Disney invests $1.5bn in Epic Games and announces major Fortnite partnership

Chloyster [she/her]@beehaw.orgmod to Gaming@beehaw.org – 81 points –
Disney invests $1.5bn in Epic Games and announces major Fortnite partnership
gamesindustry.biz
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It's a tale of two halves, literally.

(edit: crash course for the uninitiated: Fortnite was a great game, until it launched it's Battle Royale mode - Fortnite then effectively became this game mode, whereas the base game was left to die as Save The World.)

It's a mode that people paid money for, and Epic treat it as a second rate game even though without it, there wouldn't even be this behemoth that Fortnite has become.

Epic have come a long way from Epic MegaGames, and it isn't always a fairytale story I suppose.

Epic have come a long way from Epic MegaGames, and it isn't always a fairytale story I suppose.

Someone here on Lemmy highlighted that quite nicely when Valve dropped their Half Life documentary. Valve embraces their past. They cherish it. They still maintain their old games to honor their success.

Epic on the other hand completely wiped old Unreal titles from the relevant stores and don't give a fuck about supporting any of them. Which is a shame. Also I admire the tech behind of modern Unreal engines, so there are still geniuses at work who are likely passionate. Too bad they essentially only ride the Fortnite train outside their engine development.

That's a shame. I can sort of understand taking Unreal and RtNP from the storefronts from a financial perspective as a remaster is rumoured to be in the works, but UT99 - along with Quake III Arena - was probably influential in taking online multiplayer from the discrete deathmatch or capture the flag maps into what would be eSports and games as a service... as much as that makes me almost barf to say.

I've always quite liked Sweeney for being "old school" in his approach to game design and company direction, even if I didn't necessarily like how he went about it, but it has really pulled a hair out of my arse how he's gone off the rails in the last 6-12 months - complaining about needing more linux devs one month, and binning off hundreds off staff a few weeks later even though they're proper rinsing the Fortnite cash cow.

Great nod to the Valve documentary though, I enjoyed that far more than I should have.

he’s gone off the rails in the last 6-12 months - complaining about needing more linux devs

It's also ironic in light of his history of loudly bashing linux and linux game development.

I can't think of anything good to say about Tim Sweeney.

Epic will never see greater heights than One Must Fall 2097

Ah, man of culture.

Omf2097 was the dopest thing ever to grace my 486 back in the day.

Battlegrounds later on tho... Yikes.

OK, just the mention of the name and the main theme is now playing in my head, awesome 😄

Just in response to your edit, Fortnite was interesting on release but was likely never going to see vast popularity. The release of BR was really the only reason sales picked up, and at that point it makes sense to focus on the mode that’s vastly more popular.

I get that it sucks, but if it wasn’t for the pivot to BR full time, STW would likely still be where it is now, only in a dying game.