Fortnite

Epic has posted a, well, EPIC State of Development newsletter on the Fortnite site to reveal many of the things the team is currently working on. Though it starts with improvements to controller support, it is the limited time mode called "Playground LTM (v1)" that has caught our attention. During Playground, players will have adjusted settings to allow for exploration of the map with increased resource generation, treasure chests and ammo crate spawns...and "Lloads of Llamas".

During E3 next month, Epic will be hosting a Fortnite celebrity Pro-Am Tournament that will feature a $3M prize pool. Winners will be able to donate their earnings to the charity of choice. Look for such well-known streamers as Ninja / Marshmello, Myth / Paul George, Pokimane / Desiigner, Markiplier / Joel McHale, Gotaga / Demetrious Johnson and many others. This tournament prize pool is not part of the previously announced $100M eSports investment Epic is making in Fortnite.

If you've been longing to take flight in Fortnite, we've got good news: Jetpacks have (finally) arrived, at least for a limited time. Epic explained that these are considered "backpacks" and are true gameplay items, not cosmetics ala Back Bling. They take up an inventory slot and are consumed on use. Once consumed, it is destroyed, though another can be picked up.

Epic is going to take Fortnite into battle royale esports in a great big way and has committed $100,000,000 in tournament prize pools for the 2018-2019 year of competitive play. "We're getting behind competitive play in a big way, but our approach will be different", the blog reads, "- we plan to be more inclusive, and focused on the joy of playing and watching the game."

Players who've been hoping to play Fortnite on Android devices may get their wish as early as this summer. In a new blog post on the Fortnite site, devs made a brief announcement that "Fortnite is coming to Android! We are targeting this summer for the release". The blog also detailed a number of improvements coming to the iOS version that will also be included in the Android device at launch.

Epic has announced a new limited time mode for Fortnite. The Solo Showdown will be running from today through May 21st with players able to earn up to 50,000 V-Bucks and the top 100 players recognized for their achievement. The goal of the adding the game mode is to provide a "stepping stone to learn how to build great events for all types of players".

Thanos will be making himself known in Fortnite Battle Royal starting on May 8th. The Fortnite Battle Royale Infinity Gauntlet event sends players off to find the Infinity Gauntlet somewhere hidden on the map. The first lucky player to find it becomes Thanos in the game. There's no details yet on when the event ends so it's worth checking out after tomorrow's maintenance and become Thanos!

SuperData Research has an amazing statistic to add to Fortnite's growing list of amazing statistics: In March, viewers spent 611 MILLION hours watching the game. Obviously, that doesn't even include the hundreds of millions of hours that were collectively played by those they were watching. Can anything stop Fortnite?!

Fortnite seems to be heading off to the be "last one standing" in the fight for dominance in the battle royale genre. The game, according to Super Data Research's March findings, has now topped all others including PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds in Monthly Active Users (MAU) and in revenue generation across all platforms. In addition, it has the "highest conversion rate of any F2P game and is now the largest F2P console game OF ALL TIME (both in revenue and MAU).

ESPN is reporting that Team Secret, a eSports conglomerate, has brought Kyle 'Mongraal' Jackson on board its newly formed Fortnite pro team. While that's not much news in and of itself, what IS interesting is that Jackson is only 13-years-old. He joins fellow teammates who are 17-, 20- and 21-years old. While at this point there isn't a competitive Fortnite esports program, Team Secret is confident that Epic will be announcing one soon.

Tencent is setting its sights bringing the battle royale genre to China in a big, big way. Over the past several months, the gaming megacorporation has announced partnership deals to bring PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds and H1Z1 to China. Unsurprisingly given the company's 40% stake in Epic, Tencent has announced that it will also be bringing Fortnite to the Chinese gaming community. Tencent will be investing $15M for the game's esports potential as well.

Fortnite seems to be the unstoppable juggernaut and Twitch streamer Tyler "Ninja" Blevins seems to be the unstoppable force for gathering concurrent viewers. Just last month, Blevins and Drake racked up 600k viewers but over this past weekend, Ninja shattered his own record with 667,000 concurrent users at the peak of his stream during an exhibition at the Luxor Resort & Casino's brand new eSports Arena.

It looks like Fortnite is heading to China based on one of Epic's recent Twitter posts. In the accompanying picture, one of the game iconic characters, "Jonesy", has a passport with an entry stamp for China dated April 23rd. It's possible that that's the day that the "Battle Bus" will take off in China.

With maintenance now complete, Fortnite Battle Royale players can dive into the game again to try out 50v50 V2 Limited Time Mode with "double the buses, double the ammo and double the mayhem". In addition, eagle-eyed players may find the new Light Machine gun that features a rapid rate of fire and a 100 round magazine.

Fortnite will be coming out of maintenance later today with the 3.5 update. The patch brings a couple of pretty awesome things to Battle Royale including Replay mode so players can revisit their most epic moments and the new Port-a-Fort for those times when you just can't be bothered to build your own fortress. "Fortify yourself in seconds, all with the flick of a wrist".