The way that Fortnite took control of the battle royale genre and became one of the biggest games in the world is fascinating, to say the least. It wasn’t the first on the market, and it literally stole the idea from its competitor when Epic Games released that what it was making at the time wasn’t going to move a lot of units. So, they put the battle royale gameplay in as a free aside, and it took off like hotcakes. Fast forward to now, and the game is constantly updating with new skins, modes, places to go, battles, and so on.
Even still, some problems haunt the game from time to time. You might recall that for a recent event, the items that were offered weren’t the best, and fans weren’t happy. In the long-term, fans have wondered if Fortnite could evolve to become more than what it is right now, beyond just adding new modes every once in a while. Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney was asked about this in an interview with Matthew Ball. Specifically, he was asked about the player limit in the game and why it hasn’t grown since then:
“Why is Fortnite: Battle Royale 100 players? Well, because at the time we launched it we couldn’t make 200 players work on a server. Computers in the data center were just too slow.”
As for why it hasn’t improved yet, that would be because of how there are “artifacts” of today’s technology being shown off in the worst ways, and thus, improvements haven’t been made yet. The keyword here is “yet.” Sweeney makes it clear that the game’s future will be highlighted by change, and that could mean taking it from 100 players to 200 players!
It should be noted that some games in the past have had well over 200 players for their online combat modes. That being said, just because something can go to 200 players doesn’t mean that it should. After all, 100 players is the “standard” for many battle royale titles of this type. Expanding it too much will lead to a greater challenge, which many will like, but it’ll also become much harder to win, which many people won’t like.
Another thing to keep an eye on is the other possible changes that Tim Sweeney and others have in mind for the game. We know they’ll keep some elements the same, like bringing in new skins, but what else do they have up their sleeves?
