Submitted 2 weeks ago by inclementimmigrant@lemmy.world to games@lemmy.world
Ugh…
I debated posting this one myself, but the article does highlight that Disney isn’t even sure if they want to do it, and Tim Sweeney is the gatekeeper of this ever happening. The worst thing that can come from this is that Disney gets bored with owning a video game company a few years down the line and then dissolves the institution responsible for the Unreal engine.
The worst thing that can come from this is that Disney gets bored with owning a video game company
If I had to guess, they actually want Epic because they use Unreal for their TV series and movies. I think they couldn’t care less about the video game business.
But all of the set backgrounds for e.g. The Mandalorian are rendered in Unreal on their fancy 360° production stage so that they can have real-time photography and lighting based on camera position.
They want Epic because of Fortnite; that’s why they invested in Epic in the first place, and it’s what the article cites as business reasons for the acquisition. If Unreal is doing what they need to already, it could still see cost cutting that affects video games, as they don’t see as much need to enhance it with features that actually support new games.
Not just Tim, but Tencent also owns a massive stake in Epic and I sincerely doubt they would want to give up their position.
The article says Sweeney still retains voting power, which would mean he’s got at least 51%. As I understand it, he can sell any time he wants, and Tencent gets a portion of the sale.
Disney has historically been pretty shit at handling their games. They mainly sell IP and have their artists make sure the third-party output is acceptable.
I doubt they could handle buying something that big in the game space manage not interviene enough to fuck it up.
if it made Sweeney go away, it’s would be better 100%
I agree totally, but more likely, he’d become a Disney Executive of Gaming
Ok we don’t like epic BUT CAN DISNEY STOP BUYING FUCKING EVERYTHING?!
Shhhhh, let them kill things we hate, they’re excellent at killing things.
Oop your so right bestie we almost forgot that 🫢
I suggest Disney to buy EA: it is convenient when all shit is stored in a single pile.
A bit late, isn‘t it? The saudis loaded it with debt and I doubt EA will exist for very long.
Oh no!
I hope not.
Can they just fucking not?
We have to persevere with US corporations remaining completely and totally unregulated for the next 2.5 years at least - but we should resist any more enshittification for as long as possible - until someone _competent _ like Lina Khan can resume control of the FTC.
didn’t this company buy bandcamp recently
Epic sold Bandcamp again… a year or two ago?
Plot twist they will sell it to OpenAI afterwards.
OpenAI can’t afford the other shit they’ve promised to buy as it is.
Maybe they could pitch the idea that they theoretically could, one day, be able to afford to buy them.
Free games would be first to go
They haven’t given away anything good in a long time
Is this supposed to be a bad thing?
Now I want a Disney themed Unreal Tournament 2026. “Goofy instagibs Pumba”
Disney: Till All Are One
...Huge Steaming Pile.
Epic Mickey remaster?
Already made. Epic Mickey 2 remaster!
That would explain the 1000 people laid off. They could be preparimg the twrrain. Gotta keep the mouse growing amirite?
Nah, acquisition layoffs come from when you’re shopping your company around, and there’s a deal on the table, but you need that extra 7% of profit. Sweeney would need to be shopping for that to happen. As it sits, they’d probably have to pay him a premium in their own stock to make it happen.
The entire tech and games sectors are shedding like fuck because everyone else is. You normally can’t drop 10% of your staff without pissing off the public and scaring investors, but when all the competitors are doing it, it’s just the market correcting. The investors are clamoring for this.
If Sweeney wanted to sell Epic he wouldn’t continue the legal battles with Apple, the storefront fight with Valve and he wouldn’t be laying off people to try and stay afloat. If you’re planning to sell you’re going to make the company look as strong as it has never looked before. You’d drop the moneysink lawsuit with Apple, the storefront fight with Steam and you’d stack the Fortnite calendar to have the highest engagement it has ever had and you’d be promoting the living shit out of Unreal engine (Either through some insane new feature or by announcing a new engine) and you’d release Alan Wake 2 on Steam to make the publishing side also look good. And just to be sure you’d throw out some potential new game ideas to show that you haven’t forgotten being a game dev. In short you’d have to show consistently good revenue and really great growth potential. If you want to good example how that looks like look at Bungie getting sold to Sony.
Nothing Sweeney is doing is indicating he’s planning on cashing out. If there’s going to be a sale it’s going to be out of desperation and I doubt Epic is in that dire of a state.
I would love this to happen. So that they could both implode.
devolution@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Disney can’t fuck up Epic any worse than Todd Sweeny has.
redsand@infosec.pub 2 weeks ago
Fortnite runs its self. Disney would bank on skins and do little else
skulblaka@sh.itjust.works 2 weeks ago
If they were smart, sure. But Disney can’t just leave shit alone, they aren’t capable.
ParlimentOfDoom@piefed.zip 2 weeks ago
Epic is having trouble because they thought exactly this. And Fortnite is losing players.
Benaaasaaas@group.lt 2 weeks ago
Well apparently not since they had to lay off 1k people
devolution@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
I’ll take Daredevil skins…