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Since the summer, Epic Games has invested in a marketing campaign promoting specific experiences created by creators in Fortnite. The effort so far has resulted in serious traffic increases for select experiences — but it’s also raised questions from some creators about how and why Epic chose to promote certain games on the platform over others.
From at least June 2024, Epic Games has selected specific creator-created Fortnite experiences developed by third-party studios – including “Lumberjack Heroes“,”Havoc Hotel” and “Mercenaries” — for a marketing campaign that included trailers for the official PlayStation YouTube channel and paid promotions from Creators of TikTok and Twitch streamers, in addition to posting on official Fortnite social accounts on platforms like YouTube and Instagram. After the campaign ends, the concurrent user counts all three experiences by the thousands.
“Fortnite creators have the opportunity to submit their islands for consideration through a variety of promotional opportunities, including Epic’s Picks Discover series and through our social media channels,” an Epic spokesperson said.
Epic’s marketing support of specific creator-created experiences does not constitute an official partnership between the game developer and the creators who published those experiences. The developers who benefited from the campaign actually only found out about it when it hit their own social channels. For Fortnite experiences like “Mercenaries,” the marketing campaign caused an immediate and significant increase in users — and the creators of the Alliance Studios experience didn’t even know where the traffic was coming from when it started pouring in.
“It was super exciting. We found out that some streamers were getting paid to play mercenaries and promote it on their platforms, and it grew a lot from all that promotion,” said Alliance CEO Mackenzie Jackson, who told Digiday that the campaign caused a spike in the number of concurrent users of the experiences. thousands, but did not share exact numbers. “So it was definitely super helpful.
Although Unreal Editor for Fortnite (UEFN) became a the popular toolkit for creators over the past year she has also developed a copy culturewith most developers mimicking tried and true experiences rather than experimenting with new types of games or content.
As simulation and survival games, “Lumberjack Heroes”, “Mercenaries” and “Havoc Hotel” are significantly different from many other games on the platform. Epic’s marketing support for these games is a deliberate bid to expand its user base by attracting players who might not be thrilled with most of the Fortnite creators’ offerings.
“When selecting, we look for islands that are innovative, can resonate with players, or feature different game design,” an Epic spokesperson said. “Our requirements are intentionally open so that creators are not limited in what types of games and experiences they submit. We offer guides to help creators through the application process, as well as resources on how creators can promote their islands.”
Although Epic provides creators knowledge when it comes to the submission process for Epic’s Picks tool for discovery, some creators have pointed to a lack of a similar level of transparency regarding which experiences are selected for further marketing support. While they understand and agree with the company’s goal of highlighting unique content, this type of experimental content is much less profitable than established game types, both in terms of user traffic and potential brand sponsorship interest.
“We have to focus on what we know is less risky – games that we know work on the platform – which is not good for them or us in terms of creativity,” said Margot Rodde, founder of Fortnite Creators Corp. . “We’re always going to want a middling hit rather than a big hit, because the big hit will come from something completely new, but the risk of doing that is so high that we can’t get away with it. We would be able to do that if there was some transparency about what they are willing to support and a fair application process.”
Currently, most users who log into Fortnite do so to play games similar to the primary first-person shooter mode “Battle Royale”. But if Epic wants to make its platform a true metaverse on the level of competitors like Roblox, it’s necessary for the company to encourage its users to be more creative with the experiences they build within it. Regardless of the lack of transparency, Epic’s marketing support for unique gaming experiences could be one way to make this potential future a reality.
“I don’t think of Fortnite as a game; I consider Fortnite a game. And if you think about it in that context, we end up in a world where you can make everything from a tycoon game to a first-person shooter to a Fortnite sim game,” said Gareth Leeding, Global Head of Strategy. officer at game marketing company Livewire. “And to me, that means ‘we can be much bigger than Battle Royale or FPS.’
