Fortnite Battle Royale Wasn't Supposed to be Free-to-Play, Developed in Just 2 Months

Fortnite Battle Royale took the gaming world by storm when it busted its way onto the market at the peak of PUBG infamy. Though its initial launch was rife with controversy, many calling the online game a copy cat to its chicken dinner counterpart, opinions quickly changed when players saw how different it truly was and how dedicated Epic Games were to the community. With new modes, events, and gear on a weekly basis, it wasn't hard for Epic to win fans over and break a few records themselves.

With how intricate the building mechanics are for the battle royale game, and how much new content they've dropped since unveiling the new mode, many might be surprised to learn that the whole thing only took two months to develop! According to Epic Games' Ed Zobrist during their Fortnite GDC panel, "We started working on this just about the time Save the World was coming out," Zobrist mentioned. "Two months in development, launched in September 26. So let's do some math: Save the World, the PvE game, launched July 21. [Battle Royale] comes out September 26."

Two months ... just two months to create something that has now taken over all major platforms, introduced crossplay, and is even dominating on mobile as well. But PvE is a tricky mistress and to make sure the experience was authentic to what players wanted, Epic did call in some outside help from experts that are familiar with the intricate nature of shooters, "And it was the Unreal Tournament team that popped over to pick up the charge for us to basically put originally what we thought would be a PvP version inside our PvE game."

It's amazing to think what could have been, however. One seemingly small decision could have destroyed the potential for success. The decision we're referring to is that Battle Royale was originally just going to be a part of the Save the World mode. This would have not made it its own entity and would have also stripped it of its free-to-play status. The original plan was to have the Battle Royale mode tucked away behind a 40 dollar pay wall and only until the very last minute did they decide to make it its own 'thing' and then make that 'thing' free-to-play.

Phew!

Obviously the hard work has paid off! Fortnite Battle Royale continues to break streaming records, concurrent player records, and more! We can't wait to see what else the team at Epic has in store!