Fortnite is an online multiplayer game and the biggest hit of 2018. When rapper Drake and streamer Ninja played some Fortnite matches together, more than 630,000 Twitch users watched their stream at its peak. That’s an all-time record among non-competitive recordings. Let’s try to understand the reasons for the popularity of the project.
Reasons for the success of the game
To understand the success of Fortnite, we need to go back to the king of online shooters in 2017. We are talking, of course, about PUBG – the development of the Korean studio BlueHole, which for the first time qualitatively implemented the mechanics of the “Battle Royale”. The essence of this mode is simple: 100 players are simultaneously dropped on a large-scale map, where they can collect weapons, ammunition, as well as shoot each other. Every few minutes, the safe zone on the map narrows, drawing the surviving players to the center. This way it comes down to one winner, who becomes the “king of the mountain.”
PUBG also has primary sources: a custom mod for the military simulator ARMA 2 and a movie “The Battle Royale” by Japanese director Kinji Fukasaku, released in 2000. The picture is about a group of schoolchildren. They find themselves on a remote island, taking part in a three-day survival battle.
Fortnite’s success is due to the f2p model (free access) and the timely copying of PUBG’s key mechanic, the Battle Royale mode. Initially, the developers focused on other features: a cooperative mode for fighting zombie swarms. “Reinvented” in just a few months, Epic Games unveiled its own version of the 100-player battle in September. You can even access the fortnite mod menu.
The basic conditions remained the same: Users land all over the map (8×8 km) on parachutes, collect weapons and resources, and follow the tapering borders. But there are a number of significant differences. PUBG emphasizes the realism of what happens, and Fortnite looks more casual. Another important addition to Fortnite is the construction mode: collecting resources, players can on the fly to build a shelter or lay a bridge for easy movement. This adds late-game variation to the game: You don’t have to run around with a shotgun to survive longer – you can intelligently take cover from attacks.
If you directly compare PUBG and Fortnite, both projects have their advantages. For example, PUBG has a more advanced shooting system – the game counts the physics of each projectile. This forces you to make adjustments to the conditions: bullets can fly a little lower than they should, the recoil is also different. There are also more arsenal modifications available to players. In Fortnite it’s easier with this: the trajectory of the shells is calculated only for sniper rifles. All other rifles simply hit where the aim is pointed.
But Epic Games game has a few unconditional trump cards. For starters: cross-platform and competent monetization model. You can play Fortnite on PC, Mac, PlayStation, Xbox, and recently the testing of the mobile version was started. Fortnite is free to play.
