Epic Games, the Creator of Fortnite, Banked a $3 Billion Profit in 2018: Report (techcrunch.com)

This year Fortnite became the world's most popular game, growing its parent company, Epic Games' valuation to $15 billion. It also helped the company pile up cash. Epic grossed a $3 billion profit for this year fueled by the continued success of Fortnite, TechCrunch reported Thursday, citing a person with knowledge of the business. From the report: Fortnite, which is free to play but makes money selling digital items, has popularized the battle royale category -- think Lord of the Flies meets Hunger Games -- almost single-handedly, and it has been the standout title for the U.S.-based game publisher. Founded way back in 1991, Epic hasn't given revenue figures for its smash hit -- which has 125 million players -- but this new profit milestone, combined with other pieces of data, gives an idea of the success the company is seeing as a result of a prescient change in strategy made six years ago.

Comments

Hmmm

[Anonymous Coward]

I literally never heard of it

Anyone else getting sick of all the game stores

[rsilvergun]

Gog, Steam, Origin, Uplay, Battle.net, whatever the heck Bethesda calls theirs and now Epic's. If I got less DRM (especially Denuvo, which has been shown to kill frame times) or better prices maybe. But so far it's just more logins and more hassle. At least with Gog I can save the games to a DVD and be done with it.

Re:Anyone else getting sick of all the game stores

[cascadingstylesheet]

Gog, Steam, Origin, Uplay, Battle.net, whatever the heck Bethesda calls theirs and now Epic's. If I got less DRM (especially Denuvo, which has been shown to kill frame times) or better prices maybe. But so far it's just more logins and more hassle. At least with Gog I can save the games to a DVD and be done with it.

That's why I just use GOG and be done with it. DRM free.

If it ain't on there, oh well. Life's too short to mess around with this stuff.

Re:Anyone else getting sick of all the game stores

[DarkRookie2]

Denuvo is known to suck performance out of a game. Never heard of it trashing SSDs thou
Also, if you do not want me to pirate in the future, put your games on multiple platforms. If everything is going off into its own little walled garden now, I will revert to it.
TVs and movie are almost completely this now.

Re:Anyone else getting sick of all the game stores

[alvinrod]

GOG has no DRM at all, and Steam has sales all the damn time. They've got one going on right now and there's a whole page of games that are pretty heavily marked down.

Game stores aren't going to affect the prices you see though, since they don't set the prices themselves and are only dealing with digital merchandise so there's never really old inventory to clear out. At best they'll forestall price increases, which has happened to some degree since once you factor in inflation, the Playstation games you bought for $50 back in the day would cost much more than $60 now. Part of the reason that costs to consumers aren't going up is because the developers can get a much larger cut since these stores have to offer better rates than the existing competition to attract business.

The only way to get cheaper games is for increased competition among the various titles that are available. Both the new Fallout and Battlefield games are being heavily discounted because there are a lot of other options available and they couldn't hit their sales targets.

Re:Anyone else getting sick of all the game stores

[Daemonik]

Nice story. However Fallout 76 was on sale for Black Friday and then went back up to $60 retail. It's on sale again because of the holidays, as is everything on Bethesda.net, and will likely return to it's retail price after.

Re:Anyone else getting sick of all the game stores

[Mashiki]

That's okay, considering it has a user metacritic score of 27 you're probably better off not buying it. GMG has had the lowest price at $47.99USD, though if you're still shit-hot on buying it's still on sale at $48.99

Re:Anyone else getting sick of all the game stores

[GrumpySteen]

You do realize that people who pirate the software are downloading cracked copies without the DRM stripped out or disabled, right?

The only people complaining about Denuvo causing problems for them are the people who legitimately bought the games and didn't pirate them, so they're saddled with the intact DRM.

Re:Anyone else getting sick of all the game stores

[alvinrod]

If the sales weren't abysmal, there wouldn't be a sale. I don't see Rockstar, Nintendo, or Activision discounting their game as much as 42% less than two weeks after it was released. It's on sale because it's a complete cash grab on the part of Bethesda and they can't get people to keep sinking money into in-game purchases if no one buys the base game to begin with.

Hopefully consumers continue to reject this crap so that publishers go back to making a decent product.

Re:Anyone else getting sick of all the game stores

[Unnamed Chickenheart]

And now Discord is trying to compete with Steam.

I beleive I read that they'll charge just 10% of sales price compared to Steam's 30%. If that is true, and if their shop will be as well made as Discord app is, then I can foresee it becomming popular, perhaps even a rival to Steam, at least for the "hard core" if not for the casuat gamer.

