ON DECRYPT
It's back! And by buying school supplies for your kids, you may have noticed a change in the shelves. A newcomer invites himself on the schoolbags and kits: Fortnite . Fortnite is the video game of the moment. In two years, it has become a social phenomenon: 250 million players play regularly in the world. That's one Earthman out of 30!
This crazy success, Fortnite owes it first to its simplicity. A little reminder of the principle of the game: 100 players compete online on a map, that is to say, a field of confrontation that is reduced little by little. The goal is to be the last survivor. This is called a "royal battle". To get there, you have to recover weapons and build shelters to defend yourself. It's simple, effective, accessible to beginners. And then there are the graphics, very cartoon, that mitigate the violence of the game and makes it more "acceptable" for teenagers. And most importantly, Fortnite is playable for free. So the audience is very wide.
© Epic Games
A crazy World Cup
Fortnite is the star of the season. But it was also the star of the summer. At the end of July, the very first Fortnite World Cup was held. One hundred solo players and 50 duets clashed at a crazy event, held in Flushing Meadows, New York. This is where every year the US Open Tennis. The players, not tennis but Fortnite , were in front of their computer in the field and each part was broadcast live on a giant screen for spectators, with commentators unleashed, like football.
And in this little game, it's an American of only 16 years old who turned out to be the best player of the world on Fortnite . His name is Kyle Giersdorf, aka Bugha when he is behind his keyboard. When he was crowned world champion, the delirious public stood up as one man ( video below ). Twenty thousand people standing in the largest tennis stadium in the world, who cheer ... a kid of 16 years. And there were millions more in front of their computer screen at the same time. Bugha, he does not move, necessarily stunned by what happens to him.
Video game athletes
This appointment is worthy of the biggest sporting events. There were also some French qualified for this World Cup. Among them, Rémi Lehoult, aka M11Z (pronounced "Miiz"). He is 22 years old and finished 11th in the duet competition. He managed to pass the qualifying stages, during which 40 million players, pro and amateur, tried to win their place for the finals.
M11Z, he, does not return to have been able to participate in this unpublished event. "Playing a World Cup video game in one of the biggest tennis courts in the world, it's never been done and Fortnite did it, it was amazing to live when you start to see the stadium fill up it puts a lot of pressure, but when you are well focused, you can get past it, "says the player at the microphone of Europe 1.
© Johannes EISELE / AFP
E-sport, video game competitions, it's really sport, with real athletes. "GamersOrigin ( his e-sports team, ed ) has put a lot of resources to help us: nutritionist, sports coach, osteopath, etc. It helped us a lot," said Rémi "M11Z" Lehoult. A professionalism that makes e-sport a discipline in itself, with its fans. The best players are followed by millions of people who watch them train live every day on video game platforms. The best known is Twitch.
Millionaire teens
And who says competition and fans necessarily say money. A lot of money even. It's a real business. For his 11th place in duet, the French M11Z left New York with $ 100,000 in his pocket (90,000 euros). But it's nothing next to the three million dollars (2.7 million euros) won by world champion Bugha. For comparison, it's nearly 500,000 dollars more (450,000 euros) than what hit Rafael Nadal when he won Roland Garros in 2019 (2.3 million euros)! In total, the 200 players who competed in the finals shared not less ... $ 30 million (27 million euros).
Sums astronomical, and amazing since Fortnite is a free game, a free-to-play: everyone can download the game without paying a euro then play without restriction. Unlike other games of this kind, Fortnite does not offer seasoned players to buy bonuses. You can just buy customization items: costumes, props or even dances for your character!
These dances have become viral, people trying to remake them in real life. It fascinates teens ... and stars. The most famous fan remains Antoine Griezmann. When he scores a goal, he usually does a little dance that comes from Fortnite ! You know, the L on the front ...
So all this, these dances, these costumes, give no advantage in the game, it's just for the style. But the players are crazy: 70% have already spent money for that. Result, even if it is free, Fortnite has generated, for its publisher Epic Games, two billion dollars in revenue in 2018 (1.8 billion euros)!
The beginning of a weariness?
But after two years, the success of Fortnite is a little less dazzling. Competition from other similar games, including EA Sports' Apex Legends , is eroding the game's revenue. Fortnite is a little repetitive: you start a game, you try to survive as long as you can. We lose, we relaunch another, and so on. To keep its players, Fortnite evolves anyway regularly. There are so-called "seasons". Every quarter, there are changes in the game. The terrain evolves, cities appear, others disappear. A volcano erupts, a monster appears, etc. Challenges are also offered to the players.
All this forces players to adapt and rethink their strategy. At the moment, we are in season 10. It started at the beginning of August and the main novelty is the appearance of BRUTE, big robots whose players can take control of the game. powerful. Too much for some. Bugha, the most recent world champion, has just kicked a face in live. With these robots, he is beaten in one shot by beginners, and that, it annoys the boy. He thinks it's cheating, that's not the spirit of Fortnite at all . Not sure therefore we see them in season 11 which should begin in November.