Veteran followers of all-encompassing battle royale Fortnite have a deal with in retailer: the unique “OG” model of the sport re-launches subsequent month.
In a tweet, developer Epic Games introduced the OG Fortnite expertise returns on December 6, however this time is “right here to remain.”
That means gamers can relive Fortnite battle royale from the beginning when it launched in September 2017 and discover the OG map, gather OG loot, and relive OG seasons.
Epic had mentioned that Fortnite OG and the unique map would return sooner or later this 12 months after relaunched in limited-time kind again in November 2023. Enthusiasm for Fortnite OG was overwhelming and noticed Fortnite take pleasure in its “greatest day” ever with over 44.7 million gamers leaping in to make a journey down reminiscence lane.
Last month, Epic boss Tim Sweeney insisted the corporate was “financially sound” after a tumultuous interval through which 830 workers have been laid off. In September 2023, the North Carolina studio behind Fortnite and Unreal Engine suffered a major spherical of layoffs that noticed 830 staff, about 16% of its workforce, lose their jobs.
Separately, Epic divested music service platform Bandcamp and spun off most of SuperAwesome, a kid-safe know-how firm. These have been acquired by Epic Games in 2022 and 2020, respectively. Around 250 folks left Epic by means of the divestitures.
At the time, Sweeney mentioned the corporate had been spending “far more cash than we earn, investing within the subsequent evolution of Epic and rising Fortnite as a metaverse-inspired ecosystem for creators.”
He additionally pointed to a “main structural change to our economics” after Fortnite development transitioned from the explosively common and extremely worthwhile battle royale that funded its preliminary enlargement, to the decrease margin enterprise that got here from creator content material with important income sharing.
Speaking throughout a presentation at Unreal Fest 2024, Sweeney mentioned that Epic “spent the final 12 months rebuilding and actually executing solidly on all fronts.” He added: “I’m comfortable to let you know now that the corporate is financially sound, and that Fortnite and the Epic Games Store have hit new data in concurrency and success.”
On that entrance, Fortnite hit 110 million month-to-month energetic customers over the 2023 vacation season, a powerful milestone for a sport now seven years outdated. To put that into context, in August 2018 Fortnite hit 78.3 million MAUs.
Epic hardly ever makes Fortnite participant numbers public, and when it does so it makes use of varied metrics that make direct comparisons tough. Last 12 months’s Season OG, which introduced again the Chapter 1 Season 5 map and with it traditional areas like Tilted Towers, Pleasant Park, and Risky Reels, noticed Fortnite hit a brand new peak of 44.7 million gamers in simply in the future. Epic beforehand mentioned Fortnite noticed a concurrent participant report of 15.3 million gamers for the December 2020 end-of-season stay occasion, which noticed gamers teaming up with Iron Man, Wolverine, and different Marvel heroes to defeat Galactus.
Wesley is the UK News Editor for IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can attain Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.
