This announcement came sooner than I'd have guessed -- though last December, I did predict that in 2024, a leading metaverse platform would be acquired. Well, Disney now owns 10% of one at least:
The Walt Disney Company and Epic Games will collaborate on an all-new games and entertainment universe that will further expand the reach of beloved Disney stories and experiences. Disney will also invest $1.5 billion to acquire an equity stake in Epic Games alongside the multiyear project.
In addition to being a world-class games experience and interoperating with Fortnite, the new persistent universe will offer a multitude of opportunities for consumers to play, watch, shop and engage with content, characters and stories from Disney, Pixar, Marvel, Star Wars, Avatar and more.
“Disney was one of the first companies to believe in the potential of bringing their worlds together with ours in Fortnite, and they use Unreal Engine across their portfolio,” said Tim Sweeney, CEO and Founder, Epic Games. “Now we’re collaborating on something entirely new to build a persistent, open and interoperable ecosystem that will bring together the Disney and Fortnite communities.”
Interoperable emphases mine, because that strongly suggests Fortnite's existing 100 million+ players will be able to leap pretty seamlessly into this new Disney/Epic universe. This is on top of Epic's recently announced partnerships with LEGO, Rocket League, and Rockband creator Harmonix.
Part of me reads this news and worries about how this might crimp the Metaverse's quirky, indie, grassroots spirit across various platforms. For instance, now that Disney is getting directly involved in the metaverse platform business, any user-created fan tributes of Disney's massive IP library may soon get the knife.
But more of me is excited by what's effectively a mass market on-ramp for the Metaverse:
While Roblox and Fortnite are huge, their userbase is overwhelmingly comprised of young, dedicated immersive 3D gamers. A Disney-branded universe built on top of Fortnite is broadly appealing beyond them, and will hook in the much larger segment of people who are more casual gamers, but dedicated fans of Disney's vast IP/content library.
My real hope is that this leads to a much broader user base to support quirky, indie, grassroots creators already working on the Fortnite platform. Fortunately, upwards of 5000 of them are already making some kind of revenue from Fortnite Creative -- with 500 of them earning six to seven figures in revenue!
Please support posts like these by buying Making a Metaverse That Matters!
I could imagine that this is a sign that Disney took notice of the growth of metaverse apps with user-generate content and decided to create a legal way for creators to use Disney's IP - before going more aggressively after illegal violations of their IP in user-generated content in Fortnite Creative and other metaverse apps.
Similarly, the agreement between the National Music Publishers' Association and Roblox created a legal way to use NMPA's members' IP in user-generated content in Roblox in order to stop violations of their IP:
https://corporate.roblox.com/2021/09/nmpa-roblox-strike-industry-wide-agreement/
Nintendo apparently has also taken notice of IP violations in user-generated content in Rec Room recently and started to take action: https://www.reddit.com/r/RecRoom/comments/1agns18/nintendo_dmca_all_pok%C3%A9mon_rooms/
Maybe all this just means that some metaverse apps with user-generated content have grown so large that IP holders are no longer willing to tolerate violations of their IP in those metaverse apps. That's probably a good sign for the growth of metaverse apps. But it also might mean that the wild-west days of user-generated content in the most successful metaverse apps are coming to an end.
Posted by: Martin K. | Thursday, February 08, 2024 at 04:16 PM