Fortnite's new Star Wars island, Smuggler's Gambit, went live this weekend, and it ships with a genuine first: ride Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run at Galaxy's Edge (Disneyland or Walt Disney World) with your Epic and MyDisney accounts linked, and your ride score converts into credits inside the Fortnite island, plus an exclusive skin, reported as the Forsworn Trooper outfit.
Why it matters
The Disney-Epic partnership has been mostly press-release material since the $1.5B investment; this is the first shipped thing that actually welds a theme-park attraction to a live game. Whether that excites or exhausts you, it worked on the right game: Smugglers Run has always been a score-chasing ride in search of a reason to care about the score.
The island itself is a fair pitch too: co-op PvE smuggling on the planet Ord Ryla, hub aboard a grounded ship called the Scuttled Sparrow, all run by Hondo Ohnaka, with Jim Cummings back on the voice. No park visit required to play; the linked reward is a bonus, not a gate.
The details
- Live as of August 16, playable free inside Fortnite. Announcement via the Disney Parks Blog and Epic.
- Part of Epic's stated push for "more Star Wars games in Fortnite than ever before."
- Looking ahead: Gamescom Opening Night Live is Tuesday, August 25 (2 p.m. ET), with Zero Company's launch trailer and a final Galactic Racer presentation both confirmed for the show. Big week incoming.
What to do with this: if you're a Fortnite household with a park trip booked, link the accounts before you ride; the conversion doesn't apply retroactively. Everyone else: it's a free island with Hondo in it, which is its own recommendation.
More as it develops. The games catalog has the full picture.