Students of all ages love to play Fortnite. But is it’s popularity waning? Graphic courtesy of Julien Sheetz
One of the most popular genres of video games, especially among teenagers, is FPS (first person shooter) or TPS (third person shooter) games, and throughout San Luis Obispo High School, nearly everyone has played “Fortnite,” let alone heard of it, however does this game truly hold any weight against newer, more modern games?
Back in 2011, development for “Fortnite” started. It was created by a small company known as Epic Games, and was originally going to be a wave based zombie survival game titled “Fortnite: Save the World” similar to that of “CoD: Zombies.” The game was finished and was released in July of 2017, however recently games like “PUBG” began to rise in popularity which gave Epic Games the idea to release a brand new gamemode for their pre-existing game titled “Fortnite: Battle Royale” in September of 2017, and the rest is history.
“I like the collabs they add like Sabrina Carpenter,” said junior Daniel Santos when he was asked about the current state of ‘Fortnite,’ “I don’t really see it staying relevant past 2030.”
At this point, the focal point and main appeal of Fortnite is it’s collaborations, so0 much so that it’s an inside joke with the community to call any collab character, “the guy from ‘Fortnite’”.
“I think ‘Fortnite’ is good right now, not as good as it was when I started, but I really like the direction it’s going in terms of marketing,” explained junior Xavier Lara, “I think the recent purchase of Epic Games by Disney allows for a lot more opportunities.”
In February of 2024, Disney bought a stake in Epic Games worth over 1.5 billion dollars. Disney’s main goal was to work with Epic Games and create a “new persistent universe” within Fortnite.
“I started this season and I heard that [Fortnite] used to be better, but I like it. It’s peak!” exclaimed NWSA freshman Chloe Fortier.
For the most part, a large majority of people seem to like “Fortnite” as a whole, but don’t see it making it past 2030. Despite this, 13 years is still a good run for a video game. For being a part of a fairly dead genre for a video game, it has somehow stood the test of time and managed to stay relevant throughout the years and that is something you’ve got to respect.