No other video game has made the Battle Royale format work as successfully as Fortnite. But wasn't the mode in its current form planned from the very beginning? In an interview with Tim Sweeney, the CEO of Epic Games revealed the beginnings of Fortnite, and gave us an exciting peek into the future!
200 players in one lobby! It's hard to imagine that in Fortnite. But the CEO of Epic Games had other ideas when Fortnite was launched. In an interview with Matthew Ball, fans are given interesting insights into Fortnite's past and an upcoming update that could change the game remarkably.
Fortnite Could Only Handle 100 Players When it Launched
Since its release in 2017, Fortnite has continued to receive updates and new features to keep the gaming experience fresh and exciting. But one thing never changed. A Battle Royale lobby consists of up to 100 players competing against each other on the island until only one or one team remains.
But that wasn't the original plan for Fortnite Battle Royale. As Tim Sweeney reports, Epic Games' plans were thwarted by the underdeveloped technology at the time: “Why is Fortnite: Battle Royale 100 players? Well, because at the time we launched, we couldn’t make 200 players work on a server. Computers in the data center were just too slow.”
Tech Improvements Have Opened The Door To 200-Player Lobbies
Epic Games is currently still using Unreal Engine 5, whose technology is still similar to Unreal Engine 1, which was released in 1997. But with Unreal Engine 6, they have a lot planned, as Sweeney reveals: “So one of the big efforts that we’re making for Unreal Engine 6 is improving the networking model, where we both have servers supporting lots of players, but also the ability to seamlessly move players between servers and to enable all the servers in a data center or in multiple data centers.”
So 200 players in a lobby really seems possible and would certainly bring back the interest in Battle Royale for many. Nevertheless, Unreal Engine 6 is not expected before 2025, which is why an expansion of the lobby with the start of Chapter 6 later this year is very unlikely.
What do you think of the idea of doubling the number of players in Battle Royale? The example of Fortnite Reload (40 players) has at least shown that changing the number of players can work. So we can look forward to what Fortnite will offer us in the future.