Disney's Fortnite Project Reportedly Reaches A Major Milestone

Disney's big Fortnite project was announced one year ago this month. Nothing has come of this as of yet, but the Disney project in Fortnite has now seemingly crossed a significant milestone.

Noted Fortnite insider HYPEX said on social media that the Disney collaboration with Fortnite has advanced to the "stable" build/branch of development. This is a notable update, as it likely means the developers have made significant progress as production enters the next stage.

Exactly what the Disney/Fortnite collaboration actually is, however, remains a mystery, nor do we know when it may be released. Disney has invested more than $1.5 billion into Epic Games to help create the new content, whatever it might be.

Disney boss Josh D'Amaro said Disney is planning to work with Epic to create "a place where you can play games, a place where you can be social, [and] a place where users can generate their own content." Essentially, D'Amaro said Disney's aim to create an entire "universe" where "all our stories can come to life."

"They can come to life in different forms, [like] games. They can come to life in ways that you can just interact with and play with the franchise in a way that's meaningful to you--a place where you can actually build," he said. "And we think that this is going to be a place where all fans can come and interact 365 days a year."

Characters and content from Disney's Pixar, Marvel, Star Wars, and Avatar brands, among others, will be represented in Fortnite. Disney and Epic have yet to officially unveil any specific projects in Fortnite tied to Disney, but many are hoping to see some kind of "virtual Disney World."

Fortnite is more of a platform than a single game. In addition to the main battle royale game, Fortnite hosts games like Rocket Racing, Fortnite Festival, and Lego Fortnite, along with countless other user-created games and experiences on the platform. Whatever Epic and Disney might be cooking up could be just the latest game to exist on the Fortnite platform.

While this new Disney/Fortnite collaboration hasn't materialized yet, the two companies have worked together before on a range of content, including, most recently, Pixar characters and Disney villains being added to the playable roster. Before that, there was all manner of Star Wars content.

Disney no longer develops big games in-house, as its own Disney Interactive Studios shut down years ago. These days, Disney works with outside teams as part of licensing arrangements. Not all of the games are successful, though, as Ubisoft's Star Wars Outlaws failed to sell up to expectations. One of Disney's latest major games was Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, which was developed by MachineGames in partnership with Lucasfilm. The game recently hit 4 million players ahead of its release on PS5.