Buried beneath an Everest sized pile of TikTok dance emotes, Marvel skins and lavish live concerts for Ariana Grande lies the actual reason Fortnite has kept me playing for the best part of half a decade: Fortnite is one of the finest multiplayer shooters on PC, and no, I’m not joking. It rules.
]]>Epic Games are settling a class-action lawsuit brought over loot boxes in Rocket League and Fortnite: Save The World with payouts in the games' microtransaction currencies. Anyone who bought a Loot Llama in Fortnite: Save The World will get 1000 V-Bucks, while people who purchased Event Crates or Keys in Rocket League will get 1000 Credits. Some people can pursue further claims for actual money, too.
]]>Apple and Epic Games have been at odds over the past month and a half in the early phases of a lawsuit concerning Fortnite's presence on the App Store. Epic has filed an anti-trust lawsuit against Apple concerning their control of the App Store while Apple have returned a countersuit based on Epic breaking the terms of service for the store by adding a secondary payment option inside Fortnite to circumvent the App Store payment system. After a lot of barbs and posturing, they've at last come to agree on at least one thing. Both request that their cases are tried by the court rather than a jury.
]]>The newest casualty in Apple and Epic Games' legal squabble is Fortnite: Save The World. Nah, not the battle royale everyone plays, just the co-op horde game. If you're just catching up, Epic kicked off a big stink with Apple last month with a weird, 1984-inspired propaganda video as they circumvented Apple's cut of App Store sales. It's been all drama since then. Has this really only been going on for four weeks? This is going to be a long, tiresome ride.
]]>Epic Games have successfully scored a temporary restraining order to stop Apple's plan to terminate their developer accounts on Friday, a move that would've stopped them from continuing to support Unreal Engine on Mac and iOS. Apple threatened this after Epic bypassed the App Store's payment systems in Fortnite, and Apple also ejected the battle royale shooter from their walled garden. Epic told the courts that this would harm the many developers who rely on Unreal Engine, and the judge agreed. But Epic didn't get all their wishes, so Apple don't have to let Fortnite back on iOS.
]]>Update: A judge has partially granted Epic's requests, so they should keep their dev accounts for now.
Losing the ability to keep developing Unreal Engine for Mac and iOS could really harm both Epic Games and the developers who rely on them, Microsoft have said in a legal statement supporting Epic. The Unreal lords are trying to get a court to stop Apple from terminating their developer accounts, which is due to happen on Friday unless their lawyers deliver a victory royale. It's one messy consequence of Epic's legal battle against Apple and Google over app store fees, which sure has escalated since starting with Fortnite microtransactions.
]]>It was too much to hope for that Epic Games and Apple would take their fight quietly to a court room, it seems. After their very dramatic 1984 propaganda spinoff video, Epic are committed to having it out in public. The latest legal maneuver in the proceedings comes from Epic, who have asked the a US district court for northern California to prevent Apple from terminating their developer program account and reinstate Fortnite in the App Store.
]]>Yesterday, Epic Games appeared to intentionally violate Apple and Google app store rules to get Fortnite removed so they could jump-start a protest. Sick of mobile stores taking a 30% cut of microtransactions, they added a payment option bypassing official systems - something both stores forbid. Epic surely knew this, and the fact that they had lawsuits and an embarrassing protest video ready to go sure makes it seems like they suspected Fortnite might get kicked out. Epic do have one of the few products large enough to make a splash so hey, good on 'em for making a stand. I wish they'd done it without trying to weaponise fans.
]]>It's another bright new day in 2020, so I guess it's time to watch three mega corporations throw hissy fits because they aren't happy with the amount of money they're making off each other. Last night, Epic Games filed a lawsuit against Apple for removing Fortnite from the iOS App Store, after Epic broke Apple's payment policy. Then the exact same thing happened with Google and the Android Play Store, so naturally Epic are suing them too.
]]>You will be forgiven for thinking that Fortnite: Save The World had already left early access. This is what many see as a strange appendage to Fortnite Battle Royale, but is actually the original PvE game that arguably birthed an entire epoch - all, apparently, while remaining in early access. It's a brazen assault on the fabric of meaning, but it's also maybe not all that weird, because developers Epic Games say that yesterday marks the point where "development of new content will slow down". "The main story is complete", they say.
It doesn't mark the point where it will go free-to-play, as was once planned. I suppose that may well make business sense when part of your videogame is big enough to worry Netflix.
]]>I love a spin-off. Angel? Great stuff! Count Duckula? The Better Call Saul of cartoons. Kourtney and Khloé Take Miami? Take me, I’m yours! I could go on and on cutting-and-pasting from this Wikipedia page, but I’ll get to the point. Games also have spin-offs. Often they’ll be forgotten about. Sometimes they’re even disowned. On a few occasions, they’ll take on a life of their own and exist apart from the game that spawned them, never calling, never visiting, only sending a multipack Christmas card. Below are a few stories of surprising spin-offs. The 2D Half-Life 2, the Fortnite that failed, the single-player Counter-Strike that no-one asked for, and more.
