It’s been a long time coming for Fortnite, Epic Games’ combination of building and battling enemies. But, finally, the game arrived this week for Xbox One, PlayStation 4 and PC, and already it’s becoming a pretty big hit – despite some critics that aren’t crazy about paying an up-front fee for the game before it becomes free-to-play next year.
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The game’s creative director, Darren Sugg, recently took to Twitter to sound off on Fortnite’s success, which is coming pretty rapidly after its release. He noted, “Absolutely humbled by the response to this week’s (Fortnite) launch. 500K+ digital pre-orders sales and just getting started! Thank YOU.”
And keep in mind that’s just for pre-orders of the game, and a certain platform for those pre-orders weren’t mentioned. The count could actually be higher than that, according to the company. Speaking with PCGamesN, it noted, “This number is for full sales that happened before yesterday. So (it) doesn’t actually reflect the full number of sales…or take into account retail!” (The game was also released in physical form, similar to the company’s previous release of Paragon for PlayStation 4.)
Fortnite had been in anticipation for years since its initial announcement – back when Cliff Bleszinski was still with the team (he’s since gone on to form Boss Key Studios and create the anti-gravity shooter LawBreakers, arriving next month). But earlier this year, it noted that the game was finally coming, getting people excited for the combination of being able to build things and fight monsters, such as zombies, through a unique gameplay set-up. And now, they can finally get it done.
Again, the long-term plan has some people a little concerned about buying in, especially since it seems to be going to a free-to-play plan that will involve Microtransactions anyway. That said, there’s a lot to enjoy here, and the various packs available for the game do have a lot to offer, so there’s no doubt players will get their money’s worth here. And enough people like it to ensure that it’ll be a hit for some time to come.
Fortnite is available now for Xbox One, PlayStation 4 and PC.
