'Fortnite' Creator Sees Epic Games Becoming as Big as Facebook, Google (variety.com)

The company behind "Fortnite" wants to become the next Facebook or Google, said Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney. The idea isn't much of a stretch. From a report: While "Fortnite" began life as a relatively mundane game it continues to evolve, first by adding a battle royale mode, and then by leaning on the game's massive install base to turn the title into something more akin to a social platform that can host concerts, tell stories, and inspire creativity. Sweeney points to the game's popularity as a "mass-market streaming phenomenon," the moment when "Fortnite" player teamed up with musician Drake in-game, and when the game played host to about 10 million people in a live, in-game Marshmello concert. "We feel the game industry is changing in some major ways," he said. "'Fortnite' is a harbinger of things to come. It's a massive number of people all playing together, interacting together, not just playing but socializing."

"In many ways 'Fortnite' is like a social network. People are just in the game with strangers, they're playing with friends and using 'Fortnite' as a foundation to communicate." Flush with a relatively recent $1.25 billion investment from a half-dozen investment firms and the steady flow of cash from both "Fortnite" and Epic Game's Unreal game engine, Sweeney has big plans for the company.

Comments

Doubtful

[rsilvergun]

Google is a massive hub for information. Facebook is a social hub for most people. Fortnite's a pretty decent PUBG clone that happens to run on lower end hardware. It's hit a critical mass that means it's probably not going away or anything. But, well, I thought the same thing about Angry Birds....

Second Life

[Anonymous Coward]

Remember when everyone thought this about Second life? https://slashdot.org/story/06/...

Sounds like this might be a repeat of history

Wow, someone has a very high opinion of themselves

[elrous0]

You've had one hit game. You're not a cultural revolution, snowflake.

Re:Fortnite way more traction than Angry Birds

[chispito]

Fortnite has had huge gains in adoption, and has gone way beyond where Angry Birds was in terms of cultural impact - they are even attending concerts in Fortnite now, and lots of people watch streamers play which was never the case with Angry Birds. So it too is a kind of social community, especially the streams...

Minecraft is probably a better comparison, and I don't see Fortnite having close to the same lasting appeal or impact. It's a stylish, but limited game that still revolves around guns as much as anything.