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[Men_in_Boxes]

Everyone knows the story of Fortnite Battle Royale. Epic was making some weird tower defense game that no one liked, they quickly pivoted to Battle Royale and the rest is history.

A couple of years ago Epic added a creative mode where players could create mini games and the wider public could search for and play...ala Roblox. Epic created a Fortnite version of Roblox in the F2P client.

In a few days, its been leaked than Epic is ready to reveal their third pillar. They've created a Minecraft Survival mode with Lego branding.

Epic Games created a PUBG competitor, a Roblox competitor, and a Minecraft competitor within Fortnite.

That's f***ing crazy. The scary part is that Fortnite is more popular today than its ever been. The game is still growing.

Epic Games is Borging the industry. They're eyeing up the most successful games in the business and saying "I bet our developers, with our engine expertise, with time, can eat away and surpass the industries leaders."

I have to say, it's a smart f***ing strategy, even if it is a little monstrous.

 

[Crayon]

I played exactly one game of fortnite to at least see it myself. I had to at see it first hand because ive been so impressed with the development. Having a bunch of money is not enough to keep up with what they do.

 

[drotahorror]

Mmm sure?

 

[brian0057]

 

[Hugare]

To me that only shows that they are creative bankrupt, but they have so much money that they can keep following trends to see if something else sticks besides BR

Battle Royale clearly was a huge success, and I give them props for making it as big as it is today. They made all the right choices, and they keep updating it to this day.

But these other new modes ... they are nowhere near as successful as Battle Royale. And I dont believe they'll be, even in the future.

They want to turn Fortnite into a platform, but I dont see that working for them. People go there to play Battle Royale, that"s the game's identity. If you try stretching it too thin, people that play it today wont recognize the game anymore and will eventualy abandon it.

I'm no Nostradamus, and I would never have guessed that the game would become this big back then, so I can be completely wrong about this, but this is my 2 cents.

 

[Men_in_Boxes]

To me that only shows that they are creative bankrupt, but they have so much money that they can keep following trends to see if something else sticks besides BR

No games today don't fall within a trend. You might not like the Roblox or Minecraft trend, but they're just as valid as the Sad Dad Walking Sim and Open World Action RPG trends.

But these other new modes ... they are nowhere near as successful as Battle Royale. And I dont believe they'll be, even in the future.

That's the old way of thinking. All Epic cares about is year over year return.

For example, if Fortnite Creative mode only has 3% of the players that Roblox has in 2023, their goal is 4% for 2024. Again, they're betting on their developers being more talented than the Roblox developers. They're betting on Unreal Engine 5 being better than whatever engine Roblox is running on.

If you haven't played Roblox, I can tell you, that's an incredibly smart bet.

They want to turn Fortnite into a platform, but I dont see that working for them. People go there to play Battle Royale, that"s the game's identity. If you try stretching it too thin, people that play it today wont recognize the game anymore and will eventualy abandon it.

Games have already become the platform. Your 10 years too late.

 

[Reizo Ryuu]

 

[Ribi]

what the fact that the game was in beta even after it switched to BR and made billions? Remember that when people say never buy early access games and yet Fortnite can make billions in essentially early access.

 

[Bridges]

I am morbidly curious about the new "Rock Band" mode Harmonix is apparently making for it

But I hate that my favorite game franchise has been purchased and relegated to a sideshow in a "met averse"

Might also be worth remembering that Fortnite had (has?) an Among Us mode as well. They really do just clone everything.

 

[diffusionx]

It's also fascinating that, by their own admission, they evolved Fortnite into an operation that costs more than it brings in and that required them to lay off almost 20% of their employees.

 

[Kilau]

Minecraft style game with LEGO branding would be huge. I love Minecraft but would like a more advanced engine and physics simulation, maybe this could do it.

 

[diffusionx]

For example, if Fortnite Creative mode only has 3% of the players that Roblox has in 2023, their goal is 4% for 2024. Again, they're betting on their developers being more talented than the Roblox developers. They're betting on Unreal Engine 5 being better than whatever engine Roblox is running on.

