Everything you need to know about Fortnite

in games •  7 years ago  (edited)

Battle

Royale


Fortnite Battle Royale is a free-to-play

battle royale game developed and

published by Epic Games. It was released

as an early access title for Microsoft

Windows, macOS, PlayStation 4, Xbox

One in September 2017, and for iOS in

April 2018, with plans for an Android

version at a later date. It is a spin-off

  • from Epic's Fortnite, a cooperative survival game with construction

elements.

Fortnite Battle Royale

Developer(s)

Epic Games

Publisher(s)

Epic Games

Engine

Unreal Engine 4

Platform(s)

Microsoft Windows,

macOS, PlayStation

4, Xbox One, iOS

Release

September 2017

(Early access)

Genre(s)

Battle royale

Mode(s)

Multiplayer

As a battle royale game, Fortnite Battle

Royale features up to 100 players, alone or in squads of up to four players,

attempting to be the last player alive by

killing other players or evading them,

while staying within a constantly

shrinking safe zone to prevent taking

lethal damage from being outside it.

Players must scavenge for weapons and

armor to gain the upper hand on their

opponents. The game adds the

construction element from Fortnite;

players can break down most objects in

the game world to gain resources they

can use to build fortifications as part of

their strategy. The game features limited

cross-platform play between PlayStation

4, Xbox One, computer versions, and

mobile versions. The idea for Fortnite Battle Royale came

near the release of Fortnite in mid-2017.

Following the early access release of

PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds in March

2017 and its rapid growth, Epic Games

saw the opportunity to create a battle

royale mode out of Fortnite. Epic Games

launched this as a mode within the game

but later made it a free-to-play

standalone game, supported by

microtransactions that did not require

the base Fortnite game.

Gameplay

The main gameplay for Fortnite Battle

Royale follows the battle royale genre's standard format: up to 100 players

airdrop from floating buses onto a

consistent map, which includes random

distribution of weapons, armor, and other

combat support features. The goal is to

be the last player (or team, if playing in

small squads) alive by killing or avoiding

other players. Over time, the game's safe

zone (representing the eye of a Storm

that is ravaging the world), decreases in

size, and players caught outside the zone

will take damage, potentially dying. This

directs the surviving players into tighter

spaces, forcing player encounters.

Players can loot defeated enemies for

equipment. Random supply drops will occur during a match, providing random

weapons and items.

Fortnite Battle Royale's primary

distinction from other battle royale

games is the building system. Nearly all

objects in the environment can be broken

down into materials(wood, stone, and

metal), which can then be used to build

fortifications of limited durability, such as

walls, stairs, and ramps. These objects

may be used to help traverse the map,

protect the player from gunfire, or slow

down progression of other players.

The game is free-to-play, supported by

microtransactions that allow players to

buy "V-Bucks", the game's internal currency. V-Bucks are also shared with

the main Fortnite "Save the World" game,

which offers players the opportunity to

earn V-Bucks by completing missions or

daily quests.[1] V-Bucks can then be used

to buy cosmetic improvements to the

player (heroes, character and weapon

skins, and emotes). V-Bucks can also be

used to buy Battle Passes which

accelerate the rate that a player

increases their Tier within the game's

"seasons" (each season lasting a few

months). By raising their tier, they gain

automatic rewards of cosmetic items

typically around a theme. Players can still

increase tiers without a Battle Pass,

albeit at a slower rate.[2] Development

Fortnite had first been revealed by Epic

Games in 2011, considered to be a

combination of Minecraft and Left 4 Dead

as four players would work together to

scavenge resources to built fortifications,

traps, weapons, and other objects to

survive monster attacks.[3][4] The game

ended up with a protracted development

period, in part due to both external

pressures, with the industry transitioning

to a games as a service model, and

internal shifts of focus within Epic

(including focusing attention on their first

free-to-play title Paragon) to meet the

external challenges. Fortnite was confirmed to have a planned 2018

release in June 2017, with a paid early

access period starting a month later; the

game is planned otherwise as a free-to-

play title supported by

microtransactions. With release in early

access, the game featured its primary

gameplay mode, "Save the World", where

players in teams up to four would work

cooperatively to survive and complete

objectives on randomly generated

maps.[5][6]