Re:Anyone else getting sick of all the game stores

[blahplusplus]

Gog, Steam, Origin, Uplay, Battle.net, whatever the heck Bethesda calls theirs and now Epic's. If I got less DRM (especially Denuvo, which has been shown to kill frame times) or better prices maybe. But so far it's just more logins and more hassle. At least with Gog I can save the games to a DVD and be done with it.

Buddy this happened 20 years ago, when everyone bought Ultima online, Everquest, Wow and guild wars (server locked RPG's) you all sent amessage to the industry saying you're stupid and you'll take it up the ass.

As soon as steam became a thing in 2004 it was over, when developers server locked games and stopped releasing server exe's and level editors it was over. Companies always wanted to get rid of game ownership and take control of software out of users hands and gamers gave it to them. Everyone lines up to bend over for the latest release of GTA or feed mtx money to Dota 2 or subscription money to wow.

That had major consequences - the industry knows you're willing to take it up the ass, so that's why all these stores exist. Because you fell for the original scam game - the mmo. Back in the 90's CEO's of game companies wanted to get gamers to pay more money for the same PC RPG game, so they invented the mmo moniker to server lock all PC RPG's in development and then charge a monthly subscription for them.

Re:Anyone else getting sick of all the game stores

[sg_oneill]

In fairness MMOs killed more game companies than piracy ever could. So many farms bet on being the next WOW. So many farms reposessed.

Re:Anyone else getting sick of all the game stores

[blahplusplus]

In fairness MMOs killed more game companies than piracy ever could. So many farms bet on being the next WOW. So many farms reposessed.

Except almost all games now don't release server exe's and the multiplayer portion is server locked and we got no LAN option. Look at what happened to diablo 3. Starcraft 2 is now locked down to sell skins/mtx. They are taking control of software, the net and the PC. Windows 10 + future hardware drm is coming to lockdown the PC and turn it into the android. Shit is about to get worse all thanks to stupid getting internet and feeding those MTX mobile games.

It's insane how mobile gacha/gambling games are making more money then both console and PC combined, shit is saddening but it shows how fucking stupid our species is.

Not Just Fortnite

[Anonymous Coward]

I'm pretty sure a large portion of that $3billion came from licensing the Unreal Engine, AKA the engine that powers almost every game on the market not being made in Unity.

Re:Not Just Fortnite

[dbrueck]

From what is known, it really is due to Fortnite. See e.g. https://www.recode.net/2018/6/...

Re:Not Just Fortnite

[thegarbz]

I'm pretty sure it didn't given that it's parent company is reporting massive increases in profits YoY and they were also licensing Unreal last year. Oh and the parent company is Chinese based and sensitive to the recent anti-game movement of the Chinese government so if it were just up to the Unreal Engine and existing IP alone it would stand to reason that their profit would have fallen this year instead of doubling.

Angry Noises

[DarkRookie2]

Great
This is going to be happening more and more now. Even with the failure that is FO76
The AAA games are going no where, and indies are an incestuous mess.

Terrible Game

[dryriver]

Gamers have been served such derivative sub-par shit as games for 18 years - crap like StarWars Battlefront - that utter mediocrity like Fortnite excites them big time. I'm glad I was around in the first golden years of computer gaming. Today's games look nice but play like a 5 year old designed them.

Re:Terrible Game

[zlives]

its designed to appeal to insta-crowd where appearance mean more than substance.
but then again there probably was an equivalent money grab going on back in the goodoldays...

Re:Terrible Game

[H3lldr0p]

Those were called arcade cabinets. Those games were literally designed to keep you pumping in quarters. That's why they were so hard plus had the garish lights of vegas slot machines.

Now we're looking at more subtle psychological manipulations. Instead of playing on fears of not finishing something you started, they're playing on the fear of missing out, or FOMO. This is part of how their gambling mechanics grab you. Didn't get the one piece of flair you wanted? Just try again, but give me a buck to do so. Didn't get it? Just try again, but give me a buck to do so.

Re:Terrible Game

[DarkRookie2]

And they are teaching children that this is a normal and not bad thing to do.

Re:Terrible Game

[Mashiki]

Today's games look nice but play like a 5 year old designed them.

