Fortnite
Fortnite
These are the leaked Fortnite Chapter 2 Alter Ego challenges
Olivia Richman
Fortnite Chapter 2 brought a new map, a new weapons list, and even new skins. Now, Fortnite’s Alter Ego challenges allow players to unlock these new skins. Data miners have uncovered the full list of tasks within Alter Ego, all of which can be completed throughout the current season. Exclusive to Battle Pass owners, Alter Ego missions unlock different skin styles and help players to gain more XP. There are …
Fortnite
Epic suing playtester who leaked Chapter 2 secrets, new map
Olivia Richman
When Fortnite was swallowed by a black hole and seemingly wiped off the internet, fans of the game were scared at first. But worries that the battle royale was closing down after the wildly unpopular Season X were alleviated when a leak informed players that “Chapter 2” was coming. Now, the person responsible for the Chapter 2 leak is being sued by Epic Games. A user experience tester, Ronald Skyes, …
Fortnite
Fortnite YouTuber made $26,000 off FaZe Sway’s creator code
Olivia Richman
Fortnite YouTuber Sway has reportedly made over $26,000 from Epic Games’ creator code program because of his name’s similarity to FaZe Clan’s Sway. A YouTuber by the name of Fortnite Guy was the first to reveal the shocking number, noting that when Fortnite star Sway joined FaZe, the similarly named Sway started to earn even more from the creator code program. It has become quite evident that people are confusing …
News
Fortnite Chapter 2 made shroud want to play Apex Legends again
Olivia Richman
Twitch streamer Michael “shroud” Grzesiek gave up on Fortnite a while ago, but he thought he’d give Chapter 2 a try after all of the hype. And it didn’t go well. Running around in his Fortnite x Mayhem skin, shroud only played for a couple hours before calling it quits. In one clip, shroud is running around Frenzy Farm seemingly not impressed with Fortnite’s newest season. “I’m not going to …
Fortnite
Fortnite Chapter 2 leaked trailer shows new features, abilities
Steven Rondina
Fortnite fans have gotten a brief glimpse of the upcoming release of Fortnite Chapter 2. A 30-second trailer for the next battle pass was leaked, showing some of the new features that will arrive when Fortnite relaunches. The game was recently shut down to mark the ending of the highly controversial Season X. Epic Games has been aggressively taking down reposts of the leaked trailer, but fans of the game …
Fortnite
Fortnite’s The End brings down Twitch before new season reveal
Syed Mujtaba Naqvi
Fortnite’s event “The End,” which turned the game and its features into a black hole, attracted so many viewers to Twitch that the platform experienced sudden and dramatic downtime. The last event of the Fortnite season X “The End” let players participate in what signalizes the end of Fortnite’s current iteration, taking the game down. Epic Games’ Fortnite server status is showing all of the Fortnite assets, from website to …
Fortnite
Fortnite seemingly shut down by Epic Games to end Season X
Nina Forneloza
Fortnite, the battle royale game that has become a worldwide phenomenon, is gone. At least for a little while. For the past few days, many Fortnite content creators have been sharing their thoughts on what the season 11 kickoff event would be. Though previous season-ending events were built up for weeks to a somewhat predictable conclusion, the only hint fans received on Fortnite Season X’s end was an ominous tweet …
Fortnite
Epic Games CEO promises his company won’t censor activists
Nina Forneloza
Epic Games is taking a stand against censorship from China. Epic Games Founder and CEO Tim Sweeney has announced that Fortnite developer Epic Games won’t ban players for political speech. This follows a week during which multiple controversies have arisen in the sporting and gaming spaces related to ongoing protest in Hong Kong. Daryl Morey, general manager of the Houston Rockets NBA franchise, recently tweeted his support for the protests …
Ninja hasn’t helped Mixer gain ground on Twitch, even after 2 months
Syed Mujtaba Naqvi
Fortnite
Microsoft made a big splash when it got Fortnite star Tyler “Ninja” Blevins to leave Twitch and exclusively stream on Mixer, but Ninja’s move hasn’t really helped Mixer gain viewership. Ninja’s exclusive deal with Mixer has been in place since August, and he has had a strong start streaming on the platform. Despite that, according to a report by Streamlabs, hours watched on Mixer have fallen for over 10% since the end …
Epic Games facing Fortnite addiction lawsuit from parents
Olivia Richman
Fortnite