During the latter part of Fortnite's

development, PlayerUnknown's

Battlegrounds was released in March

2017 on personal computers in early access, and quickly became a popular

and successful game, becoming the

defining example of the battle royale

genre. According to Mustard, the Epic

team "loved Battle Royale games like

[Battlegrounds]", and explored how they

could make a similar mode within

Fortnite's engine. They kept this mode in

a separate development team from the

main player versus environment modes

for experimentation and as to not throw

off the balance in the main game.[7] The

Battle Royale mode was led by Eric

Williamson with Zack Estep as

production lead. Their goal was to

develop the Battle Royale mode quickly

from the core "Save the World" mode, putting off any complex features that

weren't already in place as to launch the

new mode as soon as possible; while

they explored such potential ideas, they

held off inclusion until after the main

mode was launched.[8] The development

of the Battle Royale mode took about two

months, starting after the "Save the

World" mode had started shipping, and

was aided by the Unreal Tournament

team.[9] Key differences for Battle Royale

that differed from "Save the World"

included a more limited progression for

weapons, a small subset of traps, and a

smoother, more natural terrain for the

maps.[8] They also wanted to aim for

games not taking longer than 25 minutes, which led to some decisions of

which elements from "Save the World"

would not carry over.[8] They had

including Fortnite's building mechanic for

fortifications, not sure how players would

use that since the safe zone would

continue shrinking, but found quickly that

the mechanic helped to distinguish the

game from Battlegrounds and was used

by expert players frequently to win

matches, and had since implemented

more features to help players with rapidly

constructing temporary bases.[8] , In those two months of development,

Epic's plan was to include Battle Royale

within the paid Fortnite game, and

originally announced this approach

publicly in early September 2017. Only

two weeks before it was released did

Epic decide to make it a separate free-to-

play title, fearing that having it as part of

the paid package would slow down the

growth of the title.[9] Epic announced this change formally about a week after first

announcing Battle Royale, allowing those

that had purchased early access to

Fortnite in anticipation of this mode to

request refunds.[10] This release, which

beat out Battlegrounds to consoles,

caused some concern with Battlegrounds

developer Bluehole, as they had been

working closely with Epic for Unreal

engine support in Battlegrounds, and

were worried that Fortnite might be able

to include planned features to their Battle

Royale mode before they could release

those in Battlegrounds.[11][12][13]

With the popularity of Fortnite Battle

Royale by the start of 2018, Epic split off  a separate development team to focus

on improvements for this mode.[14] Epic

said that their attention to Fortnite was

causing some of their other games to

see lower player populations, leading

them to reduce development efforts on

these games, particularly Paragon.[15] By

the end of January 2018, Epic announced

it was shutting down Paragon by April of

that year, providing refunds to all

players.[16] Players on a Fortnite-

dedicated Reddit forum had expressed

concerns that a similar fate could befall

the Save the World mode of Fortnite, as

externally, the Save the World mode has

not received the same attention in

providing updates and improvements compared to the Battle Royale mode

since that mode's release.[17]

Since release, Epic has added more

features, such as new weapons, jetpacks,

and other vehicles. It has experimented

with alternative modes available for a

limited amount of time, such as having

50-vs-50 matches and 5 teams of 20

players each; this was done to help

explore what other gameplay features as

well as to keep the game fresh for

players.[8] Epic does plan to add in ranked

competitive play to be run in seasons,

which is expected to start mid-2018.[18]

In March 2018, Epic announced it was

making Fortnite Battle Royale for Android and iOS mobile devices. These versions

are expected to have cross-platform play

between the Windows, macOS, and Xbox

One versions, which was enabled on

March 15, 2018.[19] While Epic has

expressed interest in having full cross-

platform play with computer, mobile, and

both PlayStation 4 and Xbox One

versions, cross-play between PlayStation

4 and Xbox One is an issue related to

Sony's policies, according to Microsoft.

