- [Narrator] Fortnite
wasn't originally planned
to be the game that you're
familiar with today.
It actually started out as
something much different,
and because of the way this game
has rapidly grown and transitioned,
it has created a much bigger problem
that Epic Games has to find
a way to properly deal with.
But before we can get into this,
we need to talk about the
history of the game itself.
Fortnite as we know it has grown to become
one of the most popular,
and if not the most popular,
battle royale game of all time.
And the crazy thing is that
the Battle Royale version
only came out in September of 2017.
I remember seeing the launch
of Fortnite Battle Royale,
and until that point, I had
never even heard of the game.
I instantly thought, "Oh,
another battle royale game
"that we don't want and we don't need.
"How exciting."
But it turns out Fortnite
was originally planned
to be something much different,
and it was announced all
the way back in 2011.
- [Man] Okay, put the camera
down, man, it's showtime.
- Alright, clear!
(loud explosion)
(men clamoring)
- [Man] Grab what you can!
- [Narrator] The thought behind
the original Fortnite game
started as a refresher,
something that Epic Games
wanted to casually work on to relax
and have some fun after
releasing Gears of War 3.
They simply wanted to take a breather
and work on something
different and less serious,
and looking back at this,
this game was basically
a passion project and not a priority.
I guarantee you that
the devs at Epic Games
would never have expected for this game
to be as big as it has become.
Anyways, getting back on topic,
this game was originally planned to be
a relaxing, casual survival building game.
The developers took inspiration
from other popular building games,
such as Terraria and Minecraft.
And since they were used
to working on a project
such as Gears of War, Fortnite
was actually originally
planned to be a dark, foggy,
grayish survival game,
something like Resident Evil.
But after some contemplation,
they decided that they
would rather make something
that would age well and look good forever.
Thus, they decided to
switch to the cartoonish
and almost child-like
theme that you see today,
and began to work on features
that would match this theme.
The first working version
of Fortnite was released.
It was basically the same
game that we know today
as the Save The World version.
(machinery cranking)
(machinery cranking)
(airy ringing)
(dramatic fanfare)
(electrical humming)
- [Man] Great, now build defenses
around the power collector,
because enemies will attack
it when you activate it.
- [Narrator] The goal of
the game was to scavenge,
and when night falls, to fortify a base
to defend the horde of monsters
that attack and try to kill you.
As the studio originally said,
the shooting mechanism is in the game,
but it's really not what
the game's all about.
It's really a game that's
more about survival
than anything else.
This was their original approach
to how they wanted to make the game.
They decided that it was
gonna be a quick, fun,
easy-to-make and
easy-to-play type of game.
But upon the official teaser trailer
shown at the Spike Video
Game Awards in 2011,
they decided that they
needed to make the game
have more elements, and make it something
that people would continue
to play for a long time.
They decided what they wanted to take
what they know from action games
and combine it with RPG
and building elements.
They brought some people into the team
who worked in the MMO world
and had them work on certain systems
that would later be introduced
into the original game.
The original release was planned for 2013,
and the hype was real.
People didn't really know
what to expect with this game,
so they were super-excited to see
what was gonna come out of it.
But as just great hopes had arisen
for the future of Fortnite,
three of the main designers and planners
on the game left the company.
The person they brought
in from the MMO world
that I mentioned earlier
began to implement and design
these new systems that were talked about
with the people who left.
One of the most important
systems that was created
was the building system
that we still see today
in the Battle Royale game mode.
Being able to quickly hop around and build
without having to actually stand there
or work on the building
itself was and still is
a feature that makes
Fortnite so enjoyable.
Just try to imagine
trying to play the game
where you had to manually grab logs
and bring them over to build.
That would be absolutely ridiculous.
But anyways, because of the
departure of the team members,
the Fortnite development
track hit some speed bumps,
which completely delayed
the process drastically.
Because of this, in November of 2013,
Epic announced that the game
was not gonna be able
to launch in that year.
While this is always an
issue for game developers,
Epic did a great job of
keeping the hype going.
In a 2014 issue of Game Informer,
the developers mentioned
that they still did not
have a release date,
but they did confirm that
the game would be
free-to-play upon release.
By mid-2014, the game had
become a working prototype.
Epic Games estimated that
the game would still take
at least another three years to complete,
which is much, much later
than the original estimated
release date in 2013,
In later 2014 and early
2015, there were, however,
two closed alpha tests for the game.
The tests went well, and
after ironing out the issues
that were exposed during these tests,
the game began a closed
beta in the fall of 2015,
and around 50,000 people
participated in this event.
I want to take a second to
clarify: we're still referring to
the Save The World type
version of the game.
We aren't talking about Battle Royale.
Save The World was the
original plan for the game,
and Battle Royale would come much later.
Now fast-forwarding a few years,
the game was set for a
full release in 2018.
As the release came closer, Epic offered
a paid early access
starting on July 25th, 2017.
If a user purchased this early access,
they would get a founder role
that would carry into
the free-to-play game
when it released in 2018.
In September of 2017, the
Fortnite team announced
they would add a Battle Royale mode
after the recent success of PUBG.
