A report about Fortnite’s lucrative “Disney Mode” was published this week by The Wall Street Journal, claiming frustration from Epic Games staff with Disney. Tim Sweeney has now debunked that claim.
This week, a report was published by the Wall Street Journal claiming that the slow progress on the upcoming Disney Mode in Fortnite was due to a problem on Disney’s end (from an anonymous source), and now Epic Games’ Boss, Tim Sweeney, has come out and publicly slammed that claim.
The original report said the new Disney Mode would not launch until “fall 2026 at the earliest,” with some Epic executives expressing frustration about the collaboration. One anonymous source said “the slow pace of the decision-making at Disney, with signoffs needed from so many different divisions,” was likely the driving factor behind the delays.
This is where Tim Sweeney comes in. Today, he publicly disparaged the remarks on his X account, calling them “BS.” In response to a known Fortnite collaborator who shared The Wall Street Journal’s findings, Sweeney said, “The speed of Disney and Epic collaborations like Darth Vader has been awesome and is around 10 times the ordinary speed of media company dealings in this business,” adding that he had provided a statement to the reporter who published the story, but they “chose not to” use it.
It’s worth noting that the Disney and Fortnite collaboration was announced in 2024, when Disney invested $1.5 billion in Epic Games to acquire a stake in the company. The deal effectively paved the way for the new Disney x Fortnite gaming and entertainment experience. Disney Mode is one of the projects referenced in the comments from The Wall Street Journal and Sweeney.
As of this post, the Wall Street Journal has not responded to the comments made by CEO Tim Sweeney, but it’s possible this isn’t the last back-and-forth Sweeney will have regarding Disney Mode.
