It’s no secret that Fortnite is the new hotness. Though the game is still in its infancy, it has become a pop culture phenomenon. In time, it’s not hard to see Fortnite praised in the same sentence as Star Wars and Harry Potter. Not only is it breaking down barriers in the video game world, it’s taking over everywhere you look. Though it appears this happened over night, it was no accident. Fortnite is another feather in the Epic Games cap and anyone that’s paying attention shouldn’t be surprised.
Epic Games’ key to success has always been their ability to adapt and evolve to current gaming trends rather than stick to the same tried and true recipe over and over again. Think of them as the anti-Bethesda. Love them or hate them, Bethesda has been taking the same formula and rotating between The Elder Scrolls and Fallout for generations. While this works, and sells, it also keeps them from evolving and creating something as game changing as Fortnite has become. Keep in mind, it works for Bethesda and other studios. This is not to say they are doing anything wrong, they just choose to stay with what they know works rather than try and create anything new.
In the late 90’s Epic owned the FPS landscape. With Unreal Tournament they created not only a game that could compete in the Quake game space, but they found a way to surpass it. During the early days of online console gaming Epic was able to bring a normally PC centric experience to consoles on the Dreamcast using nothing more than dial up internet. I remember having a phone line running from my dining room all the way through the kitchen and finally connecting to my Dreamcast in the living room. I did all this just so that I could play Unreal Tournament online. Epic ruled the FPS genre until they didn’t. Instead of just rehashing the same thing repeatedly to lower and lower sales numbers they chose to do something else instead – evolve.
Out of the ashes of Unreal Tournament came a little game known as Gears of War. With new found console competition in Halo and other FPS’s Epic went back to the drawing board and created yet another pop culture phenom with the Gears series. With added brutality and a single player campaign, Epic now was Microsoft’s Yang to Halo’s Ying. With these two franchises Microsoft now had control of the first and third person shooter market and it was all because Epic chose to think outside the box and create a new experience rather than rehash old ideas.
In time, like most things, Gears began to feel a little stale. Like any big franchise, what Epic and Gears needed was a clean break so that both could continue doing great things. With a new studio, The Coalition – set to take over Gears of War, Epic was now free to begin reinventing the wheel once again. After multiple attempts at finding their next hit with failed attempts at Bulletstorm and Paragon, Fortnite was announced.
Originally expected to be just a team-based shooter survival game where squads fought of hoards of zombies, it soon became so much more.
With the success of Player Unknown’s Battlegrounds, Epic decided to add their own take on Battle Royale and released it free of charge. With a brilliant marketing team behind them Epic already had an advantage being free to play and, in no time, they not only were able to compete with PUBG they were able to beat them at their own game.
Fortnite has gone on to be one of the biggest success stories of the 21st century and I’m sure almost anyone that reads this has at least tried a round or two – and if you haven’t shame on you, it’s completely free!
While Epic is riding high with Fortnite we know that eventually things will die down and there will be a new hotness out there. When that time comes, we can’t wait to see what kind of goodies Epic Games is cooking up for us because no matter what it is you can guarantee it will be just what we want.