The developers said that
they could easily implement
the system into their engine,
and they began development
on this separate,
secondary game mode that would
be included in the full game.
But within a week after announcing this,
the team decided that
they would actually offer
the Battle Royale mode as a
standalone free-to-play game,
and this turned out to be a
great decision for the company,
and the Battle Royale
version of the game exploded.
Like I said earlier, the
Battle Royale version
is pretty much the face of the game now.
Most people have never even
heard of the original game mode,
and many could care less and love to play
the Battle Royale mode on its own.
But this is when an issue arises.
As more and more people begin to play
this version of the game,
the focus onto the Save The World aspect,
or the original aspect of the game,
has shifted mainly to
the Battle Royale mode.
I mean, it makes sense.
Obviously, the Battle Royale
mode is extremely popular,
and people absolutely love it.
It's all you see on social media any more,
and people can't get enough of this game.
But the PvE mode of Fortnite
is what many people want.
There were millions of people
who basically pre-ordered the PvE game,
and they're honestly
being forgotten about.
But don't get me wrong, we have seen
a bit of progress being
made on the PvE game,
but not as much as the
supporters of the game
would like to see.
Here's a post by a user named Bell Cranel
on the Fortnite forums.
The original post was asking the community
how many people quit and
how many people stayed,
and it was basically asking about
the PvE version of the game.
And this Bell guy does a
great job of expressing
the frustration that is shown
throughout the community.
To answer the question, he says,
"I've been with PvE since the
early access launch in July.
"My wife and I still play the
game, but I admit a lot less."
"The same old missions are
starting to get boring."
He then states, "I think
it's fine to have PvP,
"but I just wish the developers at Epic
"would respect the fact
that millions of people
"bought the PvE before
the PvP even existed,
"and they should feel some
level of responsibility
"to provide those PvE
players with content."
At the end of this long
post, he states that,
"in a closing, this is a
great game, and has potential.
"However, they put so
much time into the PvP
"that the PvE is suffering
from no new content
"and lack of appeal to the player base
"that it drew in initially.
"I love Fortnite, it
just doesn't feel like
"it loves me or any other
PvE player back currently."
Now as I stated earlier, this
post reflects the opinions
of many of the PvE supporters.
Epic hasn't really talked about the future
or the state of the PvE
version of the game.
They need to make sure that
they don't forget about
this part of the game because
many people are hoping
that they make something great about it.
People are upset that
the free-to-play game
is getting more attention
than the paid version,
and if something doesn't happen soon,
people are gonna feel cheated
out for what they paid for.
And things aren't necessarily
getting any better.
Epic just announced a mobile version
of Fortnite Battle Royale,
something that absolutely
nobody wanted or needed.
And honestly, I feel like the resources
are gonna be shifting even further.
You know, as more and more
people play the PvP game,
more and more of their
company is gonna be focused
on maintaining and updating this game
to keep the players happy
and make some money.
Again, this business model
is completely understandable.
Companies aren't made for the people.
Companies are made to make money.
If somebody said, "Oh, I do
this because I enjoy it,"
ask them if they would still do it
if they didn't get a pay check.
That's not always the case,
but it's a good example to
basically look at it like that.
But the simple fact about this whole rant
is that millions of people
are wanting something
that are just being forgotten
about and neglected.
For example, if you take a
look at the Fortnite Twitter,
most of their posts are
about Battle Royale.
So, honestly, the problem is
still avoidable at this point,
but if Epic lets this
go on too much longer,
people are gonna begin to lose hope.
The Battle Royale game is honestly
at a great place right now,
a place in which they can
leave it for a little bit
and people will still play the game.
If they begin to focus more
on the PvE aspect of the game,
people won't be leaving Battle Royale,
and it will please the people
who have been supporting
Fortnite since day one,
so, honestly, it's a win-win.
All I know is that a lot of people
are getting irritated
with this whole situation,
and like I said, they just feel
forgotten about and neglected.
Now, the company hasn't just
completely forgotten about the PvE game,
but it really seems like
it's on the back burner
while they currently
please the PvP players.
I just want to clarify something:
I'm not in any way hating on the company
or on the PvP version of the game.
I, just like everybody else, think that
Fortnite Battle Royale is a great game.
I don't know anybody
who doesn't think that.
It is so much fun, and the fact that
it's free-to-play is just amazing,
so I'm not complaining about that.
I'm just saying that they should
really think about what
they're doing here,
because they could possibly lose
the support of millions of people
who basically backed this entire project.
Anyways, guys, I am curious
to what you guys think
about this situation.
My favorite part about
making videos like this
is to see how you guys feel
and to see why you
either agree or disagree.
Now, if you dislike the video and leave,
it doesn't help anyone, so
please tell me in the comments
what you liked, disliked,
agreed with, or disagreed with.
I personally feel as
if a game studio, Epic,
should really consider
what they're doing here
and try to make it right.
Once again, let me know in the
comments what you guys think,
and if you enjoyed this video,
feel free to leave a like
and subscribe to the channel,
and I'll see you guys next time.
Peace.
