Epic Video games boss Tim Sweeney has mentioned the way forward for Fortnite, and the developer’s continued need to develop the sport from one thing recognized primarily as a battle royale into a platform that provides experiences of quite a few totally different genres.
A number of years after Fortnite’s much-promoted Massive Bang occasion that launched Lego Fortnite, Rock Band developer Harmonix’s Competition and Rocket League maker Psyonix’s Rocket Racing, Sweeney instructed IGN at Unreal Fest 2025 that Epic Video games’ key challenge remained the truth that folks nonetheless consider Fortnite merely as its main battle royale portion.
“That is our central problem, to have everyone acknowledge that Fortnite is the every thing sport and you possibly can expertise something there,” Sweeney mentioned, “and that is going to take time. We’ll must ship on a lot of different actually superior genres.”
Progress in the direction of that purpose has, thus far, been regular. Competition continues to draw large title music acts to headline its seasons with new participant skins and music drops. Lego Fortnite Odyssey, a survival crafting expertise, has a strong participant core. However Rocket Racing has largely been retired, and newer shooter-centric modes equivalent to Reload have discovered extra success.
Throughout its State of Unreal present this week, Epic Video games famous that a third-party expertise in Fortnite had momentarily overtaken Epic’s personal core modes for the primary time, one thing that might have appeared unimaginable simply a few years in the past. However Epic Video games’ personal non-shooter modes at present present no indicators of replicating this success, with participant numbers properly beneath that of the developer’s principal Battle Royale and Zero Construct playlists, not to mention Reload or the sport’s Fortnite OG throwback providing.
When requested by IGN whether or not engagement for modes such because the musical Fortnite Competition and varied Lego Fortnite experiences had been the place Epic Video games needed them to be, Epic Video games govt vp Sax Persson replied: “I do not assume we’re ever pleased.”
“I feel the shooter modes have executed properly,” Sweeney added. “I feel we have not but achieved the magic that we have been hoping to realize with the music gameplay. It’s humorous, we introduced within the Harmonix crew, [they] joined Epic, constructed Rock Band and Guitar Hero previously, they’re an superior crew, and they have been riffing on approaches to that style and Fortnite.
“They’ve additionally been bringing in every kind of music gadgets into Fortnite with Jam Tracks, which haven’t solely a track, however all of the beats related to them, and capacity to play them in your devices.”
Nonetheless, regardless of Fortnite’s hugely-popular musical dwell occasions producing huge curiosity and participant numbers within the hundreds of thousands, Epic has not but discovered a method that generates common engagement of the identical type.
“Music has executed terribly properly in Fortnite, however paradoxically, not a lot in music video games,” Sweeney famous, “extra simply in Battle Royale and elsewhere. Our subsequent step is to determine music at a massive scale.
“I feel as Rock Band and Guitar Hero themselves achieved of their day, which was a decade or 20 years in the past, there’s a possibility for a music sport with tens of hundreds of thousands of month-to-month lively customers that folks simply completely love and come to each night or weekend for the best live performance and aggressive gameplay of all types.”
How about Lego, then, the model that is maybe now probably the most deeply entrenched throughout the Fortnite ecosystem, and the providing that is hottest of all Epic’s non-shooter modes.
“I feel Lego is fascinating, Persson mentioned. “We’re tremendous happy with [the] journey and it has a actually devoted fan base. However is it as large as we’d need it to be? No, we’d like to have it greater and work out a solution to get extra Lego followers to see that this exists.”
Once more, it feels like Epic remains to be going through the problem that Fortnite at present stays a model related to being a battle royale greater than the rest.
“What’s our main problem? Our main problem is Fortnite is Fortnite, and traditionally Fortnite was a shooter sport,” Persson continued. “It isn’t a shooter sport anymore. It’s the every thing sport, and we have to inform that story higher than what we have executed.”
One resolution to this would be the forthcoming rollout of improved capabilities for third-party groups working inside Fortnite’s Unreal Engine-powered editor, UEFN, Sweeney mentioned. Epic at present has a higher toolset than different creators, however this may change over time — to the purpose that Epic’s personal battle royale seasons will finally (now in 2026) be made with the identical instruments as any creator may have entry to.
“After we develop our modes, we’re working with C++ and all the Unreal Engine, [while] creators working with the toolset that we constructed, it is Verse and some APIs,” Sweeney famous.
“Our large process now could be to get the 2 of these improvement frameworks to converge in order that we, Epic, and creators are working in the very same instruments with the very same capabilities and creators can have far more energy at their disposal there, and that is been the factor that we have been working so laborious on for the final two years.”
However why not simply settle with being a brilliantly profitable battle royale? For Epic Video games, the way forward for Fortnite as a continued expertise — and supply of monumental revenue for the corporate — rests on its continued evolution and ongoing cultural relevance, amid the ever-changing panorama of in style online game tastes and genres.
“I might say we’re solely profitable with Fortnite as an ecosystem,” Sweeney concluded. “If any person else truly beats us at our sport, and builds one thing that is greater and cooler and higher than battle royale… I feel there’s a excessive chance of that taking place.
“For those who have a look at the shooter style, it developed with new sport varieties popping out over time based mostly on what was potential with the present know-how,” he added, noting the evolution of shooters from easy video games of Deathmatch to modes with bigger participant counts and autos. “Battle Royale simply occurs to be one of the best shooter style but invented — and because of each the Japanese film makers and [PUBG creator] Brendan Inexperienced for locating the magic there. But it surely’s undoubtedly not the final. There will be extra and it will get even higher and new applied sciences are going to make issues which are at present unimaginable, potential, and I feel that is going to unleash sudden surprises and creativity.”
It’s been a busy week for Epic Video games, which has been speaking about the way forward for AI in its Unreal Engine and in Fortnite following the latest launch of a very chatty AI-powered Darth Vader. We have additionally heard from Epic and The Witcher 4 developer CD Projekt Purple on that eye-catching Witcher 4 demo — and whether or not the ultimate sport will truly look something prefer it.
Tom Phillips is IGN’s Information Editor. You may attain Tom at tom_phillips@ign.com or discover him on Bluesky @tomphillipseg.bsky.social