That's because gaming has "opened up" to the large crowd of people who want instant satisfaction when playing a game. Truly difficult titles are far and few between. You probably remember the trope of "Nintendo Hard" from the 1980's and 90's? Most people these days wouldn't ever play a game like G&G, Contra or Ninja Gaiden if they had a choice. They were unforgiving titles that punished you for failure. Hell just look at the amount of whining that goes on over games like Dark Souls or even the remastered versions of Baldur's Gate, BG2, and Planescape: Torment. The average player has their hand held so hard through modern titles when the game says "here you go" and doesn't give you a map, direction, and markers, people freak out and game journos bomb the title because it's too difficult.

Are you enjoying more "more inclusive hobby?" Not me. I liked the difficult games because there was a sense of accomplishment to beating something difficult.

Re:Terrible Game

[zlives]

fort-nite is interesting phenomena to me, i mean you are literally throwing away money on something that changes the skin for your character... no game play, or mechanic, or item upgrade... just looks...
i guess people also pay for porn so there is that!!

Re:Terrible Game

[Arzaboa]

You all may be right by way of you have better opinions than each other, and that Epic is serving up content that people want.

The thing is, that people like it, and people want it. Epic games is not tricking people into liking something they don't like.

Creating something that fills some emotional need and selling it is exactly what people have been doing since the beginning of time. Want a family with a wife? Pay a dowry or buy a ring. Want to feel like you had a good birthday party? Pay Chuck-E-Cheese for the entertainment. Sad? Pint of Ben and Jerry's will fix that for a while.

At some point you could tear every thing down to why people lust for anything. In the end, the penalties for spending time and money must be less than the joy it brings people. I have yet to hear of droves of starving children spending money on in-game purchases instead of food.

With this type of reasoning, board games, newspaper crosswords, and Sunday drives are out of question too.

--
Hate the sin, love the sinner - Mahatma Gandhi

Re:Terrible Game

[zlives]

hehe, umm thats what happens when you don't teach your kids... some one else will.

Re:Terrible Game

[apoc.famine]

You're half right, but don't totally have it. It's not instragram at all anymore. Fortnight replaced it.

From my coworkers with pre-teens and teens, Fortnight became the new social network. It became the new social currency. The kids acted out the victory dances on stage, on the ball field, in the classroom, and on the playground. The social currency became buying the limited dance moves for your character, learning them, and being able to drop them at a moment's notice to blow your friends' minds.

Fortnight became a meta-game, where playing was important, but being able to abstract it into the real world was what was valuable. Nobody cared or remembered who won what match the other weekend, but they did when you were introduced on the basketball court and did a stupid dance from the game.

It was still definitely more appearance than substance, but what's critical to understand is that it is its own social network, and the real life acting out of the game was the real social currency, not IG posts or facebook posts, or anything else online. That's what made Fortnight different, and what made it $3b.

Re:Terrible Game

[Tom]

I was playing those games in the 80s and 90s, and enjoyed them a lot.

Today, I probably wouldn't. Because gaming has evolved and I have grown up. I don't think being hard for the sake of being hard is a virtue.

But what I do enjoy are games that are not holding your hand. I like open world games for exactly this reason. I like games that don't spoon-feed you the story, but at the same time are forgiving to mistakes. At the moment I'm playing Subnautica and it doesn't even have an in-game map - but if you die, you respawn back at your base with minimal losses. Many other games have evolved to be like that - instead of forcing you to save the game every 30 seconds, they let you die without punishing you too harshly.

I'm also a big fan of Nethack, with its one-life-that's-it system.

It all depends on the game and what it tries to accomplish. The problem with Nintendo-era jump-n-run games, for example, was that they forced you to replay the same part of the game a hundred times just because at the end of the sequence you failed that one jump again and again. A better game would start you closer and closer to the point where you fail the more often you need to replay, so it becomes less tedious and you can focus on the part that actually challenges you.

I'm also not a fan of adaptive difficulty. Who the fuck came up with that? I used to play Doom and its successors on the hardest difficulty initially, then after dying a lot start a game with medium difficulty, and the skills I learnt at hard made it really enjoyable. In the first Eldar Scrolls games or LOTRO etc. I very much enjoyed working my way up and then being able to beat enemies that used to be difficult to a pulp with a grin, and that was satisfying. Then with Skyrim they added adaptive difficulty and all enemies were tough but not too tough. No more satisfaction of taking down an overwhelming enemy through cunning and luck, and no more satisfaction of beating a low-level one to a pulp.

A lot of things are better in games today than they used to be, and a lot of things went downhill. And sometimes a game comes along that cherry-picks the right choices from both sets and that is when everything just works and creates a masterpiece.

Re:Terrible Game

[Yosho]

Today's games look nice but play like a 5 year old designed them.

You mean like DOOM? Hollow Knight? NieR: Automata? Divinity: Original Sin 1 & 2?

