Disney Reportedly Eyeing Full Acquisition of Epic Games and Fortnite

There's a rumour floating around that's going to have a few people raising their eyebrows. According to tech reporter Alex Heath, senior executives at Disney have been actively discussing the idea of buying out Epic Games outright. Not just a deeper investment. A full acquisition.

Heath, who previously served as deputy editor at The Verge and now co-hosts the tech podcast ACCESS, made the claim while appearing on The Town with Matt Belloni. "I know for a fact there are senior executives in Disney who want them to buy Epic and are just waiting for that moment" he said, before adding that opinion inside the company is split: "and there's others who think it's a bad idea. If Epic ever sold, if it ever decided to call it quits on being an independent company, Disney would be the most natural home for it for a lot of reasons."

That's a pretty striking statement from someone with Heath's track record.

This Isn't Coming Out of Nowhere

Back in February 2024, Disney announced a $1.5 billion investment to acquire an equity stake in Epic Games, with plans to build a new persistent "games and entertainment universe" connected to Fortnite. So the groundwork for a closer relationship has been laid for a while now.

And it goes further than Fortnite. Beyond Fortnite, acquiring Epic would also hand Disney the keys to Unreal Engine, a production tool now embedded in major Hollywood productions including The Mandalorian. The entertainment angle extends well past gaming. Unreal Engine has also powered Disney theme park rides and Star Wars film productions for years, so the technical ties run deep.

Former Disney executive Kevin Mayer also recently weighed in, stating that "Epic or some other video game asset would be a great addition to The Walt Disney Company's asset base." Disney CEO Josh D'Amaro, a self-described gaming advocate, has already floated ideas like premiering Disney films inside Fortnite.

So you've got a sitting CEO who wants it, a former executive championing it publicly, and an existing $1.5 billion stake already on the books. Hard to say the groundwork isn't there.

The Obstacle: Tim Sweeney

The sticking point, and it's a big one, is Epic's founder. A buyout would require Tim Sweeney to "call it quits on being an independent company," which appears unlikely. Sweeney has built Epic around a fiercely independent vision, from his years-long legal battles with Apple and Google over app store fees to his open ambitions for Unreal Engine as an industry-wide platform. Handing that over to a media giant isn't exactly in keeping with that philosophy.

Whether financial pressure eventually changes his mind is another matter entirely.

Epic's Timing Couldn't Be More Interesting

It's worth noting what's been happening at Epic lately. Epic Games laid off 1,000 workers and plans to cut hundreds of millions of dollars in additional costs as it grapples with a downturn in sales. The primary driver behind the cuts is a noticeable downturn in Fortnite engagement that began in 2025. Player time spent in the game has declined, with average monthly hours on PlayStation dropping from 21 in February 2025 to 16 in February 2026, with similar trends on Xbox.

In his memo to staff, Sweeney was candid: "The downturn in Fortnite engagement that started in 2025 means we're spending significantly more than we're making, and we have to make major cuts to keep the company funded."

The executives who think the acquisition "is a bad idea" may have taken a look at that claim about Fortnite's downturn in engagement. Fortnite is considered the crown jewel of the Epic library. Buying a company whose flagship product is losing steam isn't an obvious win, and that's likely part of the internal disagreement Heath is describing.

That said, proponents of the deal within Disney argue that owning Epic would give the company direct control over the Unreal Engine, which is already the backbone of Disney's film production and theme park attractions. That's not a trivial argument.

What a Full Buyout Would Actually Mean

For players, the implications are hard to fully map out. Fortnite's Disney collaborations, Star Wars, The Incredibles, Disney Villains and others, have already shown the appetite for crossover content. But bringing both companies under one roof could accelerate that dramatically, with Disney's entire IP catalogue sitting inside a studio it owns outright.

Then there's Unreal Engine. Used across gaming, television, and film, it's one of the most widely adopted tools in entertainment production. Disney taking ownership of that would be a significant shift in how the industry is structured, and not everyone would greet that warmly.

For now, none of this is confirmed. Heath's comments are based on what he's heard internally, and as he acknowledged himself, there's no consensus at Disney on whether this should happen at all. But the fact that it's being discussed at a senior level, with an existing investment already in place and a CEO openly enthusiastic about gaming, means this one is worth watching.