Fortnite
Fortnite
Fortnite Red Strike starter pack content and visuals leaked
Fariha Bhatti
A new cosmetics pack for Fortnite has been discovered by data miners. According to the newly leaked information, the collection of loot will be called Red Strike and will be packaged as a starter pack in the game. The leaked content pack was discovered by popular Fortnite leaker ShiinaBR on Twitter. First shared on August 11, that shared code reveals information on just what the the pack will include, and …
Fortnite
Former Twitch executive condemns handling of Ninja’s channel
Olivia Richman
Twitch’s former vice president of community, Justin Wong, has recently revealed his own two cents on the streaming platform’s treatment of Tyler “Ninja” Blevin’s old channel. Wong tweeted that Twitch’s decision to promote other channls on Ninja’s page brings up a long-running internal conflict at the company: Who owns the viewers, the streamer, or the platform? After working at Twitch for six years, Wong gave some insight on this situation. …
News
Ninja blasts Twitch for channel hijacking, Twitch apologizes
Steven Rondina
In a rare display of humility, Twitch is admitting it made a mistake. After multiple gaffes since the departure of popular streamer Tyler “Ninja” Blevins, Twitch CEO Emmett Shear took to Twitter to issue an apology to the Fortnite star and explain why the company has been behaving strangely since he left. “Our community comes to Twitch looking for live content. To help ensure they find great, live channels we’ve …
Fortnite
Epic Games being sued for failing to protect its users’ privacy
Nina Forneloza
Epic Games, the developer behind Fortnite, has had a class action lawsuit filed against it by Franklin D. Azar & Associates in North Carolina. The reason for the lawsuit is the view that Epic had not done enough to protect its players’ personal data. A bug that was present in the game until January 19 was exploited by hackers to access debit and credit card details for millions of Fortnite …
Fortnite
Fans angry as BRUTE will remain in Fortnite Championship Series
Olivia Richman
The Fortnite Champion Series had excited many of the game’s fans at first. But now, many competitive players are second guessing their involvement despite Epic’s announcement that there will be more than $10 million in prizing. That’s because Epic also announced that the B.R.U.T.E. will remain in comptitive play. The two-person mech was deemed overpowered at the start of Season X, and many fans were demanding that it be removed …
Fortnite
How much did Bugha make in the Fortnite World Cup?
William Davis
On July 26, Kyle “Bugha” Giersdorf became the first Fortnite World Cup champion. The 16-year-old player from Pennsylvania raked in $3 million for his efforts and became an overnight celebrity as a result. That eye-popping number saw Bugha rocket into the top 10 all-time esports earners, a fact that made many green with envy. But while he still banked a great deal of money at the event, he walked out …
Fortnite
Fortnite world champ Bugha threatens to quit over BRUTE mechs
Nina Forneloza
Newly crowned Fortnite Solo World Champion Kyle “Bugha” Giersdorf has called on Epic Games to remove BRUTE mechs from the game. The BRUTE is a vehicle that requires two people to pilot and has frustrated players with its ability to kill players absurdly quickly as well as seemingly never running out of protective shields. The comments came during Bugha’s stream as he was outmatched and outgunned by a BRUTE during …
Fortnite
Fortnite data miners reveal Greasy Grove, Anarchy Acres, more
Olivia Richman
If there’s one thing you can count on, it’s data miners leaking upcoming Fortnite events and changes. This time, data miner HYPEX has uncovered that popular points of interest including Greasy Grove and Tomato Town, will be resturning in Season X. On Twitter, the leaker revealed game files that show upcoming Battle Pass challenge descriptions. Within the challenges, Anarchy Acres, Flush Factory, Greasy Grove, Moisty Mire, Risky Reels, and Tomato …
Gen.G partners with dating app Bumble, forms all-women Fortnite team
Syed Mujtaba Naqvi
Fortnite
One of the esports industry’s largest organizations is branching out further, and is heading in a surprising direction. Gen.G has teamed up with women-focused dating app developer Bumble. The partnership’s first order of business is the reveal of an all-female Fortnite team, Team Bumble. “Within Gen.G and beyond, we are building a platform that reflects and enthusiastically champions the diversity of our global fan base,” Gen.G CEO Chris Park said …
Ninja reaches 1 million subscribers, already Mixer’s biggest
Olivia Richman
Fortnite
Tyler “Ninja” Blevins has quickly become Mixer’s most popular streamer. The famous Fortnite streamer hit over 1 million subscribers on his new platform, not even a week since announcing his sudden departure from Twitch. Three days ago, Ninja had reached over 500,000 subscribers. His first streaming session on Mixer had double the number of average viewers he had been pulling on Twitch. The stream peaked with over 95,000 viewers thanks …
