The video game industry is one that is very special in many ways. And one of the reasons for that is because the industry can have surprise hits out of nowhere, or have highly-anticipated AAA titles go bad and bankrupt developers. Yet, in the eyes of Epic games, there’s another interesting trend that the industry has: successful games helping successful games. And that’s exactly what they feel they’re doing with their hit title Fortnite.
In an interview with MCV, Epic Games head Tim Sweeney had a few things to say about this, including:
“You buy one brand of vacuum cleaner, you’re not going to buy another one, because you only need one,” he said. “But with games, if they’re two great games, people will play both.”
Now, obviously, there are exceptions to that rule, but he is right in the general sense, if there are two good games out there people have the OPTION to play them though, and that can’t be underestimated.
He also noted though that the variety of Fortnite (via the many platforms they are on currently), also helps make them stand out:
“You’re gonna have casual gamers who play Fortnite because their friends play Fortnite, and they might stay on mobile. You’re gonna have serious gamers who will play on the best device available to them at that specific moment: on the subway that’s their iPhone, at home it will be their PlayStation. And we’ll see the full spectrum, because you can inter-operate between all these platforms and play with your friends, you can mix and match them.”
But does the success of Fortnite help others? In a way, yes. Because of its success, others know what they need to do at bare minimum to make a successful product in the genre. And it gives them an insight into what players are looking for. It might not help everyone, but it does give them a place to start.
