Ever-evolving live service experiences like Fortnite are the ‘future of gaming’

Tim Sweeney, president of Fortnite maker Epic, believes the future of gaming is Fortnite. He’s speaking at Unreal Fest in Seattle, as I mentioned Computer games“A lot of games are released with high budgets, and they don’t sell nearly as much as expected,” he said. According to the CEO, this is because players gravitate towards “really big games where they can play with their friends.”

While other titles are failing, Fortnite is gaining ground, according to Sweeney. The battle royale game — which has only recently become a platform — attracted record levels of 110 million active users this past holiday season, demonstrating a “generational change” in the industry, he said.

Sweeney believes that the value of the game “grows in proportion to the number of friends you can connect with.” Fortnite has really innovated in this area, too: it’s not just a shooter, but it’s also a place where you can watch live concerts, drive cars, and build worlds in LEGO Fortnite.

The industry is divided on what, he said In reality forms the Metaverse, but he said Fortnite is “new and exciting and something that has never been done on this scale in the history of entertainment.”

He also attributed a large part of the title’s success to the way it became a magnet for so many different brands: “musicians, Disney, Star Wars, etc.” [are] It all comes together to create a world-class, live and ever-evolving entertainment experience. This is truly what we believe the future of gaming is about.

Of course, there’s no real surprise in what Sweeney is saying here: the Fortnite boss thinks Fortnite is good. But we think there’s some truth to what he says: whether you like it or hate it, a a lot of gamers are simply choosing to play the same games forever now. Whether it’s Roblox, GTA Online, Final Fantasy 14, Genshin Impact, or Fortnite – this is where players want to spend their time (and more importantly, their money).

Sony has clearly seen the stats, and wants to get in on the action as well. That’s why it’s creating Fairgame$ and has plans for more live service games. The danger is that there is too much room for titles of this kind: just look at Concorde’s dramatic failure for evidence of this.