What am I talking about? Fortnite is no longer a game, it is a platform. Or rather, it is becoming. The tweet, below, is from five months ago and exposes the matter as explicitly as possible. Tim Sweeney himself, founder and CEO of Epic, says that yes, Fortnite is a game, but that the concept will have to be re-discussed within the successes 12 months.
Fortnite is a game. But please ask that question again in 12 months.
- Tim Sweeney (@TimSweeneyEpic) December 26, 2019
How is Fortnite becoming a platform?
Obviously this is not a sudden process. Epic Games' game cannot become something completely different in the space of an update, not least because a platform is not given only by its contents, but rather is a consequence of the people who populate it. Fortnite, however, has already taken some steps in this direction, in a more or less "stealthy" way.
The move to Chapter 2 was one of the first. The Black Hole of Fortnite was not only an interesting way (albeit not too original, remember Final Fantasy 14 Online) to give the public a new map, or to slightly rejuvenate the technical apparatus of the battle royale. It was a mission statement, a "here things are changing, get ready for a new Big Bang". The first fruits of these ideas are well seeing in this Season 2 and bear the name of Papaya (unintentional pun, ed), or the new map, e Royal Party, the mode that eliminates fighting and the ability to create structures. This is not a small move, given that these two elements are the heart of the identity of the "old Fortnite".
Papaya and the Royal Party have the purpose of aggregating the players who, at that moment, do not want to compete in the "stressful" Royal Battle. You can relax with mini-games and meet up with friends, as in a sort of new PlayStation Home (how many remember?) In a simplified version. Papaya is also the place that Epic Games is exploiting to give its users (not players, users) new content. There has recently been a way to see the Tenet trailer, Nolan's new film, and an entire feature film by the same director will be played over the course of the summer. Let's not forget then live concerts such as Deadmau5, Steve Aoki and Dillon Francis.
Instead of living these experiences on YouTube or Facebook, it was possible to do it "in person", with your avatar. Fortnite at that time was not a game, but it was a virtual environment in which it was possible to gather together with other users to experience content of various kinds. Let's not forget the strength of Creative Mode which, like what mods do in offline games or what Dreams aims to do (another example of a platform, rather than a game), is a source of user-generated content for users. .
What is written above is, in a nutshell, the description of a platform. Tim Sweenet himself says it: "Something is a platform where most of the content that people spend time with is created by others."
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.
- Tim Sweeney (@TimSweeneyEpic) December 26, 2019
Fortnite should therefore not be placed on the same level as an Apex Legends, a PUBG or a Call of Duty Warzone. It has been in another type of market for some time, with new objectives and new strategies. Although it is obvious that Epic Games must continue to support the Royal Battle, to propose skins and therefore earn more than 3000 euros per minute in the most classic way possible, it is also true that by now this is not the main "concern" within the Epic studies.
Fortnite is evolving and with this Season 3 it must prove that it has a clear idea of what it wants to be and the way it wants to become it. Above all, it must communicate it explicitly and clearly to the public, and then make it definitive with Season 4 next autumn-winter. Season 3 is therefore the most important ever because will tell us definitively if Fortnite is destined to stay here even when the "fashion" of battle royale will be over or if it falls under its own weight, as soon as the market turns its gaze in another direction.
If your main concern is, for now, recovering the new skins, you can take advantage of the possibility of getting some free v-buck with a top-up of the console wallet: available on Amazon.
