This week in Battle Royale: ‘Battlefield V’, ‘Fortnite’, ‘Realm Royale’ and more at E3 2018

At E3 2018, “Battlefield V” won the race for first Battle Royale mention, “Fortnite” launched on Switch and hosted a celebrity tournament, and “Realm Royale” made the most of livestream popularity, while “Mavericks: Proving Grounds”, “Rapture Rejects” and “Islands of Nyne” spent time in the spotlight.

It took little over six minutes for the Battle Royale genre to get a mention at 2018’s clutch of publisher presentations, with Electronic Arts first to show its slate and first to mention the hot new format.

Senior developers from EA’s DICE studio confirmed that October’s “Battlefield V” would be adding a Royale mode at some point after launch.

“We bring those pillars of ‘Battlefield’ with destruction, team play, vehicles into this new experience… an experience that you haven’t played before in ‘Battlefield’ or anywhere else.” More details were promised for later in 2018.

In contrast, “Fortnite: Battle Royale” on the Nintendo Switch was made immediately available following a June 12 pre-recorded showcase, and was downloaded 2 million times in less than a day.

One unwanted sting in the tale for fans of the supremely popular title was the discovery that game accounts previously associated with PlayStation’s network could not link up with Nintendo’s equivalent.

The ensuing negative reaction against PlayStation, leading the current console generation in terms of sales, stood in stark contrast to the PS4 manufacturer’s rapturous E3 reception in 2013.

Another E3 Battle Royale victory took place away from the big publisher presentations.

Released on June 5 and already benefiting from exposure via Twitch and YouTube creatives like Tyler “Ninja” Blevins (the joint winner of “Fortnite”‘s E3 Celebrity Pro-Am) and Mike “Shroud” Grzesiek, “Realm Royale” is the HiRez Studio’s latest take on a current craze and, following 2016’s “Paladins”, has a chance of becoming the company’s most successful project.

With a soft-edged look akin to “Fortnite”, it does away with the latter’s rapid building mechanics and instead introduces a number of novel elements: a medieval fantasy world, class-based abilities, forges that allow equipment upgrades, and last-chance reincarnations as flappy, flag-waving chickens.

Its swift adoption as livestreaming material gave it a significant advantage going into the PC Gaming Show, which also revealed more of 1,000-player “Mavericks: Proving Grounds” and its environmental tracking, as well as an unexpected interpretation of popular webcomic “Cyanide & Happiness” called “Rapture Rejects”; “Islands of Nyne” got a brief run-out at the Xbox showcase. JB

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