While Epic Games has certainly benefited from Fortnite’s continuing popularity, the game’s wide reach has also created no shortage of controversy. Fortnite’s most recent drama comes from a class-action lawsuit claiming that Epic didn’t properly warn users about the possibility of addiction. According to CBC, the lawsuit comes from a Montreal legal firm on behalf of the parents of two minors, aged 10 and 15. The report claims that addiction …
Tfue says he “doesn’t care” that Ninja has always hated him
Olivia Richman
Fortnite
Fortnite pro Turner “Tfue” Tenney said that he “doesn’t care” that long-time rival Tyler “Ninja” Blevins has “always hated him.” Tfue decided to bring up the topic of Ninja while playing Zone Wars and discuss the rivalry with viewers. “Ninja has hated me forever. No matter how nice I am to the kid, he’s always hated me. So I don’t really know what to tell you guys. But I don’t really …
Fortnite’s short (and frustrating) history in esports
Olivia Richman
Fortnite
Since its release in 2017, Fortnite has taken the video game scene by storm. It has consistently stood as the most-watched game on Twitch, with big-name streamers like Turner “Tfue” Tenney and Tyler “Ninja” Blevins keeping the battle royale in the spotlight. While Fortnite has dominated gaming culture for years at this point, the game has had a less-than-stellar start to its time as an esport. With insanely large prize …
Bugha and more form Fortnite Professional Players Association
Olivia Richman
Fortnite
Sixteen professional Fortnite players from North America and Europe have united to form the Fortnite Profesional Players’ Association, in hopes of better reaching out to Fortnite developer Epic Games. The collective of Fortnite competitors have come together with the goal of providing a formal platform through which their voices can be heard. According to the official announcement, the FPPA want to express their thoughts and concerns about the battle royale’s …
FaZe Clan files to dismiss Tfue’s case, explains New York countersuit
Syed Mujtaba Naqvi
Fortnite
The legal battle between Turner “Tfue” Tenney and FaZe Clan continues. FaZe has reportedly filed to dismiss Tfue’s lawsuit from Californian courts in an attempt to move the case to New York. According to Dexerto’s Richard Lewis, Tfue’s contract states that any legal disputes between the player and organization must be settled in New York Courts. This comes after FaZe Clan filed a countersuit in New York federal court in …
Fortnite patch v10.40.1 brings Out of Time, Flint-Knock Pistol
Olivia Richman
Fortnite
Although many in the Fortnite community have been impatiently waiting for Season X to end, the most recent patch notes revealed that the unpopular season will be extended by a further week. “We may be almost out of time, but we’re not out just yet,” announced Epic. According to Patch v10.40.1, Season X will now end on October 13 to give their new challenge some time in the spotlight. …
DreamHack to host $500,000 Fortnite community tournaments
Olivia Richman
Fortnite
Missing Fortnite solos action? DreamHack will be hosting two Fortnite community tournaments with a combined prize pool of $500,000. The money will be evenly split between DreamHack Winter in Jönköping, Sweden, which takes place from November 29 to December 1, and DreamHack Anaheim, which will go down in Anaheim, California from February 21 to 23. Neither tournament will have qualifiers. Instead, Fortnite players who want to participate will be guaranteed a …
Twitch uses clip from banned streamer Mexican Andy to promote Fortnite
Olivia Richman
Fortnite
It’s not only Twitch’s new color palette that’s garnering attention. The streaming platform used a clip from streamer Mexican Andy to promote Fortnite on their new Watch tab. The seemingly innocent clip shows Mexican Andy doing the “Best Mates” dance after getting a Victory Royale. But many were left wondering why Twitch chose to give Mexican Andy such strong placement when he has been banned from the platform for two …
Next Fortnite Champion Series event will be in squads format
William Davis
Fortnite
Epic Games has announced squads as the format for the next Fortnite Champion Series. The announcement came after the first Fortnite Champion Series finals, which saw Team SoloMid’s Mack “MackWood” Aesoph and Anthony “ZexRow” Colandro, and Jonathan “yung calculator” Weber take the top prize in the North America West region. Epic Games didn’t share any additional information about the tournament, but top Fortnite personalities seemed to be aware of …
MackWood joins TSM after Season X trios win with ZexRow
Syed Mujtaba Naqvi
Fortnite
