In the latest episode of “The Town with Matt Belloni, guest Alex Heath, Tech Analyst, and former Verge Deputy Editor and Belloni talked about the recent trending topics in the tech sector, the shutdown of Sora, OpenAI changing course, AI companies’ relationship with Hollywood, and the latest round of layoffs at Epic Games which resulted in 1,000 more people losing their jobs. Another topic that came was the possibility that Disney might buy Epic Games if the opportunity presents itself in the future.
Belloni said that he heard some rumors that Disney would buy Epic Games. Heath stated that he knew some of the senior members at Disney were in fact, thinking about doing it.
“I know for a fact there are senior executives in Disney who want them to buy Epic and are just waiting for that moment,” Heath said. “And then there’s others who think it’s a bad idea.” If Epic Games were to be acquired down the line, Heath believes that Disney would be “the most natural home for it for a lot of reasons, for the park integration – can you imagine a Fortnite park – to all the open-world, you know, integrating Disney IP into it, which they’ve already announced, and also Disney’s gaming platform, and I can see that.”
Back in 2024, Disney invested 1.5 billion into Epic Games and announced a new collaboration on an all-new open, persistent, and social universe that will bring Disney stories and experiences to life, interoperating with Fortnite and its more than 100 million active players and creators.
Heath explained that Fortnite’s current lower player engagement isn’t something that would deter Disney from trying to purchase Epic Games. Fortnite is still one of the most popular forms of entertainment for young people today, making it an attractive prospect for Disney.
“Gaming in general is having a hard time,” he said, “but if you look at Roblox‘s growth, which is where Epic has been trying to take Fortnite into more of an open-world, creator first ecosystem where creators can build businesses building on top of Fortnite, Roblox is just killing it with that.
“And I think these experiences are probably still the future of not only gaming, but social media for young people, right? They’re hanging out in these worlds.”
“I’ve got a 10-year-old,” Belloni agreed. “He’s hanging out in Fortnite with his buddies… and he would be stoked if all of a sudden Tony Stark showed up, and Yoda and a bunch of Jedi and they could play with those.”
Heath noted that the partnership is “the best combination to potentially actually challenge Roblox’s dominance here.” Getting Epic Games would also benefit Disney in the TV and movie side of things because getting Epic would also mean acquiring Unreal Engine which is being used more and more these days for film and TV.
“And I think if he ever decided ‘look, I think it’s better if I take a step back and and the company go to another home’, it would be Disney,” I mean, there’s no question. I think Josh 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 link-up, this is something that can actually challenge the tech platforms and Roblox’.”