A new report says that the first game to arrive after Epic and Disney’s massive $1.5 billion deal from a few years ago will be an extraction shooter, similar to Arc Raiders, featuring Disney characters.
On April 10, Bloomberg revealed, as part of a larger report on Epic’s struggles and future, that it has learned that Epic is working on an online shooter that will star unspecified Disney characters working together to defeat enemies and reach an extraction point. According to internal playtesters, the game’s mechanics aren’t very original, but Bloomberg reports that employees at Epic are hopeful that the company will get everything right and ready before the game’s expected launch in November.
This is to be the first of three games reportedly in development at Epic that are connected to Disney’s massive $1.5 billion investment into the company that happened back in 2024. According to Bloomberg, the other two games aren’t doing so hot. The second game has received mixed reviews from internal testers, according to sources who spoke to the outlet. Meanwhile, resources were moved from the third game to the extraction shooter and the second project after Disney allegedly expressed disappointment about the progress on the games to Epic.
Epic’s global comms director, Liz Markman, said Bloomberg’s reporting was “not reflective of the ambitions of the Disney collaboration.” She added, “We are building a new games and entertainment universe of Disney experiences.” A spokesperson for Disney said the company was still “focused” on its “long-term collaboration with Epic” and that its plans to build a “transformational games and entertainment universe” remain “unchanged.”
Last month, Epic Games laid off over 1,000 employees while CEO Tim Sweeney acknowledged that some of its Fortnite and Epic Store plans had failed to deliver. The company announced that many Fortnite modes it had shipped would be shut down. Bloomberg says many employees who were laid off were working on yet-to-be-announced games. Some at Epic working on the massive Disney collaboration and its projects told the outlet that they were worried they would be forced to stick to an “unrealistic schedule.”
Current and former staff also said that Epic has a tendency to rush projects out the door before they are ready. Fortnite‘s Counter-Strike-like mode, Ballistic, was cited as an example of something that could have been successful if Epic had given it more time and resources. Instead, the game mode is shutting down next week.
