It’s hard to find someone who hasn’t heard of Fortnite right now, especially in the gaming community. The game, which was once a common zombie battle simulator, is now a financial and cultural phenomenon. Epic Games has not only released a great product in the battle royale genre, but they have taken this genre to the next level.
You can speculate for a long time about what exactly is the key to the success of the game – a sudden pandemic forcing people to dive deeper into online, simple game mechanics that are beginners-friendly, or something else. But you can’t deny the impact of the developer’s phenomenal creativity. It manifests itself in everything from character skins to unique marketing, but most importantly – in game events (events). Despite its name, in-game events in Fortnite can often be almost unrelated to the game, but no less interesting to the wider public. Loud events are Fortnite’s trump card, and that’s what we’ll be talking about in our article today.
Online concerts
You’ve definitely heard of this type of Fortnite events. Epic Games set a unique precedent by launching a live show inside a virtual game. In the context of the global COVID-19 pandemic and the lockdown, this was a breath of fresh air for bored people.
However, it is worth noting that the first concert inside Fortnite took place long before the pandemic began, back in early 2019. The pioneer was the famous American DJ Marshmello. The developers created a special concert area where spectators could dance and use their favorite emoji while listening to live music. The musician did not chill out all that time – the behavior of his avatar on stage was not pre-recorded, instead, Marshmello used a motion capture system for the entire concert.
The innovative idea turned out to be successful – at least 10 million players attended the performance. Shortly after that, Fortnite began regularly hosting concerts, a new song or music video launches from many famous artists like BTS.
Astronomical and the giant Travis Scott
Astronomical is a concert by renowned American rapper Travis Scott, which deserves special mention for many reasons.
First of all, the scope. While the developers created the stage and the podium for the rest of the performers, Scott used the whole separate island. The rapper himself received an avatar the size of a multi-story building, which danced around the island and changed it as he pleases. One moment, the environment (and also Travis’ pants) is in flames, and the next thing you know you are transported to the bottom of the deep ocean. But the apogee of the performance was the presentation of a new song, during which Scott rode the planet (!) in a futuristic costume.
Naturally, the attendance was just as incredible. In the first of five shows, the show was visited by about 12 million players, and in all five performances, the figure reached 46 million.
Showcase of Nolan’s films
Not all Fortnite events have been successful. Some of the creative experiments of Epic Games have turned out worse than others, if not outright failure.
A perfect example of this disappointment was “movie nite”. Cinematography is one of the most popular forms of entertainment on the planet, so it was obvious that Fortnite would use it sooner or later. After all, if the game has already hosted concerts of giant rappers, then why not hold a film screening as well? Especially if you use the motion pictures of Christopher Nolan, one of the most popular directors of the present time. Users in different countries were to be shown one of three films: “Prestige“, “Batman Begins” or “Inception“.
The idea was great, but the execution let us down. Everything is bogged down in the obvious problem of using any film – copyright. Epic Games tried to show three films in different languages to a multi-million audience. Some copyright holders didn’t allow to use the pictures, so players from Puerto Rico, Canada, Russia, and some other countries were not able to watch a single film. Instead, they were shown performances by some of the artists. Better than nothing, but still not what we wanted.
Fortnite x Marvel
And yet, Fortnite is known for more than concerts or movies. They also have many truly “game” events in which users could participate directly.
Among them, the most famous was the battle with the supervillain Galactus as part of a collaboration with Marvel. More than 15 million users took part in the battle with the evil giant, who strives to take over the world. Some Marvel superheroes like Wolverine or Iron Man helped them during the fierce clash.
Of course, the evil powers lose, and such a large-scale battle will be remembered for a long time by its participants.
“The Final Showdown“
If we’re talking about gigantic opponents, then it’s worth mentioning the epic “Decisive Battle” – another game event in Fortnite. It was a fight between a cyclops and a robot, and both were the size of a mountain. Nothing special, right?
This time, the audience did not take part in the battle and were just spectators, but even so, the public’s interest was maximum. During the battle, until the last moment, it was not clear who would win, but in the end, the robot took the victory (albeit with the help of a power sphere from the Vault). Immediately after the end of the duel, the mech performed a victory dance and rushed into the sky in the Iron Man-like fashion. Just another day at Fortnite.
The End
This event can be called the most shocking one. The thing is that the game periodically goes “to rest” after massive events like the aforementioned battle with Galactus. In this case, the game becomes unavailable for several days.
Now such “reboots” have become quite commonplace. But when it first happened, most of the players were shocked. The developers approached the restart in an original way: after the launch of the next rocket, the sky was covered with cracks. And then a local Armageddon began, resulting in the appearance of a black hole. The entire game universe was sucked into it, and for a couple of days, this hole was the only thing that players could see. At the same time, Epic Games did not explain anything at all, and for several days only an image of a black hole hung on Fortnite’s social networks.
Fortunately, the second chapter of the game began soon after that, and everything returned to normal, but gamers will not soon forget this.
In short, you can love or hate Fortnite – but it cannot be ignored as it is becoming an increasingly integral part of the entertainment industry every day. And its in-game events are one of the key reasons for this process.
