Two months after the release of LegoFortnite, there is an even bigger collaboration between the two companies. Disney will take a 15% equity stake in Epic Games as part of the deal. The scope of the project is huge. The companies described the project as an all-new games and entertainment universe, offering players a way to play, watch, shop and engage with characters and storylines from Disney, Pixar and others. The collaboration will use Unreal Engine and will be compatible with other online gaming platforms. Disney CEO Bob Iger said that the partnership marks Disney's biggest entry into the world of games and offers significant opportunities for growth and expansion. The Disney collaboration fits right into the current plan. The company dramatically widened the scope of the game in recent years, and what began as a popular battle royale game has exploded into a hub of user-generated game modes and brand collaborations. Disney was one of the first companies to believe in the potential of bringing their worlds together with ours in Fortnite, and they use Unreal Engine across their portfolio. We are collaborating on something entirely new to build a persistent, open and consensual Ecosystem that will bring together the Disney and Fortnite communities.
In December of last year, we saw the addition of three stand-alone games, including Lego, Rocket Racing and Fortnite Festival, that were completely different genres from the original Fortnite. On the Disney side of things, a deep partnership and large investment will open up a refined toolkit for creating online social worlds where many people can build and play together at once. The infrastructure for a virtual shopping mall stocked with Disney's beloved characters can be found in the lucrative Fortnite store, where players can buy in-game outfits known as skins, along with dance moves and emotes. Disney and Epic have a close relationship with each other due to the fact that many popular characters from Star Wars and the Marvel cinematic Universe are available as collectible skins in the game. The result of Disney's surprise investment doesn't yet have a release date beyond "soon(ish)," but that suggests players won't be in for a long wait.