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Disney to take $1.5B stake in Epic Games

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Re: Disney to take $1.5B stake in Epic Games

#371

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've played fortnite on an off since there were seasons. I have no idea what the storyline is, there are some cut scenes when there is a new season but it make no sense. Claiming there is a storyline is a stretch, I think it is just cover for changing up the map/gear to keep it fresh.

I'll agree. My partner plays and I play a little. There seems to be a story but it matters little and doesn't seem to make sense (i guess the plot points that change the map matter)

There is definitely a storyline going on if follow the cutscenes and pay attention to the map. Ever in the earliest seasons they were doing map-based story telling. For example, trucks showed up and started moving shards to one of the towns on the coast. Random updates would move the trucks. Many plot elements develop this way over time.

The core plot is asking "Why are we stuck in this loop?" It does get convoluted, but it's there.

Various agencies are involved, the Zero Point (which causes the looping behavior) has manifested as many things over the seasons. Aliens and inter dimensional being seek after it.

Maybe you had to be there, but the first batch of seasons and even chapter 2 had many online theorizing and trying to guess what's next.

It's like a digital Lost.

Re: Disney to take $1.5B stake in Epic Games

#372
Not a follower of Disney. I dont care for their products or efforts on Star Wars etc.

The first thing I could think of as to why is because they use Unreal Engine for their CGI background and effects in TV shows and (perhaps as well) movies.

I do remember seeing BTS of one of their TV shows (likely Star Wars) with giant TV's all round the set which creates backdrops, all in Unreal.

I will admit it is impressive but I noticed camera shots are looking limited. Start of something grander, I guess.

Re: Disney to take $1.5B stake in Epic Games

#373
post #371

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'll agree. My partner plays and I play a little. There seems to be a story but it matters little and doesn't seem to make sense (i guess the plot points that change the map matter)

There is definitely a storyline going on if follow the cutscenes and pay attention to the map. Ever in the earliest seasons they were doing map-based story telling. For example, trucks showed up and started moving shards to one of the towns on the coast. Random updates would move the trucks. Many plot elements develop this way over time. The core plot is asking "Why are we stuck in this loop?" It does get convoluted,…

> "Why are we stuck in this loop?"

Its because its fun to shoot things in video games, and wreck cars, and building forts and demolishing entire buildings and trying to keep up with my kids.

Why are spiderman, darth vader and predator there? Money. There's no coherent story telling, which is fine, the game is still fun. People play it for the fun factor, not the story.

Re: Disney to take $1.5B stake in Epic Games

#374

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Tangled (Repunzel), Moana (uses and remixes actual Polynesian myths), Frozen (based on the snow queen), Peter Pan, Little Mermaid - a stack of recent Disney movies have been based on existing IP. You just don't notice because they culturally steamroll the originals. The most recent movie Wish - is just callbacks to other Disney movies, so does it count as original IP? And this excludes their reboots - but also exclud…

As far as Frozen goes, at least they got something new to replace the Norway exhibit at Epcot, because it got so old and stale, that Norway disowned it, and refused to pay for the renewal

I was a little upset, I had no idea it had anything there till after they replaced it, after years of going there...

Edit:

Apparently the pavillion was only partially funded by the Norwegian government. Your comment made me curious.

https://www.disneyfoodblog.com/2021/08/13/who-actually-owns-...

Re: Disney to take $1.5B stake in Epic Games

#375

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, Disney uses Unreal for their rendered real-time sets. This is about more than just Fortnite.

This. Virtual Set Production is almost entirely Unreal engine. Fortnite is just a marketing platform. The real meat is the digital production pipeline that made Mando cool. That enabled Star Trek’s recent series’, and provides a “holodeck” for their just unveiled holo-floor.

AFAIK Unreal was only used in the first season of the Mandalorian several years ago. Disney switched to using ILM's Stagecraft software, which is what they use for their films as well.

Re: Disney to take $1.5B stake in Epic Games

#376

Earlier quoted context omitted.

By what metric was Star Wars not a hit movie

By comparison to the previous two trilogies, and by performance of offshoots resulting in cancellations. It was supposed to kick off a Marvell-style universe of infinite blockbusters. It didn’t.

The number of hit movies is vanishingly small by those goalposts.

Re: Disney to take $1.5B stake in Epic Games

#377
post #375

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This. Virtual Set Production is almost entirely Unreal engine. Fortnite is just a marketing platform. The real meat is the digital production pipeline that made Mando cool. That enabled Star Trek’s recent series’, and provides a “holodeck” for their just unveiled holo-floor.

AFAIK Unreal was only used in the first season of the Mandalorian several years ago. Disney switched to using ILM's Stagecraft software, which is what they use for their films as well.

which is Unreal Engine + ILM stuff... they call StageCraft.

Re: Disney to take $1.5B stake in Epic Games

#379
post #154

Earlier quoted context omitted.

At risk? They haven’t had hit movie for years. They have destroyed just about everything they’ve touched, from Indiana Jones to Star Wars to Snow White.

Frozen is one of the newest entries out of any media franchise to gross more than $10B — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_highest-grossing_media... . More than Fortnite has grossed. Not too shabby.

Money is not a measure of quality.

Re: Disney to take $1.5B stake in Epic Games

#380
post #78

Epic games has the potential to be the virtual Disney World - just available to everyone on the planet instead of those with enough money to visit a park IRL. Disney has a great flywheel where their IP drives content, toys, and experiences. This is just the latest experience, and it’s something they can’t build themselves. I bet you can expect more content on fortnite to be with Disney IP; skins, events, maps, everyt…

> Epic games has the potential to be the virtual Disney World This is what everyone said about Lego, and a bunch of other collabs that came before. It was never true and it's not true now. Turns out people don't want a "virtual world", they want a fun game.

Some of the most annoying cash grabs I've seen were the ingame music festivals attempted by several video games in 2019-2021.

It turns out that when you can't even get audio synced up so that everyone is hearing the same music, the vast majority of the artists bail or drop a pre-recorded set because they weren't informed how a hypothetical live playback mechanism would work, and you don't even have the rights to the game it's based on... you don't have a polished experience, you have a metaverse scam.

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