Should I get more esoteric and start listing things like The House in Fata Morgana, Bunny Must Die!, or Guacamelee 1/2?

Re:Terrible Game

[mentil]

PUBG made tons of money, apparently primarily through up-front purchases of the game. Fortnite was F2P, which attracts kids more... and a quick trip to any app store shows that F2P games bring in more revenue than any game that's not called 'Minecraft'. Both were the darling of Youtube/Twitch streamers. I don't think Fortnite's success can be explained as 'PUBG with dances', so well as 'F2P PUBG'.

I imagine there are plenty of Fortnite players who are shy or suck at dancing and would never dream of doing one of its dances in real life.

Re:Terrible Game

[thegarbz]

Today's games look nice but play like a 5 year old designed them.

It also happens to be what often makes them fun.

Re:Terrible Game

[dunkelfalke]

Battletech is a recent game, but can be quite difficult at times.

Re:Terrible Game

[Jon Peterson]

Buying gear for a game character is no different to buying a decorative phone case. People see it and say (or think) oh, that looks nice. You see it every time you get your phone out and think, oh, that's *my* phone with the case I chose.

If you play a game two hours a night why not pay to customise it to look a certain way?

The fact that the phone case has some plastic material with some notional retained value is irrelevant. The resale value of a phone case is basically zero, and it will become useless when you inevitable upgrade your phone to a different sized one.

Re:Terrible Game

[CronoCloud]

You probably remember the trope of "Nintendo Hard" from the 1980's and 90's?

Yeah, I remember Nintendo Hard. I also know not to look at the past with rose colored glasses and know that the "Nintendo Hard" was often "Fake Difficulty" with "Trial and Error Gameplay" designed to increase how long it took to beat the very short games.

The early arcade inspired games like SMB, Ghouls & Ghosts, Ninja Gaiden, Castlevania, especially were very short. NES Castlevania is just 6 levels! NES Metroid can be beat in a couple of hours.

In fact, games like Ninja Gaiden were basically Arcade Games without quarters, that's why they were designed the way they were. Such design does not suit the home market.

Are you enjoying more "more inclusive hobby?"

Yeah, games respect our time better.

Re:Terrible Game

[CronoCloud]

I am, because I'm not some lefty

You sound like one of them globalist elites

Really, you're calling Mashiki, who is notoriously one of Slashdots alt-right-libertarian anti-"collectivist" anti-"sjw" randroid's a lefty?

Re:Terrible Game

[CronoCloud]

Today's games look nice but play like a 5 year old designed them.

Really? Games like Sunless Sea, Axiom Verge, War Thunder, Elite Dangerous, Divinity Original Sin, Xcom?

Heck, even Fortnite would count, in the Save the World mode. Which is a PVE Team sandbox buildin/tower defense/RPG/MMO-shooter hybrid

Re:Terrible Game

[Mashiki]

Battletech is a recent game, but can be quite difficult at times.

It actually has a "gear" limit for taking missions. If your mechs or weapons aren't good enough quality, you're in for some serious RNG loves you moments. Though pulling off a mission with a 90T drop and the opposing side comes stomping at you with 250T is fun.

Re:Terrible Game

[Tom]

And actually I think Morrowind already had adaptive difficulty, to some extent.

But yes, no matter how you look at it, the only thing that difficulty should adapt to is actual player performance. If I keep dying in the same spot, the game could give me a small break there. Bonus points if the break is optional and I can keep beating at the challenge when I want to.

We (ex-GF and me) once crossed half the LOTRO map with low-level characters, just for the fun of it. When we showed up in Rivendell at Level 10 people sure looked at us strangely. :-)

Re:Terrible Game

[Mashiki]

Really, you're calling Mashiki, who is notoriously one of Slashdots alt-right-libertarian anti-"collectivist" anti-"sjw" randroid's a lefty?

Sorry, I'm not alt-right. Don't fall into the libertarian camp. I am anti-collectivist. Try to avoid spewing bullshit.

Re:Terrible Game

[Mashiki]

Yeah, games respect our time better.

Except that's not what I said. Tell me something, how are all those "woke" games doing in terms of sales these days?

Re:Terrible Game

[CronoCloud]

So you're going in on the anti-sjw malarkey again? You know what, alt-right anti-SJW types like you complain more about shit than actual supposed "SJW's" do. YOU are the fragile snowflake who gets butthurt when a game has a playable female character or allows characters to romance NPC's of the same gender.

And they're doing fine, considering Fortnite is a game with many many different heroes of different ethnicities.

