Anisa Khalifa: You’re on a flying bus along with 99 cartoon characters. And it’s soaring through the air high above an island. You jump out and parachute down to the ground where you immediately start picking up weapons. You trek across rivers, maybe build a fort — or hide out in Snoop Dogg’s mansion. Oh, and you do some dancing along the way. Your objective on the island is simple — survive this wacky world until you’re the last person standing. This is the video game Fortnite. Fortnite might take place in a fantasyland, but its influence on the world is very real. Since it came out in 2017, it’s endured as one of the planet’s most popular games.
Unidentified Speaker: The player tracker sites show that well over a million people are playing Fortnite at any time.
Anisa Khalifa: And that’s thanks to a group of video game designers based … not in Silicon Valley … not in Seattle or Japan … but in the South.
Unidentified Speaker: What's neat is that what is one of the biggest, most influential games of all time was created in Cary, North Carolina.
Anisa Khalifa: I’m Anisa Khalifa. You’re listening to The Broadside, where we tell stories from our home at the crossroads of the South. This week, we find out how a North Carolina company made the biggest video game in the world.
Brian Gordon: I had never played Fortnite before…. and it started out as research, I played Fortnite, and then at a certain point, I can't really justify it as research, and I was just playing it.
Anisa Khalifa: Brian Gordon is the technology and innovation reporter for the News and Observer based in Raleigh, North Carolina. Brian recently reported a multi-part series on Epic Games, the company that created Fortnite.
Brian Gordon: The history of Epic Games, they’ve had really popular games to different degrees. Fortnite is a whole different stratosphere of success.
Anisa Khalifa: Now, Brian hadn’t actually played Fortnite until recently, but he certainly knew about it. And if you’ve been around teenagers much in the past few years, you’ve probably heard about Fortnite too.
Brian Gordon: I was a schoolteacher before becoming a reporter. And so my first Fortnite experience was watching students dance in the cafeteria. Dances that were popularized by the game, The Floss, um, The Carlton, which is inspired by the Fresh Prince character.
Anisa Khalifa: Viral dances are just one sign of Fortnite’s reach. Brian says the game peaked in popularity in 2018, and catapulted Epic to be one of the most successful video game companies in the world.
Brian Gordon: Recently Epic said that they have 800 million accounts worldwide, which is a staggering number.
Anisa Khalifa: So how’d it get to be so popular? What’s in the Fortnite formula? Well, firstly — it’s free!
Brian Gordon: Yeah, it's, uh, completely free to play if you want it to be. Money gives you no gameplay advantage. So you can spend all the money, no money, and you could win, you could lose some games are pay to get better weapons, pay to unlock a new level, Fortnite is free.
Anisa Khalifa: You can use money to buy special accessories. Like new characters and dance moves for them to do while they run around the battlefield.
Brian Gordon: Eventually they had these IP, intellectual property, crossovers where you could look like John Wick, you could look like Marvel characters, you could look like, at this point, pop stars.
Anisa Khalifa: Do you have a favorite avatar?
Brian Gordon: Yeah, Peter Griffin, um, from Family Guy, you can play as him.
Anisa Khalifa: So that's where the game makes the money, is through these in-game purchases.
Brian Gordon: Yeah.
Anisa Khalifa: Another big thing is how the game looks — the overall vibe of it. It is a first-person shooter game, but…
Brian Gordon: It's cartoonish, kid-friendly, silly, irreverent, but you are still killing your opponents, to put it bluntly. Though, in that world, almost the word killing feels like a little harsh. Parents are probably more comfortable kids playing Fortnite than a Call of Duty because you're not a soldier, you're a, you're a cartoon.
Anisa Khalifa: Is there blood in Fortnite?
Brian Gordon: No. When you get hit like a little blue light emanates.
Anisa Khalifa: Mmm its like the soul leaving the body.
Brian Gordon: Maybe. Gory it is not.
Anisa Khalifa: So how’d this bloodless, cartoonish killing game sprout up in Cary, North Carolina.
Brian Gordon: It seems a bit random.
Anisa Khalifa: For that we gotta go back to the late 90s, when Epic Games founder Tim Sweeney moved from Maryland to North Carolina — and set up shop in Cary. Brian says Sweeney's reasons were similar to what we hear today from many of the state’s newcomers.
