Over the last six years,Fortnitehas only continued to grow more popular. What started out as a long-awaitedMinecraftclone,Fortnitequickly became one of the most popular multiplayer games on the planet, taking the recently popularized battle royale genre and elevating it to unforeseen heights. Then cameFortnite’s Battle Passsystem, revolutionizing the live-service model for the modern age, and pop-culture crossovers followed soon after. Now,Fortniteis not only still one of the most popular video games on the globe, but a hub for all things popular culture.
But despite all of its monumental success,Fortnitehas never really branched out to form its own franchise. WhileFortnite: Save the Worldstill exists alongside its Battle Royale mode, and there have been a handful of crossover comics over the years like theMarvelZero Warrun and the DCZero Pointarc,Fortnitehas mostly remained just one big video game. While it’s never too late to expand, ifFortnitedoes ever choose to spin-off into side projects, then those games may end up being stuck between a rock and a hard place.
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Future Fortnite Spinoffs Could Suffer an Identity Crisis
While the vast majority of players won’t even know it’s there,Fortniteis hiding a rich history of lore and story that’s been gradually built up over the last six years. A plot revolving around multiverses, cracks in time and space, and multiple organizations that seek to harness that power,Fortnite’s narrative has taken on a lot of different forms since its 2017 launch. While it can be a little confusing for new players to catch up on,Fortnitealso doesn’t punish those who prefer to just ignore all of its story, and instead focus solely on its gameplay. For many players, the most ofFortnite’s story they consume is the brief audio dialogue they hear when they complete quests for more Battle Pass XP.
But whileFortnitehas an abundance of original characters and storylines, it isn’t afraid of drawing direct inspiration from movies, TV shows, and other games around it. Alongside fleshing out its own narrative,Fortnitehas also been gradually building its connections to the rest of the pop-culture world. Starting withAvengers: Infinity Warback in 2018,Fortnitehas had countless crossovers over the last few years, ranging from Marvel and DC toStar Wars,God of War, and just about everything else in between.Fortnite’s crossovers have only become more prevalent recently, with fully-fledged limited-time events forDragon Ball,My Hero Academia,Attack on Titan, andStar Warsall taking center stage over the past year or so.
When it comes to the reasons behindFortnite’s astronomical popularity, it seems extremely likely that more players will have been convinced to try out the game for the first time because their favorite franchise was currently crossing over with it, as opposed to being drawn in byFortntie’s own original story or characters. And while there’s nothing wrong with that, putting money in Epic Games' pocket either way, it does pose a unique issue for any potential futureFortnitespinoffs.
WithFortnitebeing such a successful franchise, it’s only natural that Epic Games would want to start producing spin-offs from the battle royale, in a similar vein toMinecraft DungeonsandMinecraftLegends, where the core premise and aesthetics of the original game are carried over to a new type of gameplay. However,Fortniteis uniquely stuck between a rock and a hard place. On one hand, ifFortnitesolely relies on its own original characters to carry a spin-off, then it might not attract casual players, with crossovers being the thing to get them invested inFortniteto begin with. But ifFortnitetakes the opposite approach and fills its spin-off with pop-culture crossovers to appeal to the widest demographic possible, that may seem a little cheap and could put off players anyway.
Fortniteis now available to play on Mobile, PC, PS4, PS5, Switch, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
