Fortnite is an inescapable tour de force that has taking the gaming industry by storm. Its cutesy graphics, easy-to-grasp play mechanics, free-to-play ingenuity and its cross-platform capabilities has rocketed Fortnite to more than $1 billion’s worth of success in just a year of its release.
The massive success of the game’s Battle Royale mode has encouraged battle royale modes in a whole host of other AAA games – everything from Call of Duty to FIFA seems to either have or is about to get its own version.
But as much as people are loving (or hating) Fortnite, its influence on the gaming industry can’t be ignored, and it’s not just the never-ending list of battle royale games that Fortnite has brought to the table.
Cross-play capability is something that Sony is notoriously unwilling to move on, making it incredibly difficult for developers to launch a game on PlayStation that will have cross-play support.
Cross-play support allows for almost any device to jump into a game. Fortnite for example can be played on PC, iOS, Android and tablets too, meaning you no longer need a $$$ console to play the most popular games on the market.
There are lots of upcoming games that want to make the most of such an inclusive feature, such as Bethesda’s Elder Scrolls card game, but with Sony being mostly unwilling to move on the matter, it seems game developers might avoid the console market in the future.
If you can play Fortnite on your phone then why would you need to fork out for a PlayStation 4 Pro? If PUBG is available on your tablet, and you can easily play it on the move, then why would you want a version on your console too – especially if you can’t transfer progression and save data?
It’s being speculated in a report by Forbes that as more and more developers move away from the console market to launch cheaper and yet equally as lucrative games on more adaptable platforms, we might see a decline in console usage and sales.
Bethesda has already announced that it might not bring its new Elder Scrolls card game to the PlayStation because of its lack of cross-play.
What other games might consoles miss out on because of this, and is the success of Fortnite really to blame?
[wpna hide=’wp’]Want to see more from GameByte then swipe to the left![/wpna]