After testing the waters with a handful of Disney, Marvel, and Star Wars characters so far, Disney and Fortnite have announced an epic crossover that will introduce a whole new universe for the House of Mickey’s characters within the popular battle royale shooter.

But, there’s a bit of a catch. It seems that Disney isn’t happy with certain characters holding guns. On the one hand, that does make sense. Disney’s audience skews quite young, and it’s reasonable that the company doesn’t want to upset the fanbase by, say, having Elsa firing a rocket launcher.

On the other hand… this is Fortnite. Sure, it’s now a whole metaverse of gaming experiences but, at its core, it’s a shooter. If you’re going to charge the players to purchase outfits, is it fair to dictate how they use them?

This Could Set a Dangerous Precedent For Fortnite and Disney

Then there are wider concerns. Does this set a dangerous precedent for Fortnite as a competitive shooter moving forward? Disney is a pretty huge partner with enormous sway, and it is reasonable to feel concern that it could start dictating the future of Fortnite.

But it is a little too early to feel concern. We don’t know what this shared universe will look like yet, and it could end up being its own game-within-a-game. It could end up playing like Disney Dreamlight Valley within Fortnite. After all, we’ve already got Fortnite’s equivalent of a racing game and a LEGO builder.

As long as Fortnite makes it abundantly clear about which game modes you can use certain skins in before it charges you with them, we can’t envision too many issues at this point.

What Are Disney and Epic Games Working On?

Back in February, Disney announced that it had acquired an equity stake in Epic Games as part of a “multiyear project” to bring Disney IP into “new games” as well as Fortnite.

While it isn’t clear exactly what this will look like for Fortnite, Disney did make this comment:

“The new persistent universe (in Fortnite) 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.

Players, gamers and fans will be able to create their own stories and experiences, express their fandom in a distinctly Disney way, and share content with each other in ways that they love.

In short, it really does just sound like how Fortnite functions right now. You can already watch movies, attend concerts, and participate in full-blown stories within the game. It sounds like we’re just going to get all of that with a Disney flavour moving forward.

Source: Esports Illustrated, The Verge, The Walt Disney Company

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