Fortnite Was Nearly Cancelled By Former Epic Games Director

We’re officially mid-way through 2019 and it’s pretty darn impossible to imagine a world without Epic Games’ Fortnite.

Credit: Epic Games

The controversial battle royale game has swooped in and overturned the free-to-play model, amassing millions of fans (and millions of haters), earning Epic Games billions of dollars, and sending a lot of kids to video game rehab (apparently).

But can you imagine a world in which we didn’t have Fortnite? Well, that was nearly a reality according to Rod Fergusson, ex-director of production at Epic Games.

Credit: Epic Games

Speaking to Game Informer [via The Gamer], Fergusson would have pulled the plug on Fortnite before it ever really took off.

“If I stayed at Epic, I would have canceled Fortnite. Absolutely. Before I left I tried to cancel Fortnite,” Fergusson said.

It’s not clear why Fergusson wanted to nix the game, but it was suggested that it was down to an issue with Save the World.

Credit: Epic Games

“When it was just Save the World, that was a project that had some challenges. As the director of production at the time, that game would not have passed my bar for something we should have continued to keep going,” Fergusson said.

For the folks at Epic Games it’s probably a pretty good thing the game didn’t get axed…

Back in March of this year, Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney told Engadget that the game had 250 million players, an increase of around 50 million from the end of 2018.

Credit: Epic Games

Gamesradar reports that since then, the record number of concurrent players has also shot up, peaking at a huge 10.8 million during Marshmello’s in-game live concert.

If Fergusson really had pulled the plug on Fortnite I don’t even want to think about how much money Epic Games wouldn’t have made…

Featured Image Credit: Epic Games