Epic Games boss plans to make Fortnite more than just “a game”

Connor Bennett
Epic Games

Epic Games boss Tim Sweeney has hinted at the fact that the Fortnite developers have plans to take the battle royale title beyond being just a game.

Since releasing back in 2017, Fortnite has become a cultural phenomenon. The battle royale side of the Epic Games title has seen players from across the globe dive into games in the hopes of claiming a victory royale.

Yet, it’s gone beyond what some might consider a typical gaming crowd. Megastars like Drake have teamed up with regular players like Ninja for a match, while other celebrities have cultivated a streaming fanbase out of it. Epic themselves have even linked up with pop culture trends like Marvel’s Avengers and Netflix’s Stranger Things to provide successful crossovers.

Epic Games
Pop culture crossovers have helped increased the already surging popularity of Fortnite.

As of now, it is still solely a game with a huge following, but it seems like Epic Games have plans to create something much, much bigger off the back of their battle royale.

Tim Sweeney, the CEO of the games studio, was quizzed about wheter or not he considered Fortnite to be solely a game or a platform in its current standing. “Fortnite is a game,” he said, replying to an inquisitive fan. “But please ask that question again in 12 months.”

While the response went largely under the radar in terms of follow-ups, a Polish journalist quickly noted that players are currently treating it “as a meeting spot” and it is “better than heartless social networks.”

However, Sweeney himself disagreed with that – as of right now, anyway. He responded: “I’ll adhere to the 1990’s definition that something is a platform when the majority of content people spend time with is created by others.”

Of course, as of right now, the majority of players stick with the battle royale that Epic has created, while others have made a name for themselves with the creative side of things.

Wheter or not the developers will open the game up, say allowing creators to rustle up a new battle royale map for everyone else or making creative a bigger part of the game anyway, remains to be seen.

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