Epic Is Making a Disney Extraction Shooter and the $1.5B Partnership Sounds Rocky
Bloomberg dropped a report today that Epic is building a Disney-themed extraction shooter. Think Arc Raiders but with Disney characters. They're targeting November. And apparently Disney isn't happy with how things are going.
This is part of a $1.5 billion deal Epic and Disney signed in 2024. That deal includes three games total. The extraction shooter is one of them.
What the Game Actually Is
Disney characters team up, fight enemies, reach an extraction point. Standard extraction shooter loop. No title, no screenshots, nothing visual. Just the Bloomberg report and a November target date.
Resources from the third Disney game got shuffled over to support this one and the second project. That could mean the extraction shooter needs more help than expected. Or the third game never had a real direction. Disney reportedly expressed disappointment about the overall progress to Epic. Not a great sign for a partnership that cost a billion and a half dollars.
The Timing Is Awkward
Epic laid off over 1,000 people last month. This week they're shutting down Ballistic, their Counter-Strike-like Fortnite mode, along with other Fortnite modes. And now a major partner is reportedly disappointed in their development progress.
That's a rough stretch for Tim Sweeney and company. Cutting modes, cutting staff, and apparently struggling to keep Disney satisfied simultaneously.
One possibility is that consolidating resources onto the extraction shooter is actually the smart call. Arc Raiders is generating real interest right now. If Epic can ship a polished extraction game with Disney IP before the genre gets crowded, there's an audience there. Moving away from a third undefined project to focus on something with momentum makes sense on paper.
November Is a Real Stretch
Seven months to launch an extraction shooter with live service expectations and Disney IP licensing requirements. Either this game is significantly further along than it sounds, or November is going to slip.
Extraction shooters need content at launch. Hunt: Showdown, Tarkov, Arc Raiders. The genre punishes thin launches hard. Players bounce off immediately and don't come back.
The IP question is what I keep coming back to. Disney has enormous range. TRON, the villain side of the catalog, the more atmospheric stuff. A darker Disney extraction shooter with real tension could be genuinely interesting. But "accessible and family-friendly extraction shooter" is kind of a contradiction. The genre selects for a specific player who wants high stakes and punishing loss. Softening that for Disney's brand is a real design problem.
Nothing to Play Yet
No gameplay. No title. Just the report. Epic's global comms director is Liz Markman if you want to ask them directly.
Worth watching when something actually surfaces. Which Disney properties they pull from will tell you everything about whether this is interesting.
Source: Kotaku