There is no denying that Fortnite has taken over by storm and has become one of the pillars of the battle royale genre. But do you know that according to a former Epic Games director, that the game was almost canceled before it became a hit? Apparently so.
Former Epic Games production director Rod Fergusson recently talked to Game Informer on its podcast and said that he tried to cancel Fortnite before he moved to another company. Fergusson is now working at The Coalition, which is the Gears of War developer.
Fergusson goes on to explain why he wanted to cancel the game by saying that the game didn’t “pass the bar” for quality in its early stages. This was when the game only had its original Save the World mode. Fergusson didn’t elaborate what quality he looked for or how it lacked back then, but he does go on to say that it was quite challenging for the early stages of the game in development.
However, this was way before the battle royale mode was even imagined in the game. When Fortnite battle royale did come out back in 2017, it slowly rose to its fame and then has smashed the charts with concurrent players ever since. PUBG was already dominating the genre, but Fortnite prompted other developers to jump in with their own version of battle royale modes. It’s hard to imagine if games like Apex Legends and Activision’s Blackout in Black Ops 4 would ever have appeared if Fortnite had not been popular like it has.
Fergusson talks about the current success of Fortnite by mentioning that there are no hard feelings and that he is “super happy” for the success the game has had after he left his role at the company.
It goes to show that the success of the game can be heavily reliant on small to big decisions. And is a reminder of how crucial the success and failure of a game can be in the industry. It is safe to say that if Fergusson would have stayed in the company and persisted on scrapping the game, we may have not seen the Fortnite that we know today.
What do you think of Fortnite? How has the game impacted the gaming industry? Post your comments below.