Brian Gordon: Good weather, more affordable housing, access to an airport. Late 90s he was a little ahead of the curve for when a lot of people came, but yeah.
Anisa Khalifa: After the move to North Carolina, Epic had its first hit with a first-person shooter game called Unreal. But as Epic grew, it faced its first major hurdle… getting people to move to North Carolina.
Brian Gordon: Employees came here, and they definitely take a chance when they come to North Carolina, as some said, is that you can take a video game job in California, and if it doesn't work out, you can find another video game company in California. But if you move to the triangle, and Epic doesn't work out, you're gonna have to move again.
Anisa Khalifa: But thankfully for Epic, its success didn’t slow down. By the late 2000s, they had Gears of War, another gritty shooting game that became a hit franchise for the company. And it was around this time, in 2011, when Brian says a new idea began to get kicked around.
Brian Gordon: for the first year, this small but growing team developed a game called Fortress, and its status was always in doubt.
Anisa Khalifa: Despite that uncertainty the team behind Fortress — which was later renamed Fortnite — chugged along through years of development.
Brian Gordon: The team that was behind it was really passionate and they defended it. They'd go into meetings and I think one of the former employees used the phrase that they felt like pirates. Sort of trying to rebel.
Brian Gordon: And then in 2017, that game comes out and it is fine.
Anisa Khalifa: It was just… fine. Now, that first version of Fortnite was not the smash success gamers know today. It looked a little different–players had to build forts and defend them from zombies.
(SOUNDBITE OF ORIGINAL FORTNITE TRAILER)
Anisa Khalifa: But soon after Fortnite’s release, Epic took a big swerve in a different direction. and Brian says they have a rival game to thank for it.
Brian Gordon: so in 2017, a game came out called Player Unknown's Battleground, um, more commonly known as PUBG, and it became the most popular game in the world. It was like the game of that year. It was a battle royale format, which was in the zeitgeist at the time… You had Hunger Games had been coming out. And this captured this battle royale, one person fighting everybody else, last man standing sort of energy.
Anisa Khalifa: In this format, instead of fighting monsters, players fight each other. And the last person standing is the winner. This pivot to battle royale proved to be a gamechanger. With this new format, Fortnite became the highest-grossing video game of 2018.
Brian Gordon: I think Epic hopes that the legacy is that it is still a very popular game that people are playing. It's really hard for games to stay popular forever, like that just doesn't happen, and that's why I think Epic has been working to try to transform Fortnite from a game into this experience.
Anisa Khalifa: Brian says this new kind of “Fortnite experience,” according to Epic CEO Tim Sweeney, looks like a metaverse.
Brian Gordon: Which is, in my mind, and in others minds, a bit of a nebulous still construct about a third space where anybody could hang out in a virtual space. Just do anything you can in the real world, but in this virtual space to connect people.
Anisa Khalifa: According to Brian, this metaverse is evidence of the before-and-after-Fortnite effect at Epic. Less common are the days of group brainstorming sessions called “game jams” — where ideas were tossed out and workshopped among developers. The kinds of things that led to Fortnite in the first place. Now, Epic’s future is more focused on expanding the Fortnite universe.
Brian Gordon: they've been looking to use Fortnite as the vehicle for what's next, not necessarily look for a new game after Fortnite.. Epic went on to buy a shopping spree with the wealth that Fortnite gave them. They purchased a lot of games to kind of develop this metaverse.
Anisa Khalifa: And have those investments paid off for the company?
Brian Gordon: it's been costly, and they had layoffs last year with Tim Sweeney mentioning that the cost of developing the Metaverse was a cause for having to cut back. In Tim Sweeney's grandest dreams, it would be almost like a new internet where all these different IPs and companies players could toggle between them. That's still very lofty and it will be very costly. And legally, I think, how do you collaborate with all these different like stakeholders and letting a player go from this IP to this IP to Disney to this to that
Anisa Khalifa: Right. We still haven't even figured out how to regulate the internet.
Brian Gordon: Yeah, fair, and we're jumping to this whole new platform.
Anisa Khalifa: So Charlie and I are going to go and play Fortnite in a few minutes after this, after we talk to you. I've never played, I think he's played a little bit, but do you have any tips for us as a new player? Brian Gordon: if you want to win, listen to somebody else. Find a good, get a good weapon and then, find a good place to hunker down.
