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Unity, Improbable and Epic Games are squabbling in public
What a day. Unity, Improbable and Epic Games have been wrapped up in a bizarre and unnecessarily public dispute about terms of service, and the future of games that run on a much-hyped platform called Spatial OS. The quarrel started this morning with an Improbable blog post titled: "Unity's block of SpatialOS."
Ubisoft joins Epic's game store
The Epic Games Store is already starting to line up major third-party game publishers mere weeks after its debut. Ubisoft will offer its shared-world shooter The Division 2 through Epic's digital portal on March 15th, with pre-orders for all three versions (Standard, Gold and Ultimate) available now. You'll get the same private beta access you would if you'd bought elsewhere. And like it or not, Epic is planning to integrate "key components" of Uplay with its online services to provide slicker social features and interoperability.
'Fortnite' New Year's event forces players to dance when it turns 2019
If you're spending New Year's eve playing Fortnite, be prepared to party. Epic Games has set up an in-game event to celebrate the changing of the calendar by dropping a giant disco ball from the sky and forcing everyone on the map to dance. The event occurs every time the clock strikes midnight in a new time zone, so don't panic when you see the ball drop and you don't have a glass of champagne ready to go.
Holiday 'Fortnite' outage leaves players in limbo (updated)
We hope you didn't plan on spending your holiday week indulging in a Fortnite marathon. Epic Games has confirmed an outage preventing players from joining games, or even signing in. The developer hasn't been specific about the nature of the issue, but TechCrunch noted that it took multiple tries to log in, and that the queue was timing out. The company's status page pointed to a "partial outage" for game services as well as "degraded performance" for both signing in and matchmaking.
Alfonso Ribeiro sues Epic for using the Carlton dance in 'Fortnite'
It's no secret that Epic has patterned many of Fortnite's dance emotes on real-world moves, but that's increasingly landing the game studio in hot water. Mere weeks after rapper 2 Milly sued Epic (and 2K) for allegedly duping the Milly Rock, Alfonso Ribeiro has filed his own lawsuit accusing the developer of copying Carlton's signature dance from The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air. Ribiero's attorney told TMZ that Epic mimicked the "iconic" swaying through its Fresh emote without asking permission or offering compensation. The TV star is in the midst of copyrighting the dance.
Epic removes 'overpowered' Infinity Blade from 'Fortnite'
Fortnite fans got a taste of the game's mythic items this week with the Infinity Blade (as in Epic's games of the same name). Only one such sword was available in a match, and the player who wielded it received a health and shield boost, HP regeneration, faster movement, immense damage-dealing potential and the ability to smash through buildings in no time at all. Or at least they used to have all that power, because Epic admitted it "messed up" with the overpowered weapon and has already shuttled the Infinity Blade into Fortnite's vault.
Epic gives developers Fortnite's cross-platform tools for free
Fresh off the launch of its Steam rival, Epic Games isn't done shaking up the industry. Next up, it's giving away the toolkit that helped turn Fortnite into the year's biggest success story. Starting in 2019, Epic will make its cross-platform SDK -- the same tech that allows for battle royale action across PC, consoles and mobile -- available for free to all developers. Features include the ability to run parties, matchmaking, voice chat, and more across PC, Mac, Xbox One, PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch, iOS, and Android. The cross-platform toolkit also works with Epic's own Unreal Engine and rival Unity's software.
The Epic Games Store is the best thing that could happen to Steam
By the time The Game Awards cameras switched off on December 6th, after three hours of sternum-pounding concerts, raucous celebration and heartfelt speeches, the video game landscape had changed in a massive way. In the show's first hour, the studio behind Fortnite and the Unreal Engine launched its new digital marketplace, The Epic Games Store, and its simple gray-and-white logo became a consistent theme throughout the night. It seemed that every time a trailer for a new game faded to black, the Epic Games Store emblem was there.
'Infinity Blade' will live on inside 'Fortnite'
For any studio, stopping development on a game is never fun. Just ask Epic Games, which just announced that it will no longer dedicate any more resources to its Infinity Blade trilogy because it couldn't support the series to "a level that meets [its] standards." However, when you're also behind one of the biggest games of 2018 (hint: Fortnite), it often provides opportunities for some of those older ideas to live on. That's exactly what's happened in the battle royale title's latest update, which welcomes the Infinity Blade as its new weapon.
