It's easy to forget about something like Fortnite. Originally announced in 2011 during the Spike Video Game Awards show, no updates on the game's progress were given until Game Informer published a cover story in May 2014, which described the character classes, fortress building, crafting, and procedurally generated sandboxes that players would scavenge and survive in day after day. The studio's silence was understandable since there were shakeups during that period with Chinese internet corporation Tencent investing in Epic Games. Major figures like Cliff Bleszinski and Rod Fergusson also moved on. However, it's puzzling how it's been dozens upon dozens of fortnights since anything has been reported on Fortnite, so it's about time that silence has been broken again.
Epic Games announced that the third-person "Action Building" game with be in Early Access on PC, Mac, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One beginning on July 25. However, players will need to pre-order to play, with $39.99 being the lowest price option. Others editions include varying amounts of cosmetics, weapons, and characters that can be previewed here. However, as Epic Games promised several years ago, the title will eventually be free-to-play sometime in 2018. And for those who pre-order, Creative Director Darren Sugg confirmed that the team "will be adding new content monthly(ish), with events, new heroes, new creatures, traps, and weapons."
With the exception of some changes to class roles, character abilities, and art style, it seems that Fortnite has largely retained its original ideas and gameplay with significantly more features and polish to show for this year. In the coming days, Epic Games will prove this even further by bringing it to E3 2017 for hands-on gameplay. For now, you can watch a lengthy trailer below that highlights Fortnite's key pillars with fort building, crafting, and character classes below.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gZWg4iXp_lE
If you want to know more about this and other announcements happening at E3 then be sure to check out our E3 2017 Coverage Hub.
When's the last time you thought of Fortnite? Its procedurally generated worlds look pretty fantastic in our eyes, but how do you think it's shaping up? Cause a storm in the comments section below to let us know!
