but not solely) an investment into lucrative industry applications of UE. See also @4am@lemmy.zip who noted the use in medical.

Quetzalcutlass@lemmy.world · 32 pts · 151d (10 replies)

I don't care about them buying Epic, the game developer. I do care about them buying Epic, the game store owner, and trying to do to game distribution what they helped do to streaming (fragment a unified and beloved system into a dozen enshittified walled gardens). Other megacorps have tried and failed, but Disney is greedy enough and owns enough popular IPs that they could do some serious damage to the entertainment ecosystem if they try to go exclusive.

The pattern from every previous Disney acquisition is the same. A minority stake, then deeper integration, then ownership. Pixar, Marvel, and Lucasfilm all started as partnerships before Disney moved to close the deal entirely.

Epic looks like it is following the same path, and the only thing standing between Disney and a full acquisition is Epic Games founder Tim Sweeney, who retains full voting control over the company and has given no public indication that he is ready to sell.

We're stuck counting on Tim Sweeney's ego to save the day. What strange times we live in.

Gullible@sh.itjust.works · 10 pts · 151d (2 replies)

How’re they going to attract new customers to fragment the market? Epic is literally giving games away for free and it’s barely helping

Quetzalcutlass@lemmy.world · 9 pts · 151d (1 reply)

They could try by being the only place to get Star Wars games or Marvel or any of the many, many other IPs Disney has accumulated over the years. It's how they got Disney+ off the ground.

Like I said, others have tried this approach and failed, but Disney might actually have the critical mass to get people to use a client other than Steam. Or at least attempt to and make getting certain games a nightmare for a few years until they come crawling back, like EA/Ubisoft/Microsoft/all the others.

Gullible@sh.itjust.works · 6 pts · 150d

For once, I’m glad that there haven’t been any good Star Wars games in nearly 20 years. Here’s to Disney going up in females!

Edit: autocorrect did a thing, but I think I’ll leave it because funni

13igTyme@piefed.social · 7 pts · 151d (2 replies)

If Epic pulls all there games from Steam, people will just demand refunds on steam and games made by Epic will peak at a few tens of thousands in sales.

markz@suppo.fi · 10 pts · 151d

They'd just delist them, not destroy bought copies.

rljkeimig@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 151d

I think you still keep games on Steam, even after they are removed from sale from the store. So I don't think they could get away with taking them away from people who already paid for them, and going exclusive for the few games that they have, like Alan Wake 2, seem only to hurt their sales.

paraphrand@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 150d (3 replies)

You mean Netflix? You wanted Netflix to dominate like Steam? You use the word “beloved” so i assume so.

Quetzalcutlass@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 150d (2 replies)

Netflix used to be good. It was cheap, had basically everything, and ran on any device you could name. It's gone downhill in basically every way possible since then, but it was a beloved service once upon a time.

ifalas@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 150d

That was always going to happen though, with or without fragmentation. Whether it's netflix or gamepass or reddit or discord or bluesky or whatever the same enshittification playbook always applies if you're trying to make a profit: offer a "good deal" until people have bought into your service enough to feel like they can't do without it, and then start slaughtering the piggies.

paraphrand@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 150d

It was, and I felt the same way.

But I fear I was naive, and didn’t see that a single distributor/platform dominating could be bad. Even only having two or three would be bad.

It was easy to cheer them on when they were an alternative to cable and broadcast and home video. But now that all those other things have become diminished, I think it’s strange to complain that one service doesn’t have all content from all producers.

I also think music streaming platforms are a bit strange. But the sheer volume of songs vs movies and tv make that a different animal. And we have managed to have some competition there.

I think people should be arguing for content to be across more platforms, not for it to all be on one platform. But you’re not going to get Warner brothers and Disney to agree to swapping content unless they are required to by law. If people argue for one platform having everything, they might be doing it because they see it as the most plausible “remedy” to their woes. But that’s not a good idea.

We might need to get distribution platforms and production companies broken into separate entities. Studios probally shouldn’t own platforms. Just like they shouldn’t own theater chains.

Exhibition and content creation should be separate for the long term health of both parties and consumers.

Phil_in_here@lemmy.ca · 15 pts · 150d (1 reply)

Well, the free weekly games were a good time while they lasted. Guess we should get ready for them to all be revoked.

GrindingGears@lemmy.ca · 3 pts · 150d

Their free games have been largely pretty ignorable for the past year or two anyways. Most notably at Christmas, where they used to shower AAA titles, this year it was mostly crap. It would be fairly remarkable if they removed games from your library, not sure they'd actually want to move forward with that. It would be the for sure death of an already dying platform.

socsa@piefed.social · 12 pts · 150d

Excellent. Disney will handle brainrot containment from this point forward.

zewm@lemmy.world · 11 pts · 151d

The layoffs make more sense now. They were positioning themselves to be sold. Cutting the fat as it were.

NigelFrobisher@aussie.zone · 11 pts · 150d

When there’s only one corporation left can we just ignore it?

FreddiesLantern@leminal.space · 9 pts · 150d

Yeah of course, let’s get Tim Sweeney of all people closer to the company that makes stuff for kids.

greyscale@lemmy.grey.ooo · 8 pts · 151d

If I never have to hear Tim Sweeny's stupid opinions again, Disney can have it.

ultranaut@lemmy.world · 6 pts · 151d

Epic is worth a lot more than $1.5b