Fortnite Overview
The single largest viewed in-game concert was the Travis Scott in-game concert in April 2020, which drew 12.3 million in-game players to watch. The single largest viewed-in game event was the Devourer of Worlds Event, which brought 15.3 million in-game players and an additional 3.4 million people watching through streams. Solo mobile players, or squads entirely consisting of mobile players will play solely with other mobile players by default for fairness; players however can use cross-platform play to join squads on other platforms, and matchmaking will consider all available matches. With the March 2019 for cross-platform play, the game will similar matchmake PlayStation 4 and Xbox One users by default to avoid these players being at a disadvantage against computer users. Travis Scott performed a virtual "Astronomical" tour in support of his 2018 album Astroworld within Fortnite on multiple live concerts between April 23 and 25, 2020, including the premier of a new song, The Scotts, featuring Kid Cudi. The first performance on April 23 was estimated to have drawn over 12.3 million players to watch, while a total of 27.7 million unique viewers cumulatively watched the concerts.
Tools to merge multiple Epic accounts as well as unlinking console accounts from an Epic account to attach to another were released in February 2019. The first full patch adding in cross-platform play support across all consoles was released in March 2019. Epic announced in May 2020 alongside its reveal of the upcoming Unreal Engine 5 that ports of Fortnite for the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X are planned to be available at the time of consoles' releases in late 2020. These will initially run on Unreal Engine 4, but the game is expected to transition to Unreal Engine 5 by mid-2021 when the engine is released. J Balvin performed Fortnite a live concert in the "Party Royale" game mode on October 31, 2020, premiering a new song titled "La Luz." Anyone who attended the concert could get a special J Balvin style for the Party Trooper outfit.
In November 2018, Epic partnered with the National Football League to make character skins for each of the 32 teams in the league available to purchase for a limited time. This was the result of the influence of Fortnite on NFL players, who had frequently performed Fortnite dance emotes as touchdown celebrations. For the first five seasons, all ports of Fortnite Battle Royale supported cross-platform play with other versions, but with limited interaction in regards to the PlayStation 4.
A "Battle Lab" mode was added in December 2019 for players to create their own custom battle royale games. In April 2020, a new "Party Royale" mode was added, taking place on a small map where combat and construction was disabled though non-lethal gameplay items can be acquired like paint guns and vehicles; this map was aimed to be used as a social space, as well as to host in-game events like concerts. The idea for Battle Royale arose following the release of PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds in 2017, a similar battle royale game that was highly successful but noted for its technical flaws. Originally released as part of the early access version of Save the World, Epic later transitioned the game to a free-to-play model funded by microtransactions. Following its rise in popularity, Epic split the development team, with one focusing on Battle Royale and the other on Save the World.
Although there are some perks available without spending a single dime, if you want to get the best skins and other items you'll need the Battle Pass. It costs 950 V-Bucks, meaning you'll need to buy the smallest V-Bucks bundle, at $9.99 / £7.99. After that it's just a case of playing and ticking off as many challenges as you can to start earning yourself some gear.
With an upcoming patch, the game introduced skill-based matchmaking, based on internal metrics that judge a player's skill in the game. Further, with Chapter 2 Season 1, the game will add special matches against computer-controlled bots to help players practice the game. This includes writing detailed guides for all of the challenges, as well as keeping you up-to-date on any freebies and things you can earn by playing the game. In today’s gaming news, AbleGamers had a wildly successful anniversary, Fortnite definitely didn’t release an Among Us clone, and more.