Sentinel

Opinion - it's over for Epic Games' Disney project 📝 Less than two weeks after sending Rocket Racing to the grave, it seems like the #Fortnite maker is doomed to repeat itself as it puts the pedal to the metal on using generative AI to will into existence a Disney extraction shooter that nobody really wanted in the first place. It's probably been doomed from the start. Early in 2024, Disney invested $1.5 billion in Epic Games to develop the extraction shooter as part of a suite of projects that would bring Disney's characters and worlds to gamers. However, the circumstances of this investment are suspicious at best. In an investor's call shortly following the investment, Disney CEO Bob Iger described the investment as "a way to have skin in the game with [video games... without] creating too much risk for the company." Instead, of course, Epic Games would carry the risk. Perhaps it was a risk that CEO Tim Sweeney felt Epic Games had to take. After all, Epic had gone through a round of layoffs just a few months earlier, and their company valuation had been in decline as investor interest moved away from video games. And while Fortnite was growing again after the enormous success of Season OG, the misfired launch of games like Rocket Racing had likely raised more than a few alarm bells. A $1.5 billion investment could have been the out that Epic needed to "financially stabilize the business". Fast forward to today, and it's clear that this deal hasn't really worked out for anyone. Epic Games is once again struggling financially, having laid off over 1,000 employees earlier this year. According to prior reports from Bloomberg, the Disney extraction shooter has been delayed repeatedly, and both Epic and Disney have been blindsided by how long it would take to get out the door. Disney is also running into financial troubles, after a string of box office failures and an ongoing struggle to get Disney+ off the ground. It seems unlikely that an extraction shooter would help turn things around for either company, especially considering that other games in the genre - namely Marathon and Arc Raiders - have had their own share of troubles. Not to mention the fact that Epic Games have repeatedly failed to launch new experiences in Fortnite - Rocket Racing, introduced in 2023, was permanently shut down just two weeks ago. Fortnite Festival and LEGO Fortnite, introduced at the same time, have also struggled, not to mention Ballistic, Arenas Boxfights, and the disastrous free-to-play relaunch of Save the World. Fortnite fans are, understandably, completely disillusioned by Epic's push to expand Fortnite beyond Battle Royale. A Disney extraction shooter is unlikely to change that. Following in the footsteps of their fans, Epic Games, too, seems to be giving up on this project. Instead, they have decided to use it as a test bed for what Bloomberg describes as "the first time a major video-game company has attempted to build a title primarily with AI." Tim Sweeney has said that this will make their teams more efficient, but many people on those teams disagree with his vision. Perhaps Tim is actually hoping that this will attract more investments from AI companies. After all, it does seem like there's more money in AI than anything else right now. Despite that, it's hard not to ask if digging Epic Games deeper into this hole - much to the dismay of Fortnite fans and the broader gaming community - is really the right solution, or if it'll just lead to more projects that nobody really wanted in the first place.