Mack “MackWood” Aesoph is joining Team SoloMid as the esports organization’s newest Fortnite player. TSM has announced MackWood’s joining on September 23, just a day after he took the trophy at NA East Fortnite Championship Series Season X, a trios tournament in which he played together with Anthony “ZexRow” Colandro and Jonathan “yung calculator” Weber. ZexRow has been a part of TSM’s Fortnite division since late 2018, but yung calculator …
Fortnite celebrates Batman’s 80th birthday with event, new skins
Fariha Bhatti
Fortnite
In honor of the character’s 80th birthday, Epic Games is treating fans to a massive Batman event in Fortnite. Players looking to visit Tilted Towers between now and October 6 will instead land in Gotham City. A familiar location for fans of the movies, games, and comics alike, those fond of the Caped Crusader will feel a sense of familiarity in the new cityscape. The area has a darker look …
Fortnite has come a long way over the course of the game’s lifespan. What began as an upstart early-access title with base-building mechanics would eventually transform into the world’s most popular and lucrative video game, capturing the attention of millions upon millions of players across the world and entering into the mainstream cultural lexicon.
But how exactly did that happen? How did one of many games released by developer Epic Games manage to transform in real-time into something with such potential, and to what extent did Fortnite really grow? The answers are indicative of what it takes for a game to go from new and struggling to becoming a global phenomenon.
The original vision for Fortnite was very different compared to the game that is so widely popular today. Developers at Epic Games intended to create a game that would merge base-building mechanics with the popular shooting gameplay that the company was best known for, from its experience releasing such titles those found in the Unreal Tournament and Gears of War franchises.
While that vision was altered even prior to Fortnite’s initial release, with a darker creative look becoming brighter and more reminiscent of children’s cartoons, the first release of Fortnite did feature that original focus. Titled Fortnite: Saves the World, this was a paid early-access release that met moderate fanfare and player enthusiasm.
A follow-up release would do far better. That follow-up was Fortnite Battle Royale, a free-to-play version of the game that featured the core mechanics and experience players most associate with the Fortnite name today. The battle royale game mode, thrown together in just a couple of months by developers, was at the time a relatively new concept. A multitude of players would be dropped onto one map to do battle with each other, accruing resources and weaponry in an open-world environment to better equip themselves for combat. Eventually, the game’s playable map size would shrink over time, forcing players to engage with each other until only one winning player was left standing.
It’s a simple concept, but in 2017 it was fresh and new. Players quickly flocked to try this early battle royale game, and within weeks of its free-to-play release, Fortnite Battle Royale was playing host to millions of players.
First and foremost, the success of Fortnite can be seen in the extreme revenue numbers generated by the game for maker Epic Games. Just a few short years after its release, Fortnite had already led to billions of dollars in revenue for Epic. This success was enough to send reverberations throughout the entire video game industry. Dozens of clones would follow, trying to recapture the battle royale magic that Fortnite had so successfully crystallized, but it proved difficult for most.
Money wasn’t the only marker of the game’s ascendance, however. Fortnite broached popular mainstream culture in a way that few video games ever have. Popular streamer and former Halo pro Tyler “Ninja” Blevins was at the fore of this wave of popularity, co-streaming with rap superstar Drake and appearing on numerous television talk shows to discuss the game and the craze surrounding it. Popular musicians beyond Drake also got involved with the game, as Travis Scott and Marshmello hosted live, in-game concerts to both popular and critical acclaim.
The Fortnite World Cup raised the game’s profile even further in some circles. Held at the famous Arthur Ashe Stadium in New York City, the event awarded $3 million to 16-year-old phenom Kyle “Bugha” Giersdorf, who then found himself paraded through mainstream media circles just as Ninja had been before him.
While its apex may have come and gone, Fortnite remains one of the most popular and successful games in the world today, continuing to play host to many millions of players while generating major revenues for Epic Games.