The iOS version was released first, and is

expected to be followed by the Android

version.[20] The beta version for iOS

devices launched on March 15, 2018,[21]

and opened to all players on April 2,

2018.[22] Reception

Fortnite Battle Royale has become its

own phenomenon, compared by analysts

to the success in drawing in players that

are not average video game players as

both World of Warcraft and Minecraft had

done previously.[23] Fortnite Battle Royale

obtained over 10 million players two

weeks after its release.[24] By March

2018, it was estimated to have more than

45 million players.[25] Kat Bailey for

USGamer attributed Fortnite Battle

Royale's success over PlayerUnknown

Battlegrounds as a combination of

several factors: besides being free-to-

play and available on consoles, the game was released at a time when

Battlegrounds was struggling with game

cheaters, and that it features a less

violent, cartoonish quality to it that, like

Minecraft, was able to draw in a younger

audience to play.[26] The high interest in

the game within March 2018, which has

been able to draw larger audiences

compared to existing multiplayer games

like Grand Theft Auto Online and Destiny

2, has had a financial impact on

competing publishers Take-Two

Interactive and Activision Blizzard, their

stocks having fallen during this period,

according to analysts from Morgan

Stanley and KeyBanc Capital Markets

Inc.[25] Analysis firm Super Data estimated that Fortnite Battle Royale

made over US$126 million in February

2018, surpassing Battlegrounds's

revenues for the same period of

US$103 million.[27]

Part of the game's success is also

considered to be related to its impact on

social media.[23] By March 2018, Fortnite:

Battle Royale became the most-viewed

game on Twitch, exceeding the average-

concurrent viewership numbers of

League of Legends and Battlegrounds.[28]

One notable streamer was Tyler "Ninja"

Blevins, who gained a large number of

subscribers by March 2018, in part due to

his skill and through promotions on Twitch that offered free Fortnite Battle

Royale cosmetic items; by March 2018,

he was estimated to be making

US$500,000 a month from his streaming

revenue.[29] YouTube streamer Rubén

Doblas Gundersen held a Fortnite Battle

Royale match with 99 other well-known

YouTube streamers in late March, which

drew over 1.1 million viewers, making it

one of the most-watched gaming

YouTube streams.[30]

A number of celebrities and athletes

have said they play Fortnite: Battle

Royale. In March 2018, Blevins hosted a

stream that included Drake, Travis Scott,

Kim DotCom, and Pittsburgh Steelers Wide Receiver JuJu Smith-Schuster all

playing the game. The stream broke over

635,000 concurrent viewers, making it

the highest-watched stream on Twitch

outside of eSports tournaments.[31][32] As

a result, Epic Games announced plans

for a Fortnite Battle Royale Celebrity Pro-

am to be held during the Electronic

Entertainment Expo 2018 in June,

featuring 50 celebrities and 50 top

players competing.[33] The awareness of

the game from well-known celebrities

has been considered a reason for further

popularity and player growth of the

game.[34] The mobile release of Fortnite Battle

Royale brought in an estimate

US$1 million in microtransaction revenue

within the first three days of in-app

purchases being available, according to

analysis firm Sensor Tower. Sensor

Tower considered these numbers

impressive, compared to the early

success rate of other popular mobile

games, such as Pokémon Go and Clash

Royale which earned US$4.9 million and

US$4.6 million in their first four days,

respectively.[35] Sensor Tower further

estimated that after three weeks, the

mobile title had earned US$15 million.[36] With the release of the mobile version of

Fortnite Battle Royale and the interest

from younger audiences, teachers,

parents, and students have found that

the game has become extremely popular

in schools and can be a disruption within

classes and to students that are

obsessed with the game.[37][38] Epic has

since added warnings on the game's

loading screens to discourage students

from playing the game during classes.[39]

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External links

Official website.

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