]]>Epic Games are on holiday for the next two weeks, but before they left for some much-needed R&R (especially after all that crunch), they lined up a summer event for Fortnite Battle Royale. The 14 Days Of Summer event is live now and runs until the devs return on July 8th. Every day, they'll be 'unvaulting' a weapon or item removed from the game for 24 hours, and re-running one of the time-limited event modes. For those playing the co-op Save The World campaign, they're running daily quests with the chance to unlock a "new explosive weapon". Below, a list of the modes returning:
]]>A major studio working its employees to the bone is a sadly common story, but today's revelation (via a Polygon report) that Fortnite Battle Royale's success lead to hundred-hour work-weeks is still frustrating. Caught off guard by the enormous success and demand for updates to the free-to-play shooter, the studio came to rely on staff working long overtime hours and weekends. They even allegedly fired staff that weren't willing to sacrifice their Saturdays and Sundays. All of the current and former employees Polygon spoke with asked to remain anonymous, for fear of retribution.
]]>Epic Games’ lawyers seem to be being kept quite busy at the moment, with yet another lawsuit targeting the company. This latest filing, which targets the lesser played survival version of Fortnite, Save The World, alleges that the blind loot boxes (which were recently pulled from the game) were “a predatory scheme,” that “mercilessly…lured minors and other purchasers.”
]]>Fans of the bolt-action sniper rifle, burst rifle, heavy shotgun and SMG will have to find a new weapon of choice in Fortnite Battle Royale. Today's patch has exiled them to the vault, and out of standard rotation - a shakeup in the meta for the absurdly popular battle royale shooter. The update also reintroduces the suppressed SMG (to replace the regular one), and further bulks out Creative mode with new building blocks, and options for creating custom game modes. Star of the show is probably the new Chiller grenades, which bring slippery low-friction anarchy to anywhere you throw them.
]]>The less-discussed Fortnite sibling, PvE survival shooter Fortnite: Save The World is changing how its loot boxes work. Potential buyers will now be able to see exactly what’s inside the store’s llama piñatas, enabling them to make a more informed decision about whether or not they want to pay to take a metaphorical mallet to them.
]]>Fortnite had a lovely festive event at the end of last year: a fortnight (groan) of challenges and gifts for players of both the Save The World and Battle Royale modes. However, thanks to some miscommunication about exactly when this two-week celebration would end, it's coming back. But not for its full length - only from some time "early next week" until January 15th. So you'd better not wait around if you want to grab all the goodies.
]]>Fortnite might be more about building hard cover than snowmen, but it's getting plenty festive for the holiday break. Launched yesterday, the 14 Days Of Fortnite event brings a set of Christmas goodies to both Battle Royale and Save The World modes. There's also (not too rough) daily challenges with their own rewards until new year's day - today's being to just check out the new Creative mode. This update also marks the debut of The Block, a chunk of the Battle Royale map dedicated to showcasing Epic's favourite player-made deathmatch arenas. Today's has a plane in it.
]]>While Epic have done well kicking down boundaries between platforms to allow Fortnite servers to be shared by PC and console folk alike, those with multiple systems still have a wait ahead of them. While you're still free to hop between platforms and link accounts to share all present and future rewards, plans to let players merge old hoards and progress between systems have been delayed. Originally meant to be rolling out this month, Epic have announced that Account Merging won't be landing until early 2019. Not ideal, but they've not done badly at all this year, to be fair.
]]>Burgers or pizza? It's a question which has started playground debates, late-night arguments, and surely a fistfight or two. Fortnite Battle Royale aims to settle the question via the medium of digital megaviolence in a new event mode, Food Fight, where two teams of 12 with burgheads or tomatofaces must defend their hallowed restaurant mascot from enemy heretics. Yes, you really will need to get the hang of building and fortifying here. It's also a good chance to try out the new Mounted Turret item, which you can sit on to dakka dakka dakka all day long. Reader, I must tell you that I let burgers down.
]]>Betrayal! Once thought benevolent for its shield-giving and bouncy properties, Fortnite Battle Royale's once-beloved purple cube (affectionately named Kevin by players) has turned heel for Halloween. Beginning the new Fortnitemares event, the formerly friendly block of rune-daubed jelly is summoning NPC undead hordes into the popular shooter. The zombies appear to have taken a bite out of the server infrastructure, and Epic have postponed the apocalypse for a little while, but the siege should resume once they've hammered out the kinks. Below, a spooky event trailer.
Update: Matchmaking issues are resolved, and the cuboid undead have returned to menace Fortnite Battle Royale.
]]>The game once known as 'Fortnite' will not leave paid early access and launch free-to-play this year as planned, Epic Games have said. They've delayed Fortnite: Save The World's F2P launch as they want more time to make sure it's proper good and stable for the hordes of potential players expected to flood in when it switches. It did seem that Fortnite might vanish without a trace after its early access launch in July 2017, charging £35 to play the beta of a bland base-building zombie shooter, but then Fortnite Battle Royale hit and now everyone's heard of Fortnite. So there may be surprising demand for co-op PvE.
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