When was Fortnite made? Here is a look back at the iconic history of the game that broke the Internet and took the world by storm.
Hard to believe that it’s been almost 3 years since Fortnite was first released by Epic Games. Time does fly by. Here’s a look match at the rich history of the world’s most popular game today.
🎂🎂🎂
Tomorrow Fortnite celebrates its 3rd Birthday! Join us for Birthday Challenges which include free rewards!
More info tomorrow. pic.twitter.com/JmadoWnvDh
— Fortnite (@FortniteGame) September 25, 2020
When was Fortnite made?
Epic Games released Fortnite on the 25th of July, 2017 and changed the course of video gaming history forever.
However, for die-hard fans of the game’s most popular Battle Royale version, it may be hard to believe that a Battle Royale wasn’t what Epic Games initially had in mind! In fact, they released Fortnite for the first time in its “Save the World” version. This is the game’s relatively unpopular PvE format where a team of players fight waves of zombies on an Island.
The iconic Battle Royale game mode released on 26th of Sept, almost 2 months later. Even then, the game wasn’t complete and Epic let it out as an early access title.
So, why this premature beginning? Also, why even bother to release a different game mode, to begin with? Let’s have a look.
How did Fortnite come to be?
Epic Games started working on Fortnite from as early as 2011. That’s 6 years worth of work! (Yikes! That is a long time!) The inspiration behind Fortnite rose from an attempt to merge the construction genre of video games, such as Minecraft, with the shooting genre, such as Call of Duty.
However, there were a lot of delays in the overall process. A switch from Unreal Engine 3 to 4 slowed down the process a great deal. Epic also decided to extend the life of their game. So, they took a roleplaying approach to the game and developed the game as a service model. For this, they brought in Tencent to help them with all of their experience. (Funny, how the decision has come back to haunt them today! Read more about a potential Fortnite US ban here.) All of these revisions cost Epic a lot of time. So, it was almost 6 years before they released the “Save the World” version in July 2017.
However, around the same time, PUBG, a Battle Royale game, had been all the craze. This gave the team an interesting idea. PUBG had nearly 5 million players within a few months of its release. So, Epic realised the potential of this new game mode and decided to bring it into their already published core game. Within 2 months, they rapidly built the Battle Royale mode and published it in September as early access.
From here on out, the rest, as they say, is history.
The Response that shook the World.
Once released, Fortnite: Battle Royale took the world by storm. A Battle Royale game mode with Minecraft mechanics was unique and great fun. Nearly 10 million players began playing the game within 2 weeks of its release. And Fortnite never looked back since. The player count rose to 125 million within the next 10 months and the game earned $1.2 Billion in revenue.
Epic Games has managed and promoted the game expertly over the years. With iconic collabs, regular updates and a free to play release, they have kept things fresh and players happy. The pro-am tournament in 2018 was a huge marketing success and helped popularise the game. Moreover, events like the 30 million USD Fortnite World Cup have cemented the game’s place in the pro scene as well.
Ever since its release, the game has kept up its steady numbers. Fortnite netted a revenue of 2.4 billion USD in 2018 and 1.8 billion in 2019. The player count has also risen steadily. It was around 250 million in 2019. At present, in 2020, the numbers are upwards of 350 million.
With such staggering numbers and iconic success, Fortnite has set the benchmark for video gaming success in the future. And, though records are meant to be broken, this one will, without any doubt, be a tough one to break.
Also Read: Fortnite x BTS: A New Future Gaming & Music?
