With Epic Games beginning registration for the mobile version of its PC and console game “Fortnite: Battle Royale”, a new trailer shows what to expect; and a Chinese gaming giant announces a direct competitor, “FortCraft”.
Released in September 2017 as a cartoon caricature spin on the battle royale genre, and its most notable proponent, the realistic-looking “PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds”, Epic Games “Fortnite: Battle Royale” offered a similar experience with a few key twists.
It took the last person standing ethos of a battle royale game and to it added the ability to build temporary, destructible fortifications in a jiffy.
In addition, where “PUBG” was becoming a PC sensation with its $29 price tag, “Fortnite” was offering itself for free on PC, Mac, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One.
Epic, also the studio behind an industry standard game creation suite called the Unreal Engine, is now bringing its “Fortnite” experience to Android and iOS, and promising mobile players that they will be able to play with the rest of the game’s community on computer and console should they so choose.
Would-be iOS players can sign up for an as yet undated Fortnite Invite Event at the Epic Games website, though they will need to have iOS 11 running on an iPhone 6S/SE, iPad Mini 4, iPad Air 2, iPad Pro or more recent, Epic advises. An Android debut is expected in the next few months.
Should fans own a device older than years old or not developed by Apple, Chinese firm NetEase is hoping to capitalize on the moment with a completely unofficial and very similar looking title called “FortCraft”.
In the same way that “Fortnite” ambushed “PUBG” with its initial multi-platform launch, “FortCraft” is being rolled out on not only iOS via TestFlight but also Android via Android via Google Play, and developed with the professed intention of “run[ning] on many older smartphones to be as inclusive as possible,” as Touch Arcade notes.
NetEase was previously responsible for a number of “PUBG” clones such as “Knives Out” and “Rules of Survival,” though PUBG Corp chose Tencent, developer of a mobile battle royale titles called “Europa”, to oversee the creation of not one but two official portable “PUBG” games. JB
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