Disney is (re)entering its video game era
Marketplace All-in-One
Marketplace
4.5 • 1.4K Ratings
🗓️ 8 February 2024
⏱️ 7 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Disney announced it will take a $1.5 billion stake in Epic Games — the creator of popular game platform Fortnite — in an effort to diversify while its linear media struggles. The partnership means we can expect Epic-created games featuring Disney characters in the not-too-distant future. Plus, Federal Reserve higher-ups signal they will take their time on rate cuts and U.S. imports of Chinese goods fell last year.
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | The Walt Disney Company realizes video games are big after all. |
| 0:06.0 | I'm David Brancaccio. There's news Disney is partnering with Epic Games. |
| 0:10.0 | That's the creator of the popular Fort Knight video game. |
| 0:13.0 | Disney is taking a one and a half billion dollar stake in the company |
| 0:16.3 | in an effort to diversify and grow at a time when its traditional businesses think |
| 0:21.1 | linear television, old school, and films have been struggling. |
| 0:24.7 | Marketplace's Nova Safo is here with more. |
| 0:27.0 | Well, David, what you can expect in the not-too-distant future is video games made by |
| 0:31.3 | Epic featuring characters and stories from |
| 0:33.7 | Disney's various franchises including Marvel Superhero's Star Wars and |
| 0:37.6 | Avatar. Now this has the markings of Disney's deal more than 20 years ago |
| 0:41.2 | with Pixar. Disney signed up Pixar to make a bunch of animated movies and then |
| 0:45.5 | when Bob Eager was CEO, Disney bought Pixar. Now there are also a lot of differences between then and now, |
| 0:50.8 | but you can see where Eiger is dusting off of previous play. |
| 0:55.0 | And Disney shut down its own video game division back in 2016. |
| 1:00.0 | What's the attraction to that business now? |
| 1:03.0 | Well, I think you know the answer as well as I do. |
| 1:06.0 | We've been reporting video games are a big growth area, |
| 1:08.0 | and Disney's looking around for growth. |
| 1:10.0 | In film and TV business has been flagging and its one-time |
| 1:13.6 | cash cow ESPN is struggling too. And here's another element of the |
| 1:17.3 | timing. The quarterly results that Disney just put out yesterday, which |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Marketplace, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of Marketplace and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.