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Electronic Art�s Take on Fortnite

Electronic Art’s Take on Fortnite

There’s always a notion that something revolutionary is bound to upset the established order and make others before it seem utterly unnecessary and obsolete. That was exactly what many thought was the fate that awaited traditional shooter games like Call of Duty and Battlefield.

For over a decade, the two giants have headlined several titles that have defined the genre. However, with the emergence of Player Unknown’s Battlegrounds and most recently of Fortnite, many thought that the end was near for Battlefield.

This has certainly not been the opinion of Electronic Arts, who made it public that it doesn’t believe that Fortnite is in anyway a threat to the Battlefield games. On the contrary, Electronic Arts even went so far as to suggest that Fortnite’s success means that Battlefield’s own fan base will increase.

These sentiments were shared during EA’s latest quarterly results where the publisher’s revenues and profits were made known to the public, shareholders and the media. The results were extremely positive with EA pledging its commitment to perpetual improvement and innovation. EA’s Chief Executive noted that Fiscal 2018 brought a lot of growth and transformation for Electronic Arts. He also spoke positively about some of the flagship titles under the publisher’s name like The Sims, FIFA and Battlefield.

In a separate interview given to The Wall Street Journal, EA’s Chief Financial Officer, Blake Jorgensen touched on the topic of the threat that established names like Battlefield face from Fortnite. He was quick to brush off such assertions and reiterated the fact that Fortnite’s success bodes well for Battlefield itself. He further added that Fortnite has been immensely successful in adding a number of new players and users to its platform. These are people who might potentially end up playing Battlefield too.

It’s worth mentioning here that though both the games might seem similar, they operate on completely different metrics. While Fortnite is seen as a battle royale game where the survival of the fittest concept is at play, Battlefield has relied on concepts like astute story-telling, serene graphics and historically accurate battles to cement its status in the industry. It was a combination of these three factors that ultimately led to Battlefield 1’s enormous success worldwide.

This is where Jorgensen thinks that Battlefield stands to benefit. According to him, the players of Fornite might eventually begin to yearn for more than repetitive and clichéd battle royales. Battlefield would offer them the chance to check out something completely different within the same genre. He believes that the next Battlefield game, rumored to be a World War II epic, stands to gain immensely from these prospective players from Fortnite.

Battlefield’s biggest competitor, Call of Duty and its publisher, Activision have posted similar results which highlight that there’s little or no chance that Battlefield has anything to worry about either.

Though it hasn’t been announced yet, but there are several rumors and gossip circulating about Battlefield having its own version of the famous battle royale mode. The game mode has achieved somewhat of an endearing place amongst the gaming community after being introduced by Player Unknown’s Battlegrounds.