Fortnite dev creating online universe connected to real Disney Parks
Disney has shared more information about its new project with Fortnite maker Epic Games, which will connect Disney Parks to an interactive universe.
Early in 2024,Disney invested a whopping $1.5 billioninto Epic Games as part of a multiyear deal between the two entities.
The agreement sits at the center of a plan to deepen their collaborative efforts, which involves the development of an “all-new games and entertainment universe that will further expand the reach of beloved Disney stories and experiences.”
Apart from promising a “world-class games experience” set in a persistent universe, neither Disney nor Epic have said much about the deal since then. However, new information has finally surfaced thanks to a Disney session during SXSW 2025.
Disney execs tease “online universe” made by Epic Games
During SXSW (via DrewDisneyDude andHYPEX), Director Jon Favreau and VP of Walt Disney Imagineering, Asa Kalama, shared a few more details about what the company’s working on with the Fortnite creator.
“Unreal [Engine] is also playing a role in the next big project that Disney’s doing, a whole new online universe that they’re creating with Epic Games,” Favreau noted before giving Kalama the floor.
Kalama said the joint endeavor will provide Disney creators with new ways of telling stories. So far, they’ve envisioned an experience wherein fans could visit a Disney Park, participate in, say, the Smuggler’s Run attraction, and then have that “affect or connect [to] your gameplay at home.”
DISNEY x FORTNITE MODE WILL BE LINKED TO IRL DISNEY PARK ‼️"What if you could go to the park and have an experience in Smugglers Run, go on this amazing mission, but then have that effect connect to your gameplay at home"[Info VIA@DrewDisneyDude]pic.twitter.com/cy0SeqnFJb
In the press release for the original February 2024 announcement, Disney said the experience would somehow “interoperate with Fortnite.” Now we know loosely how that’ll come to fruition.
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It’s clear the two companies have big ambitions for a persistent online universe, but how exactly all this will work is still up in the air.
More than a year passed between any updates of consequence, so it’s unclear how much longer fans will have to wait to see this vision made manifest. But Disney could have more to share by the time D23 arrives in late August 2025.