Re:Terrible Game

[CronoCloud]

I've seen your posts over the years and your views on many issues are right in line with the usual neckbearded alt-right-libertarian screeds. You may not think you're one, but if you walk and talk like a alt-right-libertarian neckbeard, don't be surprised when people think you're one.

Haven't seen an anti-collectivist yet, who doesn't think they're the next best thing to John Galt.

I am Andrew Ryan, and I'm here to ask you a question. Is a man not entitled to the sweat of his brow? "No," says the man in Washington, "it belongs to the poor." "No," says the man in the Vatican, "it belongs to God." "No," says the man in Moscow, "it belongs to everyone." I rejected those answers; instead, I chose something different. I chose the impossible. I chose... Rapture. A city where the artist would not fear the censor; where the scientist would not be bound by petty morality; where the great would not be constrained by the small! And with the sweat of your brow, Rapture can become your city as well.

That's basically you, and Andrew Ryan...is an expy of Ayn Rand.

Re:Terrible Game

[WhoBeDaPlaya]

Almost correct, but adaptive difficulty was first introduced into the franchise in Oblivion, not Skyrim. There are mods to turn if off.

Re:Terrible Game

[zlives]

i guess its a question of priority or what is important to the spender, I mean i have wasted enough money on games but typically it was for a new addon location or heck a game it self costs money that you could choose not to spend. but skin... i would much rather they allowed a user to customize it themselves with mod-tools.

especially when there is no resale value as you mentioned.

Re:Terrible Game

[Cederic]

Hmm. Are you claiming Spacechem, Opus Magnum adn Hacknet are difficult?

(I haven't played Age of Decadence.)

They're fun, they're interesting and they offer the opportunity to optimise the hell out of their solutions, but they're not exactly difficult.

You'll be telling me completing Hexcells with no mistakes is tricky next.

Difficult games do exist, I just disagree that the ones you've listed qualify.

Re:Terrible Game

[Tom]

You know, for some of us, we want to enjoy the game and not simply give up on it, and adaptive difficulty accepts that not all of us are capable of being l337 g4m3rs.

That is why games have difficulty settings and in good games you can change them during the game as well.

I've done this in quite a few games. For a particularily frustrating part, turn the difficulty down, play through it, then put it back up where the rest of the game is most enjoyable to me.

I still play Skyrim, precisely because I'm not on a fixed track in the game, and because I can actually play it without needing impossible reflexes which I'm never going to have.

It's what I liked about the Fallout combat system - it slows things down during combat if you want, great!

The problem with adaptive difficulty is that I as the player don't get a say in it. Maybe I want my game to be challenging? Or maybe I want to wander through it, enjoying the scenery and swatting enemies like flies because they're annoying and don't add to my style of gameplay? Adaptive difficulty doesn't let me make that decision.

Re:Terrible Game

[Mashiki]

I've seen your posts over the years and your views on many issues are right in line with the usual neckbearded alt-right-libertarian screeds. You may not think you're one, but if you walk and talk like a alt-right-libertarian neckbeard, don't be surprised when people think you're one.

Oh look, a left wing communist that thinks they know everything with the smoking remains of a 100 million dead around their ankles. Don't be surprised when people take you for an enemy of humanity.

Haven't seen an anti-collectivist yet, who doesn't think they're the next best thing to John Galt.

You should get out of your political and social bubble then.

That's basically you, and Andrew Ryan...is an expy of Ayn Rand.

Oh noes, whatever would I do with someone comparing me to a 2D character with more character flaws then Mao?

Re:Terrible Game

[Mashiki]

So you're going in on the anti-sjw malarkey again? You know what, alt-right anti-SJW types like you complain more about shit than actual supposed "SJW's" do.

Oh, you haven't been paying attention to the world as Sony has now become more censorious then Nintendo?

YOU are the fragile snowflake who gets butthurt when a game has a playable female character or allows characters to romance NPC's of the same gender.

Boy that's some Grade-A propaganda you're spewing there. So I, along with millions of gamers, suddenly, one day, had a problem with female PC's, and romancing the same gender. Does that make any sense to a rational person? You are rational right? And you can think on your own without some progressive nut telling you what to think.

And they're doing fine, considering Fortnite is a game with many many different heroes of different ethnicities.

Way to miss the point. Do you need me to draw you a diagram so you can understand why Dishonored 2 failed, and the new Wolfenstien game, and BFV? Give you a hint, that your basic understanding of gaming is less then the 13 year old telling you he's going to fuck your mom.

