Epic Games boss Tim Sweeney denied the claims published in Wall Street’s working relationship with Disney within the company.
Yesterday, the WSJ report provided new details about Fortnite's mysterious upcoming Disney model, which was conducted after the latter's $1.5 billion investment in Epic Games. The report said the product was not released until the “earliest fall 2026”, with some epic executives complaining that “the slow pace of Disney’s decision making requires many different departments.”
It is this statement that Sweeney calls the suggestion “BS” through an article on social media.
“The anonymous offer is BS,” Sweeney wrote. “Disneys, like Darth Vader, work together with epic very well, about 10 times the average speed of media companies dealing in this business. We even provided a statement to the authors of this article, but they chose not to print it.”
Epic Games' Big Disney collaboration was announced in February 2024, although details about it remain largely unpackaged. The original concept artwork of the project has a virtual Disneyland-style environment, centered around Disney's main brand. However, it remains to be seen what players will do in it.
The WSJ report noted that the project was supervised internally by Disney's parks and resort director Josh D'Amaro, who visited Sweeney and spent a lot of time hiking with the CEO. The alleged focus on the project is an element created by its fans, raising questions about who might have a dance that takes advantage of Disney characters.
Fortnite X Star Wars Watch Party Island Screenshot
Epic Games and Disney have worked in-depth with Marvel and Star Wars themed seasons in recent years, with countless characters now available as Fortnite Skins, now including Pixar Films’ choices and even Disney classic animations.
The companies recently tested AI-powered Darth Vader with Fortnite, who can chat with players using generative speeches. After the launch, the concept needed an urgent fix, as fans quickly got Darth Vader to say something he shouldn't have done, although more than 10 million players ended up talking to Sith Lord.
This week, Fortnite moved to next season, which will see its main island of Royals get infested by mutated bugs, with other characters from Halo bringing help. Meanwhile, in OG mode of the game, the action enters Season 5 of Fortnite, which should see the look of Cube Kevin – although Epic Games is using this rerunning storyline to show something interesting, so maybe not.
Tom Phillips is the news editor for IGN. You can reach Tom at tom_phillips@ign.com or find him on the Blues @tomphillipseg.bsky.social