You don't need to be a great video game expert to know what Fortnite is: even if you've never played it, just be in contact with the world of children and adolescents or be attentive to the trends of the moment, since Fortnite has had a great also happened among footballers and in general among young adults. If, on the other hand, you have arrived until 2019 not knowing what it is: Fortnite is a video game for consoles, smartphones and computers whose main mode is called “battle royale”. It means that a hundred players clash on a ground that gets smaller and smaller, until there is only one left.
– Read also : “Fortnite” for beginners
It is not the first time that a video game has had such an extensive and transversal success. In 2016 it was the turn of Pokémon Go, the augmented reality game with which you could go around and catch Pokémon on the street. Then, after about a year, interest had deflated and the game had gone out of style, which is not happening in Fortnite, which is still having a great time. Forbes magazine has put together a few reasons why the game doesn't seem to be going out of style.
Fortnite is free, but it has a great business model Downloading the game on your smartphone or on the Playstation costs nothing to the user, just as it costs nothing to play and access all modes. What are the substantial revenues of Epic Games, the company that developed Fortnite based on? On the so-called “microtransactions”, that is, the purchases that can be made within the game. By spending real money it is possible to obtain a virtual currency with which you can then buy expansions and customizations for your character, exclusively aesthetic. Forbes says this business model is not only effective – it earned Epic Games $ 3 billion in 2018 – but it is also frowned upon by gamers and industry experts, as the game base remains free and no purchase is required. customizations to unlock new levels of play.
The game changes constantly Fortnite keeps the interest of its players high by spreading new elements every week that change the landscape of the game and add new things. The map where the players move is only one, but the developers are careful to ensure that it is constantly evolving, adding from time to time falling meteorites, ice castles, or introducing new weapons; all this can always be used by players for free, without having to pay to download expansions or extra packs.
Epic Games is attentive to player requests One of the main reasons why Epic Games continues to be successful with Fortnite is the unique way they communicate with their community of players. Forbes points out that the manufacturer is extremely attentive to feedback from its users, not hesitating to withdraw weapons or new expansions that do not receive a good reception, sometimes within a single day. To give an example, Fortnite recently released a weapon called the “Infinity Blade” which has greatly shifted the balance of the game, which is why it has not been positively received by some players. Even though the developers had devoted time (and money) to the expansion, they didn't mind taking it down in a matter of days.
Fortnite isn't just a game It's not often that a game is also labeled a “cultural phenomenon”, but Fortnite is one of those cases. The dances that are done in the game in case of victory have been re-proposed as celebrations by very famous football players, while the mode that allows users to meet online makes it something more than a simple game, and also similar to a social network . The popularity of the game has also created some legal trouble: an actor from the TV series Willy, the Prince of Bel Air has complained to Fortnite for having copied the movements of a dance.
Absence of competitors
Fortnite has no real competitors at the moment. The basic setting of the game is not new, but takes up that of other similar games such as Player Unknown's Battlegrounds, with some differences that have made it successful: in addition to those listed so far, also the fact that the graphics are more captivating – similar to that of a cartoon – has decreed a part of its success, as it characterizes the game in a unique way. Right now, therefore, no game similar to Fortnite is in a position to question its success.
