In February of this year, Disney and Epic Games announced that they were working together to develop a “persistent universe” that would include players from Disney, Pixar, Marvel, Star Wars,etc. Disney franchise has appeared in fort night over the years, but this new universe promises to be even more grandiose and playable with fort night.
Disney and Epic didn’t reveal any more details about how this would all work when they announced the plan. But after speaking with Epic executives during Unreal Fest in Seattle this week, I have a better idea of what to expect going forward.
A lot of it comes down to connecting to Epic’s ecosystem. “Disney wants a lasting place where all Disney stuff can be, but they want to be part of the ecosystem that we’ve built,” Epic Games executive vice president Saxs Persson said in an interview. ” edge. “We think the power of ecosystem interconnection is really the magic here. From a player perspective, you want to be able to fort night Experience, the Disney experience, or any experience really.
Persson said players will be able to “walk through Disney’s front door or fort night front door. But they will be connected to the same decoration “locker” and social graph on the backend. “From a player’s perspective, it feels seamless.” (Persson’s description sounds a bit like lego fort nighta survival crafting game with fort night Wider.
For Disney, partnering with Epic makes sense. Many players already own a bunch of Marvel costumes Star Wars exist fort nightso if Disney went to the trouble of building one fort night As a competitor, if players have invested a lot of money in the Epic ecosystem, they may not want to leave. Epic has proven it can be a great keeper of Disney franchises fort nightalso. Then there’s the business side: Disney canceled its own Metaverse division last year and invested $1.5 billion in Epic as part of the new arrangement. If Epic succeeds, Disney will succeed.
But this partnership doesn’t necessarily mean you get to travel around fort night Play as Mickey and escape the island with a gun. “Not every piece of clothing can do everything,” Persson said. “one [Lego] The minifigure does not hold a gun. Brands should be able to enforce brand guidelines until they are satisfied that the brand is associated with a specific rating.
Persson said Disney knows that different franchises lend themselves to specific experiences. “Some IPs are not teen IPs or mature IPs. They are E-IPs for everyone. That’s why you can already play as a lot of gun-toting Disney characters in games. fort night. Mostly from Marvel and Star WarsBut as of last week, the roster now includes Mr. Incredible and Mrs. Incredible, with Disney villains Maleficent, Cruella de Vil, and Captain Hook soon to be playable characters as well.
Epic and Disney have yet to specify when their persistent universes will be available. But Persson is clearly excited about it. “This is one of those partnerships you can only hope for,” Persson said. “This is what Disney is all about, this is a total investment from both companies to create something that every Disney fan wants.”
