The rumor mill has been churning over the possibility that The Walt Disney Company might buy its gaming partner Epic Games and its flagship title Fortnite, but a top executive at the media giant has now pushed back against such speculation. Speaking this week at Bloomberg’s Screentime event, Disney executive Dana Walden addressed the acquisition rumors directly, confirming that while the two companies share a strong relationship, a full takeover is not on the table.
“Those are not the conversations we’re having right now,” Walden said when asked about reports of a potential purchase. “But we have a great partnership.” Her comments came as Disney continues to deepen its ties with Epic Games, which owns Fortnite and Unreal Engine, through an equity stake rather than outright ownership.
A Partnership Built on Investment
Walden reminded attendees that Disney already holds a significant financial interest in the studio behind Fortnite. “We invested more than $1.5 billion into Epic for an equity stake,” she noted, underscoring that Disney’s relationship with the company runs through investment rather than acquisition.
“Those are not the conversations we’re having right now. But we have a great partnership.”
Dana Walden, Disney Executive
The two companies are collaborating on what they’ve described as “transformational” new games, and fans have already seen signs of this alliance inside Fortnite. The integration has taken many forms, including a recent tie-in that brought Disney’s real-world theme parks into the game world.
What Lies Ahead for the Alliance
Walden signaled that players should expect even more content to arrive in the coming years as the partnership matures. “A number of launches coming up over the next two years … are going to demonstrate the value of this partnership,” she said, hinting at a roadmap of collaborative projects still to be revealed.
The creative overlap between Disney and Epic extends well beyond Fortnite’s virtual spaces. Some of Disney’s television productions, including The Mandalorian, have relied on Epic’s Unreal Engine to project scenes onto LED screens surrounding the physical set—a technique that has become central to modern film production.
Rumors That Won’t Die
The acquisition chatter did not emerge from nowhere. Kevin Mayer, a former Disney and TikTok executive who now runs Candle Media, suggested earlier this year that Disney’s new CEO, Josh D’Amaro, would need to take “bold steps” to help the company make more money and grow its stock price. One possibility he floated was buying Epic Games or another game studio.
The speculation gained further traction when technology reporter Alex Heath recently said on Matthew Belloni’s podcast that he knows “for a fact” that some senior executives at Disney want to buy Epic Games and are waiting for the right moment, while other executives believe it would be a bad idea.
Epic Remains Founder-Controlled
Any acquisition attempt would face structural hurdles. Epic Games is a founder-controlled company, with CEO Tim Sweeney retaining full voting stock control. This gives him the ability to make unilateral decisions about the studio’s future and defend its independence.
A deal for Epic would not be Disney’s first flirtation with gaming acquisitions. In 2023, it was reported that Disney was interested in pursuing a purchase of Electronic Arts, though nothing ever came of those talks, and EA has since been sold to Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund.
The Gaming Push
D’Amaro is a strong proponent of video games and has said he wants to do more in gaming going forward. He has even floated ideas for deeper integration into Fortnite, including giving players the ability to book Disney cruises or watch a Disney movie on the platform.
Wall Street has been searching for some kind of catalyst to lift Disney’s stock, which exploded during COVID but sits lower today than it did a decade ago. Many analysts have suggested that further investments into tech and gaming could help pull the company out of its long slump.
Fortnite represents just one piece of Disney’s broader gaming ambitions. The studio currently owns nine gaming franchises that have individually earned more than $1 billion, signaling that gaming remains a meaningful pillar of the entertainment conglomerate’s future strategy.
Join the conversation