There are many video games that Epic has developed throughout its more than thirty years of history, but none has had such an explosive and important success as Fortnite. The video game has managed to overcome the barrier of mere commercial success to transfer lines that have catapulted it to an indisputable popularity among players of all ages. What are your keys?
It is very likely that in May 2017 no one imagined the success that was coming for Epic and Fornite. Undoubtedly, what looked like the ugly duckling of Tencent's company compared to Paragon, has ended up becoming the swan. Paradoxically, today, in May 2018, the game of construction and survival is a real money-making machine and the hero shooter has disappeared from the market. What exactly happened? What are the keys that lead to a production like this, twelve months later, to beat all the imaginable records of the industry thanks to the inclusion of a battle royale mode?
Fortnite manages to invoice more than 200 million dollars a month and is able to overcome a competition that seemed unattainable seven months ago. These are just some of the milestones achieved by Epic in recent times, but in 3DJuegos we wanted to review some of the main milestones that have been given during the presentation of the title, those involved in its development and the chronology of its explosive success since its launch. the scene in the year 2011, its launch and subsequent adoption of battle royale mode.
Who have been the main protagonists of its success? What is the history of the company that developed the success? What milestones have you achieved in your first months of life? We tell you in five simple keys.
The authors: Epic Games
Epic Games is, without a doubt, one of the most important companies in the video game industry. Although it is yours the Unreal Engine, one of the most used engines of today, its history goes back to the early 90's by the hand of Tim Sweeney, its founder. Its first game, ZZT, was developed in 1991 under the seal Potomac Computer System. They would soon change the name to Epic MegaGames, a brand that would accompany the company until 1999 when it changes to the current Epic Games. The early years of Epic are represented by the development and distribution of successful PC games such as Jazz Jackrabbit, Infinity Blade, Extreme Pinball or One Must Fall 2097.
The meritorious Jazz Jackrabbit had among its developers Cliff Bleszinski, a prominent promise of American development that would end up becoming, along with Sweeney or Mark Rein, in the main names of the firm. Unreal, launched in 1998 and co-developed between Epic, Digital Extremes and Legend Entertainment, becomes one of the most important successes of the American company. The shooter, which mixes cutting-edge technology with exquisite playability, takes the user to the planet Na Pali, where he will have to survive the Skaarj threat. The subsequent sequels of the franchise become real hits and embrace subgenres like the sand shooter.
In the middle of the 2000s, Epic signs an exclusivity with Microsoft to develop what will undoubtedly be the most important franchise of the second generation of Redmond consoles: Gears of War. After launching four video games on Xbox 360, Epic will sell the franchise to the creators of Windows for a figure that will be around 100 million dollars.
The presentation of Fortnite: the Game Awards of ... 2011!
The Spike TV Video Game Awards, now renamed The Game Awards, awarded in 2011 The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim and Bethesda Game Studios as best game and study of the year. Among the various novelties announced at the event, which was already a sort of show in which the winners were mixed with different announcements of new productions that would fill the shelves of the stores in years to come, were Rainbow Six Patriots (which would end up becoming Rainbow Six: Siege), Bioshock Infinite, The Last of Us or ... Fortnite.
Although the Epic video game would end up being more profitable than all presented on the site, the reality is that not too many people paid attention to the new creators of Gears of War. Fortnite came to be sold as "the first new generation game." This category, taking into account what was shown, did not help at all. The first clip showed a design far removed from the one known in Gears of War, with a gameplay that implied that it would embrace tower defense software, a genre that was already beginning to tire many players of the early decade. Its developers were not too clear with the development for months and fell into oblivion.
It was confirmed that Fortnite would champion the development of the new Unreal Engine 4, but many other video games, both from Epic itself and from other studies that licensed the engine, would be ahead of the software.
A rocambolesco development
There are many sources that say that the development of Fornite was not designed to last for more than three months; surely, none in the studio thought that the game would take more than five years to see the light. From Epic came to ensure that the software was focused on PC or that his hero shooter Paragon was a priority for the company and, of course, the rumors of an alleged cancellation overflew the game for months. Reality? It seemed that Epic was more focused on the Unreal Engine 4 than on any other development of its own. The creators of the famous engine, however, insisted that they continued to develop video games.
Of course, the period of time in which Fortnite is being created is also a time of major changes for Epic. In 2012 they teamed up with Tencent, who would end up with 40% of Tim Sweeney's signature, creating an empire in China that includes, among others, Epic, Riot Games and League of Legends or Supercell and Clash Royale. The new management of the company leads to some mythical names of the firm such as Cliff Bleszinski or Mike Capps to take different directions to the company that devoted so many years of his professional career.
Epic's priority was never at Fortnite between 2011 and 2016, but the project was never abandoned. After many delays and long, the Americans ended up confirming its release for the summer of 2017.
The launch on PC; the inclusion of the Battle Royale
July 25, 2017, on PC, Xbox One and PlayStation 4. The premiere of Fortnite early access, despite its strange development, ended up becoming a game of success, with reserves exceeding 500,000 copies in the three systems in the that was launched and surpassing the first million players at the end of August. Despite the success, no one anticipated what Epic had in the hat for September: he announced the premiere of a battle royale mode. Next to the new addition was the decision that changed everything Fortnite: the survival mode for 100 players became free to play and competed, face to face, with what was being the great phenomenon of the moment, PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds.
In BlueHole, who had the rights to the game of Brendan Greene, surely, did not foresee the success that was going to have the new battle royale of Fortnite, but at the end of September and made clear their discomfort with the decision of the Americans. The executive producer of PUBG Corporation, Chang Han Kim, said that the relationship with Epic had been very good, but worried in the firm Epic references to PUBG in the promotion of the new game mode, and came to threaten to take some actions legal issues that did not come to fruition. The premiere of Fortnite: Battle Royale occurred on September 26, 2017, on PS4, Xbox One, and PC.
In its first 24 hours it would reach the first million players, in about ten days it added another six million users and in November it surpassed the twenty million barriers. The phenomenon was already unstoppable.
The success of Fortnite Battle Royale
The production reaches a status in such a short time that it allows itself the luxury of returning to The Game Awards six years later to talk face to face with the giant Sony and its debatable cross-game policies. The creative director of Fortnite, Donald Mustard, assured that in Epic "they are committed to doing what is necessary to make the crossed game", guaranteeing that "video game players deserve a cross-network". Weeks before, Epic had an "accident" in which allowed the multiplayer between players of PS4 and Xbox One, something that had to correct a few hours. However, the present was a litmus test of how accessible and easy it would be for developers to realize that until a few months ago seemed somewhat utopian.
In 2018 it seems that there is no talk of anything other than Fortnite. Many athletes have celebrated accomplishments doing dances taken from the own video game of Epic, which inevitably took that many famous other people to the sector made public their liking by the software. The most famous chapter, without a doubt, the game between Ninja and rapper Drake, which reached a peak of more than 635,000 viewers on Twitch. Fortnite's other great milestone has a Spanish flavor: the YouTuber Rubius organized a Fortnite: Battle Royale championship with 99 other YouTubers that became the most followed video game live in the history of YouTube.
To this day, Fortnite has no rival in Twitch. Its mobile premiere has also crystallized in a very important success in iOS and Android, and it seems complicated that someone is able to curb its incombustible fame, and more if it continues with collaborations like the one just launched with Avengers: Infinity War, which has led the very Titan Thanos to compete in the battle royale.
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