Epic pulls its 'Infinity Blade' mobile games from the App Store
Ever since being introduced as Project Sword alongside iOS 4.1 back in 2010, the Infinity Blade games have shown the kind of graphics and action that are possible on Apple's mobile devices -- until now. At the same time owner Epic Games is launching its own game store and pricking Apple over App Store policies that impact its Fortnite juggernaut, the company has decided to pull all three games without warning. In a post the company said "it has become increasingly difficult for our team to support the Infinity Blade series at a level that meets our standards."
After Math: Hope for the Holidays
While Christmas decorations have already been festooned throughout big box retailers since the start of November, the holiday season is finally in full swing now that Thanksgiving is over. As such, industry and government both are gearing up to celebrate the reason for the season: capitalism.
'Fortnite' launched 'The Block' live in-game during The Game Awards
We've seen Fortnite host live in-game happenings before, but this one was timed to occur with an event in the real world, specifically tonight's The Game Awards 2018. Epic premiered a new area in the games map called "The Block" which is basically a 25x25 tile empty space. Now that season seven of the battle royale game has added a Creative mode, it hopes to encourage players by taking the best of what they make and feeding it back into the standard map that everyone shares. Once players have built... something on a flat area of their island that matches the space, Epic has said to share them on social media using its #FortniteBlockParty hashtag for them to find it. Part of the game's allure has always been its Minecraft-y building, and the potential of having a creation included for everyone to play should give people even more reason to tinker with their private islands in the new mode.
The Epic Games Store is live
The Epic Games Store is live and it's not messing around. Epic threw it live during The Game Awards, where a handful of titles debuted as Epic Games Store exclusives. This comes just two days after announcing a digital marketplace with a significantly more profitable pricing model for developers than Steam.
'Fortnite' season seven adds planes, custom weapons and lots of ice
I don't want to undersell this, but if you've been looking to play as a swole Father Christmas, Epic Games' latest Fortnite update has got you covered. Season seven of the battle royale shooter has arrived, bringing with it weapon customization, a brand new icy biome, a bunch of new skins and even a new vehicle: planes.
Epic stops work on 'Unreal Tournament' sequel because of 'Fortnite'
Epic Games has lately been quiet about its long-in-the-making Unreal Tournament sequel, and it now looks like the project is effectively on ice. In the wake of a September decision to move UT developers to Fortnite, Epic chief Tim Sweeney told Variety that the revived multiplayer shooter isn't being "actively developed." It's still in the store if you want it, but you shouldn't expect new modes or extra polish any time soon.
‘Fortnite’ is getting a big new Creative mode
Fortnite's creators have spent the last few days hyping up a big announcement planned for this week's Game Awards, but now it seems an enthusiastic YouTuber has let the cat out of the bag early. And it's a biggie: Fortnite will be getting a brand new "Creative" mode.
Epic Games will take on Steam with its own digital store
Buoyed by Fortnite's phenomenal success over the last year or so, Epic Games is launching its own digital store to take on the likes of Steam, EA's Origin and Blizzard's Battle.net. However, Epic is giving developers a higher revenue share than most of its competitors. Much like creators who sell items through the Unreal Engine Marketplace, developers will keep 88 percent of revenue and Epic will take a 12 percent cut.
You can finally gift items to your friends in 'Fortnite'
Just in time for the holidays, Epic Games is introducing the ability to gift items to other players in the unfathomably popular Fortnite: Battle Royale. The feature is part of update version 6.31 -- unless you play on iOS, in which case you won't be able to gift items because Apple policy prohibits it. For now, it will just be a test run that will be available in-game for one week, though it's expected that the feature will be fully available sometime in the near future.
'Fortnite' now has over 200 million players
It was a big deal when Fortnite racked up 40 million players by mid-January, but that figure now seems downright quaint. As of November, Epic Games' battle royale shooter has obtained 200 million registered players -- that's five times as many players in less than a year, and a 60 percent jump from the 125 million it had in June. Not all of those players are active, but Epic also recently hit a record of 8.3 million concurrent players. Even if some of those 200 million users only touched the game once, many others are playing on a frequent basis.
$1 million 'Fortnite' winter tournament is open to all
Now that Epic has had some time to refine Fortnite's online tournament system, it's committing to higher stakes for its competitions. The studio is launching an open Winter Royale tournament with a total of $1 million in prizes. Anyone in the North America and Europe regions can qualify by excelling in event sessions during the qualifying days on November 24th and November 25th. If you make the cut, you'll play in your respective region's finals (starting November 30th for Europe, December 11th for North America).
