Epic Games just dropped a stunning announcement: Fortnite Battle Royale is coming to mobile. And not just a scaled-down port, no, this is going to be the same game as on console and PC, with Cross Play and Cross Progression between all platforms except for Xbox One. The game will come to iOS and Android. On Monday, March 12th, an invite event will happen on the official Fortnite site, with invites to the iOS version. People who get invite codes will get codes to share with others. The minimum supported devices are the iPhone 6S/SE, iPad Mini 4, iPad Pro, iPad Air 2, and iPad 2017 will be compatible.
This is massive news, as Fortnite is one of the biggest games in the world now. While the title initially launched with its co-op PvE mode, Battle Royale helped take the game to massive heights. It’s a similar concept as PUBG or Rules of Survival (Free): 100 people drop into a battlefield, and the last person or squad standing wins. The big difference with Fortnite is that players can harvest wood, bricks, and steel from structures and the landscape, and then use those resources to build things. You can build steps to reach otherwise unreachable places, or even build a massive fortress for yourself. Of course, a structure also means that a human has been there, so similar to the door meta, you have to be careful with what you build and where.
Fortnite has become so popular thanks in part to it being free, as well as in a hot genre. The game’s microtransactions are all cosmetic, with new character, glider, and weapon skins, to go along with new emotes. The game also launched on console before PUBG, siphoning off some of the game’s popularity to an interested audience. On mobile, there are already several battle royale games, and the official PUBG mobile games are sure to come west at some point. However, Fortnite‘s standalone popularity, along with the potential for cross-compatibility for players’ customization items, might give it a leg up on mobile.
While I wonder just how well the building controls will work on mobile, other battle royale games show that the genre can work on mobile. And Epic is promising that all this cross-platform support means “players across devices can squad up with friends and play together. We believe this is the future of games. The same game on all platforms. Console quality graphics and action. Play when you want, where you want." This mobile announcement also sure makes a Fortnite for Switch version seem a lot more likely, doesn’t it?
Fortnite for mobile might take a few months to go worldwide as Epic mentions that they’ll “be adding more players regularly over the coming months," but just the fact that this is real and coming is landmark news for the mobile gaming world, and for the idea that gaming doesn’t need to be restricted to one particular platform if it doesn’t have to be. I’m ready to play Fortnite wherever I go.