Much like what we saw with MOBAs years ago, battle royale-style games are all the rage thanks to PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds' domination of Steam. Fortnite beat PUBG to consoles and is available as a free-to-play title, and it introduces building mechanics to the mix that you don't get with PUBG. Like PUBG developer Bluehole, Epic has enjoyed an incredible level of success, with more than 40 million players spread across Fortnite: Battle Royale and the PvE Survive the World component.
Even more standalone battle royale games are undoubtedly on the way, but Fortnite won't be the only existing title to integrate the mode in some fashion. Grand Theft Auto V has already done so in modest fashion with Motor Wars mode, but there are a variety of other games--both those already playable and some that are still in development--that we think could also make interesting use of the concept. In the video above, we run down five games that should consider putting their own spin on battle royale in 2018. Maybe we'll see such a mode in The Division 2.
There was some controversy surrounding Fortnite last year, as PUBG's developer made it known that it was less than pleased with "the similarities between the battle royale mode in Epic Games' newly revealed Fortnite and PUBG." The complaint is more complicated than it appears on the surface, as PUBG uses Unreal Engine 4, which is built by Fortnite maker Epic Games. PUBG's developer seemingly threatened legal action, though nothing has come of that yet--at least publicly.
Brendan "PlayerUnknown" Greene, who is credited with having established the genre as a modder, said last year, "I just feel that Fortnite: Battle Royale is a bit lazy to me. They could have had a great game because Fortnite is amazing and they could have put some unique, interesting building [systems] in there, almost like a tower defense Battle Royale, but they just didn't. But what can you do? It's going to happen. It's the nature of business I guess."
Whether upcoming battle royale modes and games put enough of a spin on the formula to satisfy Greene remains to be seen. But one thing is for sure: They are coming.
