Disney has put $1.5 billion to keep the metaverse dream up and running. The announcement has kept the word ‘metaverse’ out but the money is going to Epic Games, whose CEO, Tim Sweeney, has always been eager to build a metaverse or a 3D world that can be an extension of how we use the Internet.

Will it help Disney? The company is partnering with its competitors, hoping to find a destination where viewers can watch everything they want.

“This marks Disney’s biggest entry ever into the world of games and offers significant opportunities for growth and expansion,” Disney CEO Bob Iger said of the partnership.

Epic Games is famous for creating Fortnite, a multiplayer game that is now a global phenomenon. Further, Sweeney’s company is also behind Unreal Engine, a suite of tools to help build 3D worlds used video games, as well as some Disney projects such as Star Wars films and TV shows.

The other proponent of the metaverse is, of course, Mark Zuckerberg, who now calls his company Meta Platforms. Zuckerberg’s metaverse messaging is about work at home, meetings and gaming. Somehow, metaverse as a concept hasn’t caught on because people don’t enjoy strapping heavy equipment to their faces.

On the other hand, Apple has gone ahead and released Vision Pro, which is a “spatial computer”. Its prospects appear more successful as it involves a mix of reality and virtual world. Further, Disney is also keen on the Apple product and wants its movie catalogue to be an integral part of the experience.

So what remains to be seen is how the Disney-Epic partnership evolves. Epic has made Fortnite more of a place than a game; there are now virtual concerts, art galleries, hangout zones and much more. Will that hook be enough to lure more gamers?