If you haven't played Roblox, I can tell you, that's an incredibly smart bet.

It likely is better, but the truth is that nobody cares, just like nobody cared about developers getting 88% on EGS. Nobody is going to stop playing Roblox because Unreal Engine 5 is a better engine, nobody. Epic is still making the mistake of thinking that developers decide what happens and how these markets go, when in reality it is the players as always.

 

[Pakoe]

Im sure kids will go wild for this shit

 

[ChuckeRearmed]

I don't see other modes being successful - good luck to Epic trying to attract children from Roblox or Minecraft. It is something similar to MMOs basically - people rarely switch or abandon games that they have been playing for years. The success in BR was mainly due to PUBG and Fortnite being one of the first and Fortnite was available everywhere (with more stylish graphics).

 

[Red5]

Fortnite is the Justin Bieber and Taylor Swift of video games. I appreciate that it has its own audience, to each his own, but no matter how much I try it's just not for me. Gimme Baldur's Gate, Deus Ex and MechWarrior anytime of the day.

 

[Ceadeus]

There are still people playing its tower defense mode daily and yes the mode is liked. People should definitely hear more about save the world.

It's a very competent and complete game on its own with tons of loot, blueprints, places to explore and things to collect. The founders have, since the beginning, a daily quest to complete to get up to 80 vbuck per day free.

 

[Men_in_Boxes]

It likely is better, but the truth is that nobody cares, just like nobody cared about developers getting 88% on EGS. Nobody is going to stop playing Roblox because Unreal Engine 5 is a better engine, nobody. Epic is still making the mistake of thinking that developers decide what happens and how these markets go, when in reality it is the players as always.

Do you know how many people are playing Fortnites Roblox mode today?

 

[NeverYouMind]

Epic was making some weird tower defense game that no one liked, they quickly pivoted to Battle Royale and the rest is history.

If you are referring to Paragon, my brother and his friends played that game all the time and they barely play Fortnite. They were completely bummed when it was shutdown and its servers were repurposed for Fortnite. I am personally curious when this Game as a Service model will crash and burn? The sooner, the better I imagine.

 

[diffusionx]

Do you know how many people are playing Fortnites Roblox mode today?

Based on the layoffs and messaging coming from the company, not enough.

 

[AV]

I don't think the strategy of "just copy the competition" is interesting in any way, no. Good business? Absolutely. Until they tried to copy Steam by burning money in a furnace.

 

[diffusionx]

I don't think the strategy of "just copy the competition" is interesting in any way, no. Good business? Absolutely. Until they tried to copy Steam by burning money in a furnace.

I'm not convinced it's good business, as you point out. Tim Sweeney is a great engineer but he seems to lack the business acumen of people leading other gaming firms, even similar sized ones like Valve.

 

[Ulysses 31]

what the fact that the game was in beta even after it switched to BR and made billions? Remember that when people say never buy early access games and yet Fortnite can make billions in essentially early access.

Also remember how many games fail for every game like Fortnite that succeeds.

 

[PectacularOz]

Hate that I STILL cant find non crossplay games, because it's on by default.

 

[Krappadizzle]

I don't like Epic's business dealing/strategy when they try and paint it as "for the developers" kind of thing with their Epic Game Store.

But I will say that having watched them over the years, and especially in the 360-era, they really evolved and pushed their tech so well that it's hard not to be impressed with the juggernaut they've become even if they are just as slimy as any other major Publisher/Developer.

They've leveraged their tech so well and evolved their tools so much that it's hard to not consider them when it comes to making games/movies/etc. It's impressive stuff.

 

[ManaByte]

I never got into Minecraft because it was basically LEGO without the LEGO. This I want to play.

 

[chlorate]

I had a ton of fun playing Fortnite: BR duo queue in 2018. The game had a huge skill cap with the building and weapons like the sniper rifle’s projectile having a lot of travel time.

I’m not sure what it is now.