Fortnite is best known for its fun gameplay, striking style, and huge collection of skin designs. In recent years, though, it’s become much more than just a battle royale game with a battle pass. As Creative has grown and evolved over the years, so has the community of creators that surround it. What was once a simple but addictive game has now expanded beyond its own parameters.
There is now a thriving community of Islands, fan-made gaming experiences that take advantage of Fortnite assets and apply them in unique and creative ways. In fact, the creative mode side of the game has grown so much that companies have become interested and started creating their own sponsored experiences. The landscape of Fortnite has been slowly changing and transforming, and It’s looking more and more Roblox with each passing day. And I, for one, think it’s the best decision for the franchise.
How Fortnite has changed over the years
The Battle Royale game is changing before our eyes
In 2018, Fortnite launched Creative Mode, which allowed players to create their own game modes known as Islands, experiences that diverged from the main game. These can be anything from new versions of existing versions Fortnite maps to entirely new and unique game modes.
Creative Mode was hidden in the background of the game for the first five years or so, existing but not thriving. That is, until Creative 2.0 is released in 2023. This new version of Creative revealed the standalone Unreal Editor for Fortnite (UEFN), what gave Fortnite creators the power of the Unreal 5 engine combined with Fortnite assets.
Around the same time, Fortnite launched its LEGO branch and Festival Mode. These were still within the limits of the Fortnite universe, but showed how Creative 2.0 can be used to build just about anything based on the game. It was then that community creators started to take note and the island creation community exploded.
Why Fortnite is starting to look like Roblox
It’s part of an effort to attract a younger audience
Giving players the power to create whatever they want with Fortnite assets is a risky idea and there is certainly a lot of content that can be ignored in the market. But there are also some interesting creations between the islands that may not be as popular as the main game, but which attract a considerable audience. AND there is a huge variety of games in various genresincluding action, RPG, horror and more.
Among them are many games that seem extremely familiar to Roblox players. There are lots of obbies, team battles, tycoons, deadly executions and even a whole category of “bed wars”. Some Fortnite games are literal recreations of popular games Roblox gamessometimes copied in map designs, as can be seen in this side-by-side comparison of similar games on both engines by Robust on YouTube.
The games aren’t the only way the two titles are remarkably similar. Both Roblox and Fortnite have become online social meeting placescenters for young people to have fun, play and even watch shows. Celebrity appearances have become the norm at gaming, with the likes of Marshmello, Ariana Grande and Eminem performing shows at Fortnite and David Guetta, Twenty One Pilots, Lizzo and Lil Nas X performing at Roblox.
All these similarities are no coincidence. Fortnite is deliberately taking the same steps as Roblox he picked upwith the same objective: reaching a young audience of current and future financial decision makers. Children today are the greatest potential purchasing power in the world and are no longer accessible through traditional advertising methods, such as television advertisements. I believe that Fortnite will continue to develop his creative side to rival Roblox because that’s where the money is.
What will the future of Fortnite look like?
We can expect Fortnite and Roblox to continue moving in the same direction
In addition to official collaboration skins and live events, companies and brands have started experimenting on Roblox and Fortnite to expand its reach to younger audiences. Creating experiences in the “metaverse”, as marketing advertising calls it, is the Exciting next big step for brands in their advertising campaigns. Some brands make sense on two platforms whose main audience is children, like Timberlands and Doritos, while others are a little more unusual, like Honda and Oral-B.
But looking a little closer, it starts to make sense why kids are looking at car brands. When TV ads were the main source of advertising, many advertisers became household names long before children had any purchasing power for big purchases like cars. Now, the best way to achieve the same effect is to reach these children through games.
The difference is that Ads didn’t necessarily have to be good when they were on TV. People had to watch them anyway since they couldn’t be skipped (except when you ran to get a snack during the commercial break). All brands needed to do was put a catchy jingle in the ad and plant the seed of knowledge for future car owners.
Games sponsored in Roblox and Fortnite are different because players have to choose to engage with them. And to get a child to play video games about toothbrushes, it has to be good. Roblox is quite limited in its scope because its entire community and audience base is centered around young children. Although there are many interesting experiences, including some really scary horror games on Robloxthe platform is mainly played by much younger children.
Fortnite has an advantage when it comes to its reach. According to Sports62.7% of Fortnite players are between 18 and 24 years old and 22.5% are between 25 and 43 years old. In comparison, 58% of Roblox players are under the age of 16, with just 18% over 25, according to Backlink. Thanks to this, games like the recent Gundam Fortnite experience have the chance to reach a much wider audience than Roblox could dream.
As both games grow and evolve side by side, we can expect to continue seeing both moving in the same direction. Roblox You may have been doing this longer, but Fortnite has an advantage when it comes to reaching. The title benefits immensely as new games arrive on the platform, allowing players to have fun while learning all about the best car brand on the market and why they should buy it.
Fortnite will likely continue promoting the Creative Mode aspect of its franchise while also continuing to sell skins and battle passes. Not only will it continue to seem Roblox, but it’s actually on its way to surpassing the master and becoming the best community-generated game creator on the market.
Sources: Robust/YouTube, eSports, Backlink