Anisa Khalifa: Okay. Coming up, we find out what happens when a podcaster picks up a controller, and we talk with a video game critic about Fortnite’s massive impact on the world of gaming.
Okay, so what are we doing? Alright, we're doing a Battle Royale. Alright, drop in and load up. Pick a landing spot and search for gear. Stay inside the Eye of the Storm.
After I chatted with Brian about Fortnite, producer Charlie Shelton-Ormond and I decided to check it out, and fired up the game for ourselves. You might hear our editor Jerad in the background too…And just to warn you, I am NOT a gamer. Last one standing wins. There can only be one winner. Okay, I'm ready to kill some people I guess. That's not something I've ever said before, but let's do it. Landing next to this little tree.
Charlie Shelton-Ormond: Okay. There's a weapon right there.
Anisa Khalifa: Oh, I got the shotgun. Got the ammo. Okay. We got lots of stuff.
Charlie Shelton-Ormond: Let's go swimming.
Anisa Khalifa: Let's go. Do I just jump into the water?
Charlie Shelton-Ormond: Yeah.
Anisa Khalifa: The gameplay is pretty self-explanatory. You land, start exploring and collecting weapons to fight with and picking up building materials in case you wanna make a fort and hunker down like Brian recommended. It was pretty easy even for a non-gamer with slow thumbs, like me
Anisa Khalifa: There's a car. It's a taxi.
Charlie Shelton-Ormond: Okay, so we've got 33 people left. You're one of 33 left. Just took out a nice tree.
Anisa Khalifa: Okay, do I get those for like my building materials?
Charlie Shelton-Ormond: Maybe.
Anisa Khalifa: All right.
I had some fun poorly piloting a boat across a river, and driving a taxi around and sometimes through obstacles. But uh… those slow thumbs meant that once I actually saw another player, it was curtains for me pretty quickly.
Charlie Shelton-Ormond: Oh, there's somebody to the right. Get it, get it, uh, to the left, to the left!
Anisa Khalifa: Oh, what's happening? Oh, I don't even know what happened. I forgot how to shoot.
Charlie Shelton-Ormond: You placed 26, that's not terrible.
Anisa Khalifa: Eh, it's out of 100. Mostly cause I didn't meet anybody. Cause I was driving boats and cars. So, my Fortnite adventure was… short-lived. But I definitely see the appeal. It’s easy to play, and the world is fun to explore.
Alright, well.
Charlie Shelton-Ormond: That was great.
Anisa Khalifa: That was fun, though.
Charlie Shelton-Ormond: Yeah.
Anisa Khalifa: Would play again.
Charlie Shelton-Ormond: Jerad, you wanna play?
Anisa Khalifa: After my anticlimactic death, I wanted to know more about the world of Fortnite within the gaming universe. So I sat down with Jamal Michel. He’s a video game critic who’s written for places like NPR, The New York Times, and the Washington Post.
So, What's your relationship with Fortnite?
Jamal Michel: Uh, I laugh because I feel like if my cousins or my friends were listening, they'd make fun of me. I play Fortnite. I've played Fortnite. I'm terrible at Fortnite. My younger cousins often carry me. One of those video games that you can't get away from. It influences all the other games coming out. I've genuinely been following it. Since 2017, around the time it came out to now.
Anisa Khalifa: Did Fortnite change gaming?
Jamal Michel: Absolutely. Absolutely. There's no question. I mean, Fortnite was really one of those first shooters to not take themselves so seriously. Every other game is gritty, it's dark, it's bloody, it's very macho, very bro. But in Fortnite, I could literally be Goku from the Dragonball Z universe. I can eliminate somebody and do like a, some kind of emote dance on them.
And the idea of a battle pass, a battle pass in a video game that's free to play, like Fortnite, is basically a premium you pay. You can pay $10 for it, $15 for it, depending on the game. What it gives you access to is this sort of tier list of items that you can acquire the longer you play and the more you level up. That was not really a thing in the past. So games now like Call of Duty, Halo, Overwatch, whomever, all of these games begin to play with the idea of something like that, even if they were live service, even if the game was originally free, there is something to incentivize players to keep playing.
Anisa Khalifa: It seems like it's hard for video games to stay popular, stay in the zeitgeist for a long time, but Fortnite seems to have endured. How do you think that it managed to do that?
