Fornite has become a gaming phenomenon across the world, with the multiplayer online game recently raising up to USD 3 million daily across the globe for Epic Games. The game has been widely accepted as the best online multiplayer game in the recent times and all of this, even before it has hit the Android platform. Epic Games, however, is expected to bring the game to the Android devices soon, with even rumours of it making its debut with the launch of the upcoming Samsung Galaxy Note 9 doing the rounds.
With all the success that the game has tasted within one and a half years of its launch, there has been an equally high number of controversies revolving around it. Here are the top 5 controversies that the game has seen over time, ranging from allegations of it being a rip-off, raising addictions amongst kids and even lawsuits. Read on.
1. A PUBG Rip-off
This one controversy erupted as soon as Fortnite made the debut of its second format in the game, better known as the Fortnite: Battle Royale. At the time, PlayerUnknown's Battleground was enjoying a pinnacle position in the multi-player gaming arena, with already over 5 million copies being sold within three months of its March 2017 release. Fortnite saw the formula working and imagined a way to introduce it to its already established audience. The gaming firm got to work and released a spin-off of its existing gameplay to match that of PUBG within months. What started off as a zombie survival game of sorts had now become a last-man-standing competition in a shrinking map for 100 players at a time. And as it turned out, the Battle Royale is the version that scaled the growth of the company to unimaginable heights.
What ensued was a legal battle between the two gaming-firms, with the makers of PUBG blaming Epic Games on copyright terms. Later on, the former dropped the lawsuit without any explanation.
2. Redirecting resources to Battle Royale
At the time of the launch of Battle Royale, Fornite was widely criticised by its existing user base, who were mostly the fans of the Save The World, for not paying much attention to the first edition. Numerous open discussions erupted on Fortnite's own forum blaming the company for the same. Save The World players criticised Epic Games for a lack of new content that directly resulted in a drop in the number of users and hence shot up the time to find a match for the remaining players. What's more, it also halted the in-game progression of the existing gamers, who now demanded more incentives to match their earlier up-keep.
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3. Addiction for kids
The gaming addiction controversy has been a hotly debated topic since forever and Fortnite also got a fair share of it. Post its worldwide success, several reports emerged online highlighting how the game had been a prime reason for increased gaming addiction in kids, to the point that several school authorities started complaining about the increased gaming in schools. Online reports started emerging, directing the parent community on how to monitor whether their child was addicted to the game.
4. Epic Games suing a 14-Yr old
Epic Games got into a legal lawsuit which could have been potentially devastating to its reputation among the gaming fraternity had anything gone out of hand for the company. Back in 2017, Epic Games filed a lawsuit against a gamer who had been using cheats within the game. The problem was, the gamer here was a 14-yr old kid. The kid's mother reproached the company with a scathing letter listing out how the company's lawsuit made no sense whatsoever.
In Epic Games' defence, the company had filed a lawsuit only after the kid posted a video of himself using the cheats on YouTube. Upon the company's notice to the gamer to pull down the video from YouTube, the kid responded with a DMCA counterclaim to the takedown notice, even going on to publish another video of the same. Guess, that is where Epic Games lost its cool to ensue the legal case.
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5. Slow response to hacked account
As the online activities increase in any vertical, so does its potential for cyber attacks. Fortnite was no exception to this and many players saw their accounts being hacked and their V-bucks, the in-game currency, transferred. The problem, however, is not the hack itself but the company's slow response to the victim accounts. An online search would reveal numerous reports of gamers trying to regain hold of their hacked accounts but not getting any response or help from the company.
All said and done, Fortnite has tasted a level of success that very few games have tasted so far, to a point that its in-game celebration made its way to the FIFA World Cup 2018 with an Antoine Griezmann goal in the cup final. And its progress is not stopping there as many are still anxiously awaiting the release of the game on the Android platform.
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