It’s an open secret within the industry that Fortnite is in some trouble. Despite the steady flow of exciting collaborations to try and win back the community, the state of the battle royale game is concerning for its fans after mass layoffs and even V-Bucks price hikes. A new report from the highly reputable Bloomberg suggests that developer Epic Games is relying on an upcoming release to boost Fortnite back into favor later this year: a Disney extraction shooter.
The gaming giant has been partnered with Disney for a while now, with the media empire investing $1.5 billion into Epic Games back in 2024. They’ve long promised collaborative games would come from this investment, and Bloomberg’s report quotes four Epic employees both past and present as having knowledge of the Disney shooter.
Set for launch in November, the game (which seems like it takes place within Fortnite) will see players taking on the role of Disney characters and fighting their way through waves of enemies to reach an extraction point. It’s like ARC Raiders or Marathon, but far more family friendly, however it sounds like internal opinions of the project are not particularly high.
In their report citing these Epic employees, it’s said that “internal reviewers have expressed concerns that the game mechanics are not very original”, but despite this, there are those within the company that are “optimistic that Epic will get it right by the launch date.”
It’s an incredibly risky gamble for both Epic Games and the Fortnite platform to invest so heavily into a project already exists in other forms, and it’s quite a crowded genre. Fan favor is at an all-time low following more than 1,000 employees losing their jobs at the company last month along with cutbacks to V-Bucks availability to “help pay the bills” at Epic – so expecting a big turnaround from a Disney shooter mode is a particularly curious strategy.
The extraction shooter is just one of the current three games that are planned, with the second game struggling internally and the third having its resources moved to the other two games following alleged disappointment from Disney regarding Epic’s work schedules. How this will all play out remains to be seen, but Fortnite is taking a huge gamble on their Disney partnership to boost their declining live service, and we’ll be reporting on it all as it happens.