Re:Terrible Game

[CronoCloud]

Oh, you haven't been paying attention to the world as Sony has now become more censorious then Nintendo?

Not all those fanservice games involving under-age girls need to leave Japan.

So I, along with millions of gamers, suddenly, one day, had a problem with female PC's, and romancing the same gender.

Pretty much. How am I to think otherwise considering you used "woke" as a pejorative? What else is the problem?

Do you need me to draw you a diagram so you can understand why Dishonored 2 failed, and the new Wolfenstien game, and BFV?

They failed? Why do you think they failed? "Who" says they failed?" And might the "who" have an agenda? Considering the metacritic scores they did quite well. All 3 had higher than average review scores.

Give you a hint, that your basic understanding of gaming is less then the 13 year old telling you he's going to fuck your mom.

oh really? Prove it. I've been gaming longer than much of Slashdot has been alive. I've played games as varied as Pong, Gauntlet, Metroid, Chrono Trigger, Diablo (and Diablo 3), Nethack (on Linux, including both the PS2 and PS3 as well as Linux on X86), Fallout 3, Minecraft (On Linux, PS3, Vita and PS4), Star Trek Online (Linux and PS4), Fortnite and so on.

Re:Terrible Game

[CronoCloud]

Oh look, a left wing communist that thinks they know everything with the smoking remains of a 100 million dead around their ankles.

You think I'm a communist? Prove it. You'll find I've never said a positive thing about Stalin or Mao. And that I've never said the state should own the means of production...which is one of the things that define communism.

I really can't believe you engage in constant Red baiting in 2018? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

Red-baiting is a dusty old notorious bullshitting tactic used almost exclusively by the right-wing. It consists of making a false and/or groundless accusation that some person is a communist or fellow traveler, often with the aim of discrediting them or destroying their reputation. Essentially, everything that certain people dislike is to be considered Communist plots. As such, red-baiting is a form of guilt by association, a fallacy which Stalin himself used to justify some of his crimes.

And also:

"Cultural Marxism" (both uppercase) is a common snarl word used to paint anyone with progressive tendencies as a secret Communist. The term alludes to a conspiracy theory in which sinister left-wingers have infiltrated media, academia, and science and are engaged in a decades-long plot to undermine Western culture. Some variants of the conspiracy allege that basically all of modern social liberalism is, in fact, a Communist front group.

I'm glad they turned it around...

[h4x0t]

Fortnite was a flop. The Battle Royale mode was a slap dash add on to a failed game. They snuck into a market niche that was wide open: Free BR game with an approachable aesthetic. They monitized it very well without cries of "Pay to Win". PubG is only now starting to catch up in terms of functional sustaining revenue, and they have already lost the majority of their player base.

Re:I'm glad they turned it around...

[JaredOfEuropa]

Free BR game with an approachable aesthetic

Ugh, it looks terrible but maybe that's just me. I preferred PUBG by far... except that I was hopeless at that game. No threat indicators and (when I played it) godawful netcode; there were tricks to knowing where the enemy is and actually being able to hit them but somehow I never caught on (though I do pretty decent in any other shooter). And I wasn't the only one who got frustrated and gave up.

Re:I'm glad they turned it around...

[h4x0t]

I'm right there with you. I still get pulled into PubG squads to this day (I also suck at it, and agree it was never "fixed" ). Fortnite never did it for me. The game plays all wonky and is for all intents and purposes, "for babies", as it were.

I am still glad that their model of free game + 100% cosmetic microtransactions yielded them success. It's an admirable model.

Re:I'm glad they turned it around...

[h4x0t]

Ah, it would appear that you did not catch the meaning in my comment.
Fortnite released originally as a tower defense / hero defense game. It was garbage and Dead on Arrival. The thing people know as 'Fortnite' is fully titled Fortnite: Battle Royale and came out months after the original release.

But thanks for the ignorant vitriol, it fuels my studies.

Re:I'm glad they turned it around...

[CronoCloud]

Fortnite released originally as a tower defense / hero defense game. It was garbage and Dead on Arrival.

While it is not as popular as Fortnite: Battle Royale amongst the masses, considering the complexity of game mechanics, Fortnite: Save The World isn't doing too bad itself and has been getting updates and new content since the beginning. I only play "STW" myself and have been playing since September of 2017. It is much improved from what it was then

Ranger Beetlejess says "It's like herding cats...and blowing up cats."

Re:I'm glad they turned it around...

[h4x0t]

K.

