Michael Broughton’s Post

The Walt Disney Company announced a $1.5 billion investment into Epic Games, to expand the worlds of Disney, Pixar, Marvel, Star Wars, and Avatar by bringing them into the shoot’em up environment of Fortnite. In 2024 Gaming has become much more valuable than Movies. And Disney really has no presence in this space. Looks like they want to use the popularity of Fortnite to reach more Gen Z and Alpha audiences, to introduce and engage them with their franchise content and characters. - Will this partnership increase customer growth for their brand franchises? - Could it expand reach with younger audiences? - How will the younger family franchises blend into a shooting game? Time will tell how this partnership plays out. #Disney #EpicGames #Fortnite #Innovation #GamingIndustry #genalpha

These types of collaborations have been a long time in the making and I think that all parties have learned from past attempts. It’s great to see the creative and tech engines continuing to experiment and explore with a focus on not only the content, but also the audience-how do people want to consume the content (what platform now and what platform might be on the horizon?), as well as when and where they want to consume it? Continuing to consider the audience/customer demands and journey will benefit all, and also lay groundwork for strategic applications in other industries and sectors—education, healthcare, retail to name just a few. There is so much to strive for by considering a broad array of goals and outcomes (in addition to revenue streams).

Love that #fallout has been successful on TV. Thought it was going to be hard to eclipse #TLOU but it seems to be on the right track. From a people perspective we are seeing more and more requests for crossover talent between interactive entertainment and broader media. It’s exciting! It also helps that our global gaming, media and sports practice is set up to support this trend! ;) #transmedia #executivesearch #interactiveentertainment #videogames

In a world with constantly reducing attention spans how do you create a possibility of brand loyalty? Disney's answer: get packets of attention and keep feeding the user somethinh. Quality can go down but the quantity must not. And make sure every new thing is only a very slight delta of old thing. This is essentially a resource heavy replication of content model created by OG Vloggers and YouTubers who broke their backs posting on a high frequency for a very long time. The only difference between a YouTuber and mammoth like Disney is... the YouTuber can get tired but the mammoth will keep going on as long as the money is coming in.

Video games and visual media have gone hand-in-hand for years, and we've been blessed with some awesome adaptations in recent years. Looking at you, #TheLastofUs and #Fallout 👀. It feels as though popular media franchises are bleeding their way into video games, and vice versa, more than ever. With the recent announcement of The Sims movie, and The Ghost of Tsushima not so long ago, the trend appears to show no signs of stopping. With that in mind, is it a long-term sustainable collaboration? Or is it more a reflection of the lack of truly new and unique IPs? https://lnkd.in/eiAu9-f7

DISNEYverse What happened: Disney announced a $1.5 billion investment in Epic Games to create a new universe featuring characters from Star Wars, Marvel, Pixar, and Avatar, integrated with Fortnite. Strategic considerations: This move represents Disney's largest venture into gaming, aimed at engaging younger demographics who spend significant time in gaming environments, leveraging Epic's Unreal Engine for an interoperable platform. Industry impact: The collaboration signifies a shift towards more immersive, game-centric entertainment experiences, potentially reshaping content consumption patterns and offering new ways for fans to interact with Disney's IP. PS: This is not news-news, tbh. Matthew Ball published numerous insightful essays on Metaverses. Go check it out at: https://lnkd.in/eyQCGNjd #metaverse #mediaandentertainment #disney #epic #fortnite

Disney's strategic investment in Epic Games represents a bold move to tap into the growing market of gamers, particularly the younger generations. Bob Iger's recognition of the changing media consumption patterns, with a significant focus on video games, highlights the company's commitment to staying relevant and engaging with its audience. The collaboration with Epic Games not only involves a financial investment but also aims to create an expansive and interconnected Disney universe within the gaming platform. It will be interesting to see how this partnership unfolds and how The Walt Disney Company leverages the gaming space to enhance its brand and storytelling capabilities. #games #gamingnews #bestgames #gameindustry #gamingbusiness #entertainment #gaming #videogames #gamedev #gamedevelopment #investment #gamestudio #business #disney #disneyland #epicgames https://lnkd.in/d_aQfJFX ✍ Hind Toufga

I agree with Michael Pachter that it's a smart strategic move for The Walt Disney Company to take a $1.5 billion stake in Epic Games and further leverage their IP in titles like Fortnite. Looking beyond buzzwords, virtual worlds offer more agency to players and fans about how and how much they interact with Disney properties. If Disney can exercise some restraint, keeping their IP relevant and monetizable through broader plays in gaming but retooling and resetting their film/animation timelines to be less exhausting could be an antidote to Disney/Marvel fatigue. The key, of course, is in execution. Saturate games with too much IP subtracting from the main game or too many blatant money grabs and Disney WILL find out why gamers are called fickle. Still, this should be fun to watch and, hopefully, play. Any predictions? #entertainment #disney #epicgames #gaming #gamingindustry https://lnkd.in/gsijYWCt

Disney x Epic: Potential win/win. - For Epic 🕹: easy capital, access to IP. - For Disney🐭: minimizes the risk of investment (given their problematic track record in gaming), access to tech. - For both 🕹 🐭: Bigger audience engagement. In our kids' research, we see that kids gaming is comprised of a troika: Roblox, Minecraft, and Fortnite. There's a chronological trajectory as kids age and their dexterity and thinking skills grow: 1. Roblox (ages 4-6) 2. Minecraft (ages 6-8) 3. Fortnite (ages 8-10) In particular, boys graduate to Fortnite around ages 8-10. This is around the age where girls' gaming tends to decline, as most become more interested in video, music, and socializing. But by adding a wider span of age and gender themed IP to the mix (e.g., Disney Princesses, Descendants, Pixar,), there's the opportunity for Epic and Disney to attract, retain, and monetize bigger audiences. Providing they can execute on the interactive experience. #epicgames #disney #gamingindustry #kidsentertainment #videogameindustry #videogames

One of the exciting new announcements from The Walt Disney Company earnings call, teaming up with Epic Games. GamesBeat has the details. I know a few young boys and girls still playing Disney Infinity who are excited to see what this becomes. “If we’re to think of this in some way, it’s not Disney Fortnite together as a single game. Rather, this is more like a Disney universe that can connect to Fortnite, which is separate. And this is a brand-new project, not something that evolved from older partnerships.” #gamesindustry #gamingindustry #gamingnews #gamingtrends #gamingworld #metaverse