Love it or hate it, Fortnite has become a major success, cementing itself as a phenomenon and taking the public by storm. Epic Games had already been a major force in the industry, but now they sit among the top. Since the launch of the title, it's earned about 1.7 billion dollars for the company, and is set to hit over the 2 billion mark by the end of the year. These landmark achievements have earned Epic a place on Bloomberg's newly updated billionaire's index, ranking Epic Games at being worth around 5 to 8 billion US dollars. This is quite the significant difference from 2012, where they were valued at around $825 million max.

Fortnite, as a free to play game, means it earns money purely through microtransactions, which range from dances, emotes, or skins. However, the lasting popularity of the game can easily be questioned in the years to come.

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[RivenMain]

Not beefy of it sucked at it, but I kinda look at a business like I would a house. Can I improve it? How long will it retain that value? How much money needs to be spent to keep it fresh. Houses can sometimes sell their worth sometimes more depending where its at. A business bound by one game. I wonder if they just fear any money wasted to make another franchise would end up like Pirate101. I think any game business that big willing to sell. The only people willing to buy would be after it's marketing people and commercial success.

 

[TehCupcakes]

It's crazy to think a single game can do that even for a company like Epic. I would have assumed that they were already in the billions because of Unreal, but it's crazy that Fortnite increased their net worth almost tenfold in a single year.

Even if you hate the game, you have to admit that objectively, this is really impressive. At the very least it shows that they understand the market (or just got really lucky) and gave people what they wanted! I hope Epic makes good use of it and decides to invest into other new games, because they certainly have the expertise and the funds to make some good stuff.

 

[orangy57]

The conspiracy theorist in me likes to think maybe the microtransactions do secretly boost some stats. Mostly due to the wildly random accuracy and damage and because I have NEVER seen someone with the default skin dominate the match.

nah it's just as people play the game more and become skilled, they're more likely to invest money and buy skins since they've been playing for a while. People without skins or cosmetics most of the time are either too poor or dont care enough about the game to waste their money on cosmetics that they don't need. You can see the same thing in TF2, usually people with expensive hats dominate games because they've already poured tons of hours into the game, along with tons of money along the way.

 

[Rabbid4240]

If I say fortnite sucks, I'll be hated around the world forever. If I say fortnite's good, i'll be hated around the world forever.

 

[Another World]

except with fortnite, thanks to youtubers/streamers, no-skinning is a popular trend. you can watch any number of pro-fortnite players play and win wearing absolutely no micro-transaction cosmetics. At this point, the purchasables seem almost focused towards gamers with exposable income (or kids, who often tell me during in-game chat that their parents just gave them $20 or $50 to spend on a skin). this trend has been going on since the middle of season 4. wearing a cool skin as intimidation has less of a meaning now. today the people you should fear are the ones who can build fast and hit the 1st few shots, not the one wearing the john wick skin, for example.

-another world