Jamal Michel: There are so many factors that contribute to something staying in the zeitgeist for long enough, but the zeitgeist is changing every other day. It's happening so quickly. I will say social media has helped propel Fortnite into that kind of popularity, TikTok especially. I feel like I'm seeing shorts, reels, whatever, across all platforms of clips that people are getting in Fortnite. A cool elimination or something like that. But Fortnite is good about keeping its playlists and its content fresh. So quite frequently I think every week or so They're changing the content available within the game and they're taking in the wants and needs of their player base as well. So it's not that the game comes out, they're making creative decisions behind closed doors and the audience has to just sit with it. Rather, they're an integral part of the content that Epic is putting out.
So I think they've just done a great job of communicating and listening to their players. Um, I will say, I think one of the other factors that really contributed to its success is how it was able to incorporate a lot of hip hop-inspired, rap-inspired culture and it is a point of contention for people because there are emotes and dances that have been released in the game that are either taken directly from prominent or popular Black content creators or exist within a very specific like Black space. And so that says something about this contentious relationship that video games have with marginalized communities that may not be represented in a thoughtful way but are still tapped for their creativity.
Anisa Khalifa: We talked to a reporter who did a story about Fortnite and Epic. He said that Epic is really focused on finding their next success within the world of Fortnite. So, you know, the metaverse, or the universe of the game, or by acquiring external content. Is this emblematic of the video game industry as a whole, like taking less risk on new games, focusing more on franchises and extending out their pre-existing franchises?
Jamal Michel: that really seems emblematic of just the creative industries that that we consume, film and television, you know, we're seeing more sequels than we're seeing new projects come out. And I think for a game like Fortnite, being able to do that so readily is, if it ain't broke. You know, why would I try and fix something like this? It's already built up so much momentum. I think that the thing that they might want to be wary of is the fatigue. You know, we've seen superhero fatigue with the MCU, but Fortnite is a safe bet.
You know, you're not going to see any blood or any gore. You're not going to see anything that an IP who collaborates with Fortnite is going to be afraid of damaging their image with. So I think that safe bet allows Fortnite to go farther and allows them to say, how about we stay in our own house, but continue to invite, you know, invite people in.
Anisa Khalifa: Could a game like Fortnite be developed and released now?
Jamal Michel: I think the short answer is not really. This is like a flash in the pan. You couldn't see this coming. I think gamers still want something new and something fresh, but the folks who are taking those big swings are in the indie space. And we're seeing companies like Xbox and PlayStation, or rather Sony and Microsoft, invest in that indie space because they know that's where they're taking the big swings.
You can't really afford to do that when you are a multi million dollar studio and video games are way more expensive to make. And they take longer. So if you're going to take a bet like that, and the return is going to be pretty abysmal, you're not going to see support, um, at that kind of level. So I do think it's there, but on a smaller scale. On a large scale like this, I think it'd be really, really difficult to duplicate.
Anisa Khalifa: What do you think will be Fortnite's legacy?
Jamal Michel: Fortnite's legacy will be the fact that the memes are ultimately gonna be real, and when I say the memes, I mean for folks who are chronically online who create, like, fan art of Naruto talking to Goku, or fighting with Goku. Um, we'll finally see that realized, except Goku and Naruto are gonna have these bizarre weapons in their hands. And they're going to be T-posing, and they're going to be dancing these, like, very popular hip hop dances. And I think that will be the enduring legacy is that it never took itself so seriously that people forgot about it.
I think they're going to remember those moments. I mean, meme culture dominates the video game space. And that's exactly what Fortnite is creating in its own world and in its own unique way. I might not be the best at it, I might not frequently play it, I might be at odds with how it's transformed the economy of video games, but I think it is, it's irrefutable, it's really got an enduring spirit, and um, I don't know that it's gonna stop anytime soon.
Anisa Khalifa: If you’d like to check out Brian Gordon’s series about Epic Games, we’ve dropped a link in the show notes. We also have links to some of Jamal Michel’s work. This episode of The Broadside was produced by Charlie Shelton-Ormond. It was edited by Jerad Walker. Wilson Sayre is our executive producer. The Broadside is a production of WUNC–North Carolina Public Radio and is part of the NPR Network. You can email us at broadside@wunc.org. If you enjoyed the show, leave us a rating, a review, or share it with a friend! I’m Anisa Khalifa. Thanks for listening y'all. We'll be back next week.