Fortnite is a game-changer. Literally. An analyst at a top Wall Street Firm has predicted that the huge success of Epic’s Battle Royale game will have a massive trickle-down effect on the game industry, with it even leading to Fortnite copycats within AAA titles such as Call of Duty and Red Dead Redemption 2.
Senior Research Analyst at Piper Jaffray, Michael Olson, believes that the waves Fortnite is making in the industry won’t be calmed anytime soon. In fact, he’s expecting the Battle Royale game mode to be tagged onto some of the industry’s biggest names.
As reported by CNBC, Olson “expects battle royale mode[s] to be added by the second half of 2018 or early 2019 to a selection of titles that includes Call of Duty, Overwatch, Battlefield, Anthem and Red Dead Redemption 2. It is worth noting that Olson, according to his profile page on Piper Jaffray’s site, has history researching and analysing every publisher whose titles he specifically mentioned.
Fortnite has seen major publishers of other titles record slight losses thanks to Epic Games’ overwhelming share in the market as of late. However, it is the Battle Royale mode itself, rather than Fortnite that appears to be the main draw, hence publishers looking to replicate that rather than anything else in their own titles.
“We believe it is the ‘mode,’ not the game, that has attracted users to Fortnite and PUBG; we, therefore, expect major publishers to win back engagement as this style of play is included in their existing titles,” Olson writes.
Fortnite-style RDR 2? Battle Royale CoD? Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery (and Fortnite wasn’t exactly the first with this idea) so count me in. Count me in big time.
