The Walt Disney Co. and Epic Games are debuting an unprecedented new effort that will connect one of Disney’s real-life theme park rides with a bespoke adventure in Fortnite.
The company’s on Saturday unveiled Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run | Fortnite, which will enable visitors to the Smuggler’s Run attraction at Disney’s theme parks in Orlando and Anaheim to accept a special mission while in the queue for the ride, and if they succeed, they will get a unique Forsworn Trooper Outfit in a newly-created Fortnite adventure called Smugglers Gambit set in that same universe.
“Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run | Fortnite marks the first time this attraction has reached beyond its physical walls into a connected game world — a story that starts in a queue in Orlando or Anaheim can now continue on a screen almost anywhere,” said Sean Shoptaw, executive vp of Disney Games and Digital Entertainment. “Smugglers Gambit, built in-house by an incredibly talented team, is an immersive, high-quality game, and together these experiences reflect our ambition to connect stories and worlds across formats into one converged entertainment ecosystem.”
Millennium Falcon: Smuggler’s Run is one of two flagship rides within the Galaxy’s Edge Star Wars lands at Disneyland and Walt Disney World, with visitors working together to pilot Han Salo’s famous spacecraft. The cockpit technology in the ride was actually created using Epic’s Unreal Engine, which allows for many assets from the ride to appear in Smugglers Gambit.
“Building on Epic’s technology, Disney’s Imagineers are shaping the future of interactive entertainment, where an experience goes from the physical world into Fortnite,” said Adam Sussman, president of Epic Games. “Whether you’re at a Disney Park or playing Fortnite with your friends, fans have new ways to keep their Star Wars adventures going. This is only the beginning of what’s possible when world-class storytellers bring their creativity into Fortnite.”
Disney, of course, is an investor in Epic Games, and the two companies have been at work building a new world that will connect to Fortnite with all of the Disney’s beloved characters. Until now, however, that collaboration has taken the form of special seasons and minigames associated with Fortnite, featuring characters from Star Wars, Marvel, The Simpsons, or other IP.
This new collaboration, however, extends to the real world for the first time, bringing some video game magic to Disney’s parks, and some of that theme park magic to the video game.