You clearly don't know what you are talking about. Fortnite STW was literally the only game that was intended. It was in development for 6 years. It went from one of the 'top 10 most anticipated games of 2017' to a 6.5 review in october 17 by IGN. I'm certain I could find similar reviews from the time-frame for other sites.

BR was developed in the 63 days after STW's early access release (also, using early access as an out for a triple A title that was in development for 6 years is a joke) and it saved the franchise. This process was only accomplished by pulling resources from the unreal tournament team (which is smart because balanced FPS is their bread and butter going on 20+ years). My original comment merely states that I am glad that they were able to turn STW (garbage) into something that made them money. STW is still garbage btw. Minecraft without mining? Really? 3 material types? Can you even fish in that game?

Re:I'm glad they turned it around...

[h4x0t]

From the outside we only see what tops the charts. Much like pop music is as bland and saccharine as it was in the early days, so too are triple A blockbuster video games.

Undertale did a great job making old things new. And it was actually a commercial success to boot.
Super Meat Boy's success was due to it's surprising depth, beautiful controls, and innovative stance on dying.
Some of the VR 'experience' titles are good, if short lived, fun.

But in general, I would agree. Most of the gameplay tools are the same, so only the stories are new. Most of the stories are the same too... Anything with a focus on multiplayer generally makes no real attempt at a story, so they very much seem like the same game with new models.

Re:I'm glad they turned it around...

[Cederic]

Hmm. Fortnite was not a successful product. It was struggling to attract and to retain users in its original guise.

It was only when they copied the Battle Royale mechanics that Plunkbat made so popular that Fortnite really took off and became successful.

I would ask who the fucking loser is here, but I think the terrible grammar of your second sentence helps answer that one.

Wish they would finish UT4

[DavenH]

They pulled devs from UT4 to help with the mega-successful Fortnite, but it's making so much money I don't understand how they can't afford to triple or quadruple the size of their team and pursue many passion projects like UT4 without any fear of insolvency. UT is such an awesome game (and whatever Quake's status, it doesn't have the game-defining shock rifle) that has appeased hardcore gamers for decades, and now they can well afford to give it some love again, so I hope they do.

Re:Wish they would finish UT4

[Red_Forman]

Now that they have a shitload of money they don't really care about making games anymore.

Kind of like Apple. They used to make good computers with a good operating system but now that they have a shitload of money they don't really care about making good computers or operating systems anymore.

Re:Wish they would finish UT4

[DarkRookie2]

You can throw in MS, Google, and pretty much every tech company.

Re:Wish they would finish UT4

[mentil]

Valve is a far better example. Left 4 Dead was made by a studio they bought out, they haven't made nearly anything since the Orange Box, thanks to Steam.

Re:Wish they would finish UT4

[Cederic]

To be fair the new UT development seemed primarily a vehicle for giving the engine developers a testbed and mechanism to better understand the engine capabilities and features.

Epic had pivoted to become an engine company rather than a games one.

Fortnite offers those capabilities and generates substantial revenue in its own right, so UT becomes a distraction that Epic can disregard.

It's a shame, and the original UT remains the greatest online twitch based FPS, but I can understand the commercial factors involved.

Free to Play

[nehumanuscrede]

Made $3B profit selling digital stuff to make it âoe fun âoe.

Should tell you all you need to know about the Free to Play model.

Re:Free to Play

[DarkRookie2]

Pay-to-win. There is no free to play.
You win by collecting the bling. Who cares about the game when you have that $100 emote and $100 costume.

Re:Free to Play

[thegarbz]

Should tell you all you need to know about the Free to Play model.

That people prefer to look good when they kick arse (or get their arses handed to them)? In other news people buy wonderfully finished silver iPhones and then pay money for something to cover it up in the hope it makes them unique. That doesn't mean their iPhone is any better.

Re:Good on them. Not like the dishonest Zenimax

[DarkRookie2]

He is a CEO of an American Company. He is dishonest and greedy by default.
Plus I am pretty sure he has been caught with his foot in his mouth. Just not recently.

People like to Dress and Dance

[turp182]

People of all ages like to dress a way they like. Fortnite offers that in the game (sort of).

People would like to be able to dance. Fortnite offers this (and my kids dance better as a result, I still suck).

Either of those facets could be a successful game (many aimed at young girls are regarding clothes/looks).

Now they have Playground mode (hunt your friends), Creative mode (similar to Minecraft), and all of the other regular modes, it's a pretty cool game.

They have aced 4 player co-op as well. And completely cross platform.

It's a rather incredible game, I just watch my kids (boy and girl) play, I'm not good enough at this point.

