Is Fortnite shutting down? The long-running battle royale shooter has been going through some changes as of late. Price increases to V-Bucks, internal layoffs at Epic, and reports of unmet financial expectations and projections appear to paint a rather volatile picture for Fortnite. Of course, it’s still one of the biggest games in the world, but is it at risk of shutting down?
Fortnite still receives regular updates, and thanks to the launch of creative mode tools, the community appears to be thriving. Nevertheless, recent news does have industry experts questioning whether the battle royale game has the legs to continue as a top dog in the online multiplayer space. Here’s what you need to know about whether Fortnite is shutting down, based on up-to-date information.
Is Fortnite shutting down?
There are currently no plans for Fortnite to shut down, and it’s extremely unlikely to happen anytime soon. This is based on the game’s still massively successful reach, in both player numbers and earnings.
Fortnite developer Epic Games laid off around 870 staff last year, however, with many now looking into the longevity of Fortnite, and keeping a close eye on the game’s upcoming plans as things shift around. In an email sent to staff, and in a press release posted on the Epic website, Tim Sweeney describes the factors that led to the decision to terminate such a high percentage of staff:
“For a while now, we’ve been spending way more money than we earn, investing in the next evolution of Epic and growing Fortnite as a metaverse-inspired ecosystem for creators. I had long been optimistic that we could power through this transition without layoffs, but in retrospect, I see that this was unrealistic.”
He continues, “While Fortnite is starting to grow again, the growth is driven primarily by creator content with significant revenue sharing, and this is a lower margin business than we had when Fortnite battle royale took off and began funding our expansion. Success with the creator ecosystem is a great achievement, but it means a major structural change to our economics.”
Boiling things down, it’s clear that creative mode is now the most popular way players are engaging with Fortnite. There’s less money to be made here, given that creators receive a share of any revenue generated by their content. The battle royale game mode offers Epic Games a much larger revenue share and opportunity, but it is no longer the success that it once was, especially by the very high bar set by previous Fortnite seasons.
There’s also Fortnite’s role as a Metaverse product, which seems to have contributed to the discrepancy in Epic’s expectations and the game’s recent performance. Shortly after being a hot topic of conversation, and a new avenue of investment for many major tech companies, the Metaverse space quickly became volatile. This seems to be the story for many companies following the bubble burst that occurred earlier this year.
Marvel legend and former Riot dev joined the Fortnite team as the new Epic CCO. It’s clear that Epic Games still has big plans for the game, even after it has failed to meet its rather lofty expectations. If you ask us, Fortnite simply isn’t going away anytime soon.
That’s all you need to know about whether or not Fortnite is shutting down anytime soon. For more on the game, be sure to check out our Fortnite PC requirements to make sure your setup can run the game. Elsewhere, here are our picks for the best multiplayer games on PC.