Mark Acosta
Sports Editor
The concept for Fortnite was first revealed in 2011, and today it is one of the most popular games with over 3 million concurrent users across various consoles.
Fortnite is a third person shooter game with two modes: player versus environment or “Save the World,” where players fight off waves of monsters.
All the while players are scavenging resources and building a defensive base, essentially a tower defense.
There is also a player versus player or “Battle Royale” mode. Battle Royale can be played as a solo game or with a team and the goal is to be the last person or team standing.
The game lobby size for Battle Royale is 100 people, so winning games can be tough.
Battle Royale is free and can be played across various consoles and even PC, while Save the World mode will become free later on this year.
Currently, you have to pay at least $40 to use that game mode.
“Battle Royale is an incredible amount of fun because you have the possibility of surviving against 99 other people,” junior computer science major Sean Gribbin, vice president of La Verne Gaming, said. “It’s free and it is the most optimized Battle Royale game we have.”
Fortnite was released in July, six years after the initial reveal by developers Epic Games and People Can Fly.
Initially, released with only Save the World mode, the moderate success called for them to compete with the explosion of Player Unknown’s Battleground, which runs at about $30 in Beta form.
Epic then introduced the free Battle Royale mode, propelling Fortnite to the top of the charts in terms of units sold and popularity on streaming sites like Twitch and YouTube.
What makes Fortnite different than other Battle Royale games is the building aspect. Similar to what players would find in a survival title like Rust, from Facepunch Studios, they gather resources like wood, brick and steel by breaking down structures throughout the map.
This allows players to add another strategic layer to their game play by consuming those resources to build forts and structures to fend off enemies and increase chances of being the last man standing.
“The best part of the game is I can build myself out of any situation,” junior computer science major Brennan Owed said. “Whether I get sandwiched from both sides or someone has the high ground on me, I can come out on top.”
Epic Games uses feedback from players to inform the changes they make to the game. They recently remade the map and added new weapons, costumes for the players and victory dances. With constant updates and maintenance, Fortnite gives users a smoother gaming experience than other games.
“Every time I get a kill I ‘make it rain’ on the player who could not kill me,” senior kinesiology major Jehlany Garnett said.
The game’s popularity has grown because you do not have to spend money in order to play. Games can be pricey, but the free game has allowed more people to use it and push it forward. Epic Games announced that sometime in 2018 Fortnite will be available on Android and iOS devices.
Celebrities are also taking up Fortnite. On Wednesday night, rappers Drake and Travis Scott teamed up with NFL wide receiver JuJu Smith-Schuster and professional gamer Ninja and streamed it on Twitch. The four man squad set a record for the most watch Twitch stream to date with over 600,000 people watching. This smashed the old record of 400,000.
Epic invites user feedback to improve the gaming experience.
Once it rounded up a couple million users, servers began to crash because they could not handle that much traffic. That issue was fixed quickly so people could keep playing.
Junior kinesiology major Josh Evans says he enjoys playing because it brings him and all of his friends together.
“I have played for a couple moths now,” Evans said. “Having friends around and playing with each other can be funny and competitive.”
Mark Acosta can be reached at mark.acosta@laverne.edu.
