Fortnite is a game that needs no introduction. From the equally thrilling and rage-inducing Battle Royale to getting kids to dance, it’s a game that has already had a profound effect on culture. But its developers haven’t stopped to rest on their laurels.
Quite the opposite, Epic Games continues to push the boundaries of what Fortnite is in new and interesting ways, bending its gameplay, genre, and even purpose in the process. So let’s take a look at how Fortnite has been developing since its release and explore where it could be going next.
The Core: Battle Royale
At its core, Fortnite is known for popularizing the entire battle royale genre. If, somehow, you still don’t know what this genre is, it’s a style of online game where a number of players are all dropped into a lobby to fight until the last person (or team) is standing.
Although Fortnite didn’t pioneer the idea of the Battle Royale, it certainly popularized it, spawning a variety of games from Call of Duty: Warzone to Fall Guys.
But Fortnite didn’t stop there. Since exploding onto the scene, it has added a number of other modes, expanding its boundaries far beyond the competitive shooter.
Read: Lego Fortnite World isn’t Loading
Interactive Entertainment: Online Concerts and Events
You may recall the news stories from 2020 and 2021, proclaiming Fortnite as pushing the boundaries of digital entertainment by hosting concerts featuring famous musicians like Marshmello and Travis Scott. These events came at precisely the right time—during the COVID pandemic when the world was confined indoors.
Whether you’re a fan of these concerts or not, it’s hard to ignore the industry hype that accompanied their release. Many hailed this as a new frontier in interactive entertainment, transforming the game into a virtual concert space and live entertainment venue.
A Music Game? Fortnite Festival
Speaking of music, in December 2023, Fortnite dropped its latest game mode: Fortnite Festival. This expanded on the idea of Fortnite as a place for live music, creating a whole new ecosystem for attending virtual concerts and more.
This new mode also contains a Guitar Hero-style game mode, allowing players to jam to their favorite songs online with friends. Perhaps it will bring back the music game fad, which seemed to fizzle away in the wake of Guitar Hero and Rock Band drying up.
Read: is Fortnite Shutting Down?
Getting Creative in Creative Mode
Another relatively new addition to the Fortnite ecosystem was creative mode, which, as its name suggests, allows players to get creative by using tools to build their own environments and game modes.
In our eyes, this takes a lot of inspiration from Roblox—in the sense of having a whole new variety of user-generated content for players to enjoy, experience, and develop themselves.
New Minecraft? Lego Fortnite
Alongside the Fortnite Festival, one of the most recent additions to Fortnite has been Lego Fortnite. While it sounds like it’d be just another take on the famous Lego game series, it’s actually something pretty new. It’s a full, online survival game that takes cues from Minecraft. In Lego Fortnite, you can explore, gather, craft, and much more.
Rocket League… I mean Rocket Racing
Fortnite has even branched out into the racing genre, unleashing a turbo-charged track racing game featuring a variety of tracks and challenges. While this game mode totally reworks Fortnite as you know it; it does introduce a variety of novelty not found in other racers released today.
Socializing in the Digital Realm
Ultimately, Fortnite has expanded its horizons greatly over the last few years. Going from a battle royale to a full ecosystem of games for different types of players. Together, this is building Fortnite out to be a much larger and widely appealing digital space for socializing.
Because of this, we expect to see the Fortnite community have a huge resurgence in the coming months, especially if Epic continues to add in more social game modes and opportunities.
The Metaverse?
I know, I know… We’re all sick of this term being overused. And despite Fortnite sidestepping the word itself, we think it’s pretty easy to see that Epic is trying to create a metaverse within Fortnite.
By adding a variety of new modes, maps, playstyles, and social options, the game has expanded its former confines to become something entirely new—or perhaps, we should say, many things entirely new. And with each update, Fortnite is beginning to look more and more like the metaverse that tech executives were dreaming of three years ago.
If you want to look good as you roam the Fortnite Metaverse, you’ll want to buy vbucks to purchase some good avatars and accessories.
What’s Next?
In the wake of Fortnite’s new game modes, it’s clear that they will continue to expand the experiences that can be had within the game, social hub, or metaverse—whatever you want to call it.
It’s not hard to imagine a larger RPG, dungeon crawler, MMO, or co-op experience coming to Fortnite. But we’ll have to wait and see. Whatever comes next, it’s clear that Epic is looking to continue growing their ecosystem to attract as many different player bases as possible.