They probably saw Roblox, and realized that it would be a much better chance of competing to leverage and extend their existing platform to compete and capture kids and tweens that are aging up a little from Roblox. Every social media company is always gunning for the 12-16-year-olds because that’s who makes them “the next big thing,” so that seems like a great option for Epic.
Pretty similar, if I recall, to how Fortnite didn’t start out as Battle Royale and pivoted once it saw where the market was going.
But that’s just how it appears to me - I’m an Apex Legends player.
Uglyhead@lemmy.world 5 months ago
Epic is trying to make their own ‘Metaverse’— just wait until Fortnite VR comes out in the near future.
It’s already a place for people to hang out with friends socially and just voice chat, or go to concerts, or go to Escape Rooms, or play music together in Rockband, etc etc.
Epic/Unreal will just keep adding and adding things to their ‘Ready Player One’ universe.
HelluvaKick@lemmy.world 5 months ago
Yes but theirs is actually pretty fun. Zero Build was a great addition and now they have rock band, racing, prop hunt, and gun game. My friends and I moved to playing it recently and haven’t been able to move to a new game since.
Uglyhead@lemmy.world 5 months ago
I tend to agree. Taking the car physics from their acquisition of Rocket League and putting it into a racing game was a bit of genius. It is the most fun I’ve had in a casual racing game since MarioKart.
And,…that’s kind of my point. Epic/Unreal is acquiring gaming IP (Rockband, Rocket League, etc) and putting all of that into their own Metaverse/OASIS garden.
It’s an interesting Facebook-like strategy they seem to have.
evranch@lemmy.ca 5 months ago
I’ve ignored Fortnite for years but am suddenly paying attention to after these 2 comments. No building? Rocket League arcade racing? I might actually want to play this, at least to try it out
HelluvaKick@lemmy.world 5 months ago
I hasn’t played the Racing until your comment, and wow, that is some fun ass racing. You are right, geniuses.
And it’s a crazy strategy and it’s interesting to see how well it’s working. I can play with my coworkers, friends, and younger family members. I don’t have fb at all anymore, so this is where I’m keeping up with people in a way
MaoZedongers@lemmy.today 5 months ago
Fortnite VR already exists, it’s called Population One and has the worst vr gun controls known to man