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
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.