I do enjoy the updates. Keeps the game fresh.

Re:People like to Dress and Dance

[Solandri]

Creative mode (similar to Minecraft)

I watched a couple streams of Fortnite on YouTube, and thought chopping trees was a silly way of incorporating resource collection into a buildout (i.e. Starcraft). But then I realized it was taking advantage of the learned behavior of a hundred million kids who grew up playing Minecraft. Brilliant. Not for me, but brilliant.

Re:People like to Dress and Dance

[CronoCloud]

In the Save the World mode, there is even MORE resource collecting and looting. Not just trees, but stone, metal, cars, coal, containers from boxes to mailboxes to cupboards. If it exists in STW, you can either loot it, or break it with the pickaxe, or both, to craft weapons and traps from schematics.

Lord of the Flies?

[Harvey Manfrenjenson]

Lord of the Flies is about a bunch of schoolkids who start out trying to cooperate and end up turning on each other, so I don't know what it has to do with a game where the explicit goal is for everyone to kill each other. Because they both take place on an island?

Re:Lord of the Flies?

[Nidi62]

Lord of the Flies is about a bunch of schoolkids who start out trying to cooperate and end up turning on each other, so I don't know what it has to do with a game where the explicit goal is for everyone to kill each other. Because they both take place on an island?

Maybe the winner of Fortnite gets a conch?

Re:Lord of the Flies?

[mentil]

Because deus ex machina is the only thing that can save us from Fortnite?

Re: Anyone else getting sick of all the game store

[Anonymous Coward]

that makes sense because games have to be ported, which takes time and effort.

That in itself is an outdated excuse. It made sense back in the 80s and 90s because the architecture of different systems was vastly different (and they still did it because they realized that more people are willing to buy a game on a system they own than buy a whole extra system for one game). Nowadays, the architecture is almost all x86 and x64, porting has become next to trivial unless you're Japanese (somehow they manage to screw it up most times), and the only reason exclusives exist is because there wouldn't be a reason to buy consoles otherwise.

Fuck your blind support of walled gardens and artificial exclusivity.

And I bet _they_ aren't playing gams

[cjonslashdot]

They are enjoying their profits in the real world.

Re:Yeah, wow, suddenly

[goose-incarnated]

spending four years memorizing Maxwell's Equations to get an EE degree so I can fight for crumbs against a billion Chinese and a billion Indians sure seems like a good idea!

You think the chinese and indian universities don't teach those things you learned?

Re:Don't they have PUBG to thank?

[Pinky's Brain]

The PubG aesthetic could never have caught on with kids like this did. Epic fluking into the teen market made this as huge as it is.

They caught lightning in a bottle, trying to convert their current near monopoly on teen gamers into enticing them into buying more games through an Epic storefront is a very smart way to follow it up ... worked for Valve.

Denuvo hits your drive pretty hard

[rsilvergun]

depending on how it's used. That's what kills an SSD. Lots of reads and writes to obfuscate what it's doing.

Re:Don't they have PUBG to thank?

[thegarbz]

we need to add our own battle royale mode into Fortnite" and -boom- the rest was history.

Metoo usually doesn't sway players to drop one game for another.

Remember there's another difference:
Pubg: https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbo...
Fortnite: https://3bonlp1aiidtbao4s10xac...

And then also remember that realistic shooters come and go while Team Fortress 2 still has a player base 11 years later: https://i.kinja-img.com/gawker...

I think there's another highly popular online game I'm missing too... https://image.redbull.com/rbco...

Those pictures should tell you the difference and why Fortnite appeals to masses.

Re:Don't they have PUBG to thank?

[CronoCloud]

Isn't PUBG the reason Fortnite is enjoying this level of success?

Sort of, but not really.

Fortnite is a Battle Royale game that:
1. Passes the "Mom test" with it's Pixar aesthetics and lack of blood
2. Is T Rated
3. Is F2P
4. Was available on more platforms than PUBG was, most importantly, the PS4.
5. Performs better and isn't as much of a buggy mess as PUBG is.

AND it has the original PVE Save The World mode for those who prefer PVE to PVP.

Good for them?

[argStyopa]

...they have a popular product that is FREE TO PLAY and people are (to me, crazily) spending shit-tons of cash on vanity items.

It's literally the most ephemeral, non-utilitarian way someone can spend money and is entirely voluntary - it's certainly no more stupid than buying "3 more turns" on Kandy Krush, and King has been raking in >$1bn a year for a while now.

Pretty sure we've nailed down the new opiate of the masses, though.