Battle Royale: These massive hits are battling to be the biggest video game in the world
With tens of millions of players each, both "Fortnite" and "PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds" ("PUBG") are incredibly popular games in the nascent "Battle Royale" genre of video game.
They're on consoles, and phones, and computers. Kids are playing them, adults are playing them, maybe you're playing them, too. Even Drake's getting in on it.
If you've somehow managed to avoid learning about both, here's a quick primer on the "Battle Royale" concept:
-100 unarmed players parachute to an island that's full of abandoned buildings chock full of weapons and supplies.
-The goal is survival — kill or be killed, while attempting to stay within a shrinking zone of safety that inevitably brings you closer to your fellow players. If you're outside of that safe zone, your health drains until you die.
-You only get one shot at victory. The last player standing is the winner!
As both "PUBG" and "Fortnite" have exploded in popularity, the "Battle Royale" game genre they popularized has become a hot commodity unto itself. A quick look at the top charts on the Apple App Store or Google Play offers a glimpse of how many other games are trying to cash-in on the "Battle Royale" formula.
It's no surprise, then, that the company behind "PUBG" (PUBG Corp.) is suing a Chinese game publisher for allegedly infringing its copyright with two games that it says closely resemble "PUBG." TorrentFreak got its hands on the lawsuit on Thursday, which aims to shut down two mobile games developed by Chinese company NetEase. NetEase and BlueHole did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the lawsuit.
All of this is just the latest volley in the ongoing battle to be the biggest game in the world.
The history of the "Battle Royale" genre is largely credited to one man: Brendan Greene. He's the man in charge of "PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds."
PUBG Corp.The "PlayerUnknown" in the name "PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds" is a person, and his name is Brendan Greene. He's an Irish game developer who works for Bluehole Studios, the parent company of PUBG Corp.
Before he worked with Bluehole to create "PUBG" — the first game dedicated to the concept of "Battle Royale" — Greene created mods to existing games that offered a glimpse of what the genre could become.
In March 2017, "PUBG" launched on the Steam digital storefront as an "Early Access" PC game — an unfinished product that was playable, that players could pay for, thus funding ongoing development. It became a runaway success, making over a half billion dollars, and remains the most-played game on Steam at any given time to this day.
On the day I'm writing this, "PUBG" had four times the amount of concurrent players of any other game on Steam:
PUBG Corp.
More people played "PUBG" on Friday on Steam than the rest of the top 10 most played games on the entire platform. Combined. It's a pretty big deal!
"Fortnite" wasn't originally a "Battle Royale" game. That came later, with the launch of "Fortnite: Battle Royale," a separate mode. It's a subtle difference that's important here.
Epic Games"Fortnite" —as it was originally concieved — is a third-person shooter that's focused on survival gameplay. You, or you and a group of friends, take on hordes of enemies from the tentative safety of a fort you've crafted.
It launched on July 25th, 2017, and is available on Xbox One, PlayStation 4, PC, and Mac.
There's a cartoony art style to "Fortnite," which tonally fits in alongside the game's goofy dialog; there's a playful tone about everything in "Fortnite," which is starkly different from the dreary, dire tone of "PUBG." Moreover, the core of "Fortnite" is very different from "PUBG" — it's essentially a "tower defense" game.
In "Fortnite," like other tower-defense games, you're defending an immobile thing from waves of enemies. You have a period of time before the attack begins, when you're able to set up defenses (turrets, traps, walls, etc.). Once you trigger the battle, you must defend whatever that aforementioned thing is from being attacked. If you survive those waves, you've succeeded.
In September 2017, Epic Games added a new mode to "Fortnite." The new mode was called "Battle Royale." Moreover: It was free and available on game consoles like the PS4.
Epic Games
"We love Battle Royale games like 'PUBG' and thought 'Fortnite' would make a great foundation for our own version," a September 12, 2017 Epic Games blog post announcing the new game mode said.
And so, Epic released "Fortnite: Battle Royale" as a free addition to the game. Better yet, it was free even for those who didn't own the original "Fortnite." Anyone could download it and get to battling.
In retrospect, Epic's blog seems prophetic: "Fortnite: Battle Royale" is outrageously popular, eclipsing the original game its built upon.
Somewhere in the realm of 45 million people have the game across PlayStation 4, PC, Xbox One, and Mac. The iOS version, which is a standalone version of the "Battle Royale" mode, has somewhere in the realm of 11 million downloads according to Sensor Tower data provided to Business Insider.
Epic Games
Initially, "PUBG" parent company Bluehole Studios took issue with "Fortnite: Battle Royale." There are some major differences between the games, but they are foundation ally very similar, in the sense that they place 100 people on an island for a last-man-standing shootout.
In the months following that early dispute, Epic and Bluehole seem to have squashed the beef. "I've tried to combat the perception that we're competitive with other 'Battle Royale' games," Greene said in March. "Its great that the space is expanding. We're happy that more and more people are getting to play games."
See the rest of the story at Business Insider
See Also:
- The classic PlayStation series 'Spyro the Dragon' returns this September, and it's getting a huge makeover
- A gorgeous new classic is headed to Nintendo's wildly popular Switch — take a look at 'Firewatch'
- The first 'Spider-Man' game in years is a gorgeous PlayStation 4 exclusive — and it arrives this September
DON'T MISS: Forget 'Call of Duty' — the best game of 2017 is an insane 100-player battle royale