Video Games: Fortnite — Industry and Audience
What Is Fortnite?
Fortnite is a free-to-play multiplayer battle royale game developed and published by Epic Games. It launched in July 2017 and quickly became one of the most talked-about media products in the world. For the exam board’s set product study, Fortnite is examined only in relation to media industries and audiences — there is no fixed “copy” of a video game the way there is a newspaper page, so instead you need to know facts about who owns it, how it makes money, how it is regulated, and who plays it.
In gameplay terms, up to 100 players are dropped by a flying bus onto a deserted island that is about to be hit by a natural disaster. Players fight to be the last one standing, scavenging weapons and materials, and can demolish structures to rebuild them into forts and towers. As the round continues, a storm closes in, shrinking the playable area and forcing players into conflict. In terms of genre, Fortnite fuses the battle royale format of games like Battlegrounds with the construction gameplay of Minecraft.
In Fortnite: Battle Royale, up to 100 players are dropped onto an island and fight until only one remains. A shrinking storm forces players into smaller areas as the match goes on.
Ownership and Funding
Fortnite is made by Epic Games, a company started by Tim Sweeney in 1991, originally run from his parents’ house. In 2012, the Chinese investment company Tencent bought a 42% stake in Epic Games. By 2018, the success of Fortnite had helped grow Epic Games’ value from $825 million in 2012 to $5.8 billion. Epic Games also owns other studios, including video game developer Chair Entertainment and cloud-based software developer Cloudgine, and runs sub-studios in the UK, Japan and Germany.
Fortnite makes its money through a Games as a Service (GaaS) model. Battle Royale was originally paid-for through “battle passes”, but became free to play in September 2018. Players can now buy V-bucks, an in-game currency, to purchase cosmetic micro-transactions — mostly “skins” that change a character’s appearance and “emotes” that are victory dance moves. Crucially, these upgrades are only cosmetic: they do not affect gameplay. Fortnite also sells “battle passes” — subscription-style passes that drip-feed exclusive content to paying players across a “season” of gameplay. This model made the Fortnite franchise £2.4 billion in revenue in 2018 alone, and Fortnite: Battle Royale earned $1.2 billion in its first ten months.
Epic Games’ humble origins as a bedroom-coded project may explain why the company makes its game engine, Unreal Engine, available to the public. Unreal Engine has also been used by professional developers to build titles such as Batman: Arkham City and Infinity Blade, and in 2014 it was named the “most successful videogame engine” by the Guinness Book of Records. Fortnite: Battle Royale itself won “Best Ongoing Game” at both the PC Gamer and IGN awards in 2018.
Convergence and Regulation
Fortnite is a strong example of convergence. Technologically, it can be played on consoles, PCs, laptops, smartphones and tablets, and players can switch device mid-game without interrupting play. Cross-media convergence is also central to Fortnite’s success: it is the most-viewed game on YouTube, and Epic Games broadcasts live competitions on Twitch, a streaming platform owned by Amazon.
Fortnite regularly collaborates with other media brands to keep the game in the news, including a special Avengers: Infinity War segment with Marvel Studios and a tie-in with Godzilla. Non-gaming celebrities such as the rapper Drake and basketball star Ben Simmons have also helped promote the game to audiences beyond typical gamers. In terms of regulation, Fortnite carries a PEGI rating of 12, for “frequent scenes of mild violence”. Since 2012, the PEGI system has been part of UK law, with the Video Standards Council acting as the statutory body responsible for rating video games in the UK.
Fortnite has a PEGI rating of 12, awarded for “frequent scenes of mild violence”. Since 2012 the PEGI system has been part of UK law, enforced by the Video Standards Council.
Targeting Audiences
Fortnite reaches a genuinely diverse audience. Figures show a 78% to 22% male-to-female split among players, with 53% aged between 10 and 25, and 42% in full-time employment. The unrealistic, cartoon-style violence and the emphasis on construction alongside combat make the game appealing to younger players, while the collaborative nature of the gameplay has drawn in a much wider range of people than more violent, realistic titles such as Grand Theft Auto or Call of Duty.
The rise of “eSports” — competitive gaming broadcast to huge audiences on platforms like Twitch and YouTube — has turned some players into celebrities. Ninja, the most famous Fortnite streamer, has over 10 million subscribers and earns more than half a million dollars a month; he ranks higher than footballer Cristiano Ronaldo for social media interactions. Female streamers such as KatyPlaysGames, and non-traditional gaming celebrities like Drake and Ben Simmons, have also widened Fortnite’s appeal, particularly to audiences who might not otherwise engage with gaming.
Blumler and Katz’s Uses and Gratifications theory considers why audiences actively choose to interact with media. Fortnite can be linked to escapism and catharsis — players immerse themselves in a fantasy island setting away from everyday life. But the game’s collaborative, team-based structure also offers social interaction with friends and strangers, and the presence of gamer celebrities like Ninja offers audiences role models that contribute to personal identity, a link that can be connected to Richard Dyer’s Star Theory.
Active Audiences and Identity
Fortnite is also a useful case study for active audience theory. The core gameplay is interactive and collaborative: players work together, and can deconstruct and rebuild parts of the game environment, encouraging creativity rather than passive consumption. Fortnite: Creative, a separate mode, allows players even more freedom to design their own skins, emotes and landscapes. Epic Games extends this further by making Unreal Engine available to the public, encouraging the next generation of game developers to become producers rather than only consumers.
Concerns about Fortnite have focused less on violence than on addiction. Teachers and parents have reported children being distracted from schoolwork, and Prince Harry publicly called the game “dangerous”. Compared to other successful titles, Fortnite’s cartoon-style graphics and low level of explicit violence, along with randomly assigned character skins reducing overt racism or misogyny among players, mean the main media and political debate around the game centres on screen time and engagement rather than content.