DrLupo temporarily banned on Mixer for impersonating himself
Fariha Bhatti
Fortnite
Popular streamer Ben “DrLupo” Lupo was recently mistakenly banned on Microsoft’s streaming platform, Mixer. The ban was issued on August 4 and was given for the act of DrLupo impersonating an online personality: himself. The streamer attempted to log into Mixer on Sunday night with little success. Upon investigation, he found an email from the platform explaining why the account had been suspended. According to the email, he had violated …
Fortnite data leak shows new servers coming to Middle East and US
Olivia Richman
Fortnite
A recent leak contains potentially good news for Fortnite fans in the Middle East. According to a data miner going by fnbrInsider, the free-to-play battle royale could be providing 15 new servers based all around the world. One of the most notable additions would be the server allegedly coming to Bahraim. This would allow players in the surrounding region, including in Iran and Saudi Arabia, to play the game with …
Fortnite 10.00 introduces Tilted Town, automatic sniper rifle
Olivia Richman
Fortnite
Fortnite version 10.00 is here, and that means new weapons, map changes, and limited time modes. The automatic sniper rifle is Fortnite’s newest weapon addition. The full-auto long ranged gun has projectiles that travel faster than all other sniper rifles. Using medium ammo, the automatic sniper rifle can do up to 35 damage, or 70 with a headshot. It can be found in rare, epic, and legendary variants by searching …
Fortnite World Cup boasts strong live attendance figures
Steven Rondina
Fortnite
Anyone that tuned into the event knows that the Fortnite World Cup was a big success. Now the numbers that can confirm this are starting to pop up. Epic Games is reporting over 19,000 fans attended the event, selling out the Arthur Ashe Stadium in New York City. The strong tally comes alongside record-breaking online viewership and an unprecedented level of mainstream interest in an esports event. Epic did not …
Fox News points to video games, Fortnite for spat of shootings
Syed Mujtaba Naqvi
Fortnite
Cable news network Fox News continues to spread anti-gaming propaganda, this time going a step further and blaming video games for mass shootings happening around the United States. Just as the gaming community thought comparing playing Fortnite to the usage of heroin was as disrespectful as Fox News’ editorial on gaming could get, the news provider strikes again. This time saying it’s games that are to blame for the recent …
Twitch is directing Ninja followers to other Fortnite streamers
Nina Forneloza
Fortnite
Streaming platform Twitch has come up with a new way to use Tyler “Ninja” Blevin’s account now that he has moved over to Microsoft-owned rival platform Mixer. The hugely popular Fortnite streamer moved over to Mixer from Twitch on August 1 and has already achieved huge viewing figures at his new home. His first few streams saw over 500,000 new subscriptions. His average viewing figures have been higher since making …
Changes appear at Tilted Towers and Dusty Depot in Fortnite
M Alzamora
Fortnite
Fortnite players are beginning to notice new rifts forming over Tilted Towers, as well as a crack on Dusty Depot’s meteor that continues to intensify. Starting with the rifts, you can head to Neo Tilted right now to see a beacon of light reaching to the stars and forming a still-growing rift. There doesn’t seem to be a way to use said rift, nor can it yet be predicted what …
Donald Trump blames video games for US shooting attacks
Olivia Richman
Fortnite
United States president Donald Trump included video games as one of the driving factors behind the excessive amount of mass shootings in the United States. After two terrorist attacks took place in Texas and Ohio, resulting in the deaths of at least 29 people, Trump stated that “gruesome and grisly” video games have glorified violence in American society. “It is too easy today for troubled youth to surround themselves with …
Ninja gets off to strong start at Mixer, boats over 500,000 subs
Syed Mujtaba Naqvi
Fortnite
One of the most popular streamers and famed Fortnite player Richard “Ninja” Blevins has decided to leave Twitch for streaming platform Mixer. Just one stream later, the switch seemed to be a big success. Ninja left Twitch, the leading streaming platform in the gaming world, for Microsoft’s Mixer. Even though he has gained a massive following on Twitch, his first Mixer stream had more average viewers when compared to his …
Epic Games rep says BRUTE nerf is coming after fan outrage
Syed Mujtaba Naqvi
Fortnite
Epic Games is listening to fans. Fortnite players haven’t been happy with the direction Fortnite Season X has taken, with the B.R.U.T.E. in particular receiving a great deal of scorn. Less than a day after its initial rollout, social media blew up criticizing the new vehicle. Now, Epic seems to be looking for a quick fix. After one Redditor vented his frustration to the publisher, a representative responded by saying …
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.
