battle royale
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The Oculus Quest is getting its own Fortnite ripoff
Fortnite may not be available in VR (or on iOS), but Oculus Quest users will soon be getting their own Fortnite clone for virtual reality.
Nearly two years after its funding and initial launch announcement, BigBox VR is finally ready to roll out its battle royale game, “POPULATION: ONE” to players on the Quest (and the sunsetting Rift hardware).
Co-founders Chia Chin Lee and Gabe Brown started their game development for virtual reality with a shooter called Smashbox Arena, but “POPULATION: ONE” is the big gambit for the game studio.
The COVID-19 pandemic has managed to boost the sales of the Quest, turning it into more of a genuine consumer device instead of just something for the technorati and digital power users. If this new audience for virtual reality can take to the battle royale game in the same way that they’ve taken to Epic Games’ Fortnite title, it could go a long way toward giving Facebook’s platform a wedge to gain market share in what’s become the newest social network.
A lot has been written about how Fortnite has become the social forum for Gen Z and the cohort that’s coming up after them. As these users gravitate to TikTok and Fortnite, Facebook is becoming an afterthought for a new consumer demographic that the social network needs.
And as we wrote earlier, BigBox VR’s title shares more than a passing similarity to Fortnite.
To say the game shares some similarities with Fortnite is an understatement. Not only is it a battle royale title with a shrinking environment, but certain mechanics like gliding in at the beginning to scrounge for weapons and even Fortnite’s building feature are central to the gameplay. That being said, battle royale titles have exploded in the wake of PUBG and they seem to all share a lot among each other. For BigBox, VR is the distinguishing feature, with motion controls and the general feeling that everything is life-sized and in your control.
If the game can replicate Fortnite’s popularity in virtual reality, that could be a coup for Facebook and BigBox VR in a space where the social networking giant has traditionally been pwned.
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Fallout 76 is getting a 52-player battle royale mode
Tonight’s Bethesda E3 press conference was all about free additions. In fact, the company actually took to the stage to apologize for Fallout 76’s rocky launch. The publisher quickly added that it’s continued to improve on the title since late last year, listening to player feedback and adding all sorts of additional content.
That includes the arrival of a bunch of NPCs, and, more importantly, the launch of Nuclear Winter, a 52-player battle Royale mode that is arriving as an update tomorrow. The mode will be free to play on all platforms for the week of June 10 to 17.
Asked last year whether a battle royale mode was in the works for the post-apocalyptic title, SVP Pete Hines noted that the company doesn’t like to follow trends set out by other companies, stating, “just because battle royale is popular doesn’t mean it’s a good fit for us.” He did leave open the possibility — though seemingly unenthusiastically — and now here we are.
Of course, the mode has become tremendously popular in recent years, thanks to the likes of Fortnite and PUBG. Bethesda’s embrace of the mode has been met with…mixed reaction on Twitter, though the audience at tonight’s presser was appropriately enthusiastic.
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YouTuber creates concept video showing Fortnite in first-person mode
Fortnite Battle Royale was undoubtedly the big game of 2017, and 2018 is shaping up to be very similar. And with such popularity inevitably comes a swath of critics.
Take, for example, YouTuber Max Box. Using Fortnite’s replay mode, Max Box created a YouTube video that shows what Fortnite would look like in first-person mode.
The video is slightly buggy, but it’s about as close as we may ever get to seeing what Fortnite would look like in first person.
As it stands now, Fortnite uses third-person view, showing the player a view of themselves and the rest of the world from the perspective of their character’s right shoulder. Because of these mechanics, players are able to peek over cover or around walls without exposing themselves to incoming fire.
Because third-person view allows gamers to see their character in full, it also makes Epic’s main Fortnite revenue generator, premium skins and emotes, all the more valuable.
For those reasons, it seems unlikely that Epic would introduce a first-person mode.
That said, Epic will face new competition in the Battle Royale space with the introduction of CoD: Black Ops 4 Blackout mode on October 12. The game jumps in the ring with Fortnite, PUBG and H1Z1 as a first-person Battle Royale shooter.
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PUBG soft-launches on mobile in Canada with Android release
Player Unknown’s Battlegrounds, the ‘battle royale’ style game where everyone tries to be the last player standing while scrounging for supplies to keep them alive, has launched on Android in Canada MobileSyrup reports, which could presage a future release in the U.S.
The arrival of the mobile version of the game more generally known as PUBG coincides with it reaching the 5 million player milestone on Xbox, where it’s been available since late last year after debuting on the PC in early access earlier in 2017. It’s not cross-play compatible, unlike Fortnite, however, so if you’re playing the Android version you’ll be matched up against others with the app, which is published by Chinese Internet giant Tencent.
This Android port wasn’t developed by original PUBG studio Bluehole, but they say they oversaw the creation of this mobile version. Based on early testing with a Pixel 2 XL, it looks and feels a lot like the original.
PUBG doesn’t have quite the hype of Fortnite right now, since that’s begun a cross-platform play mobile beta and also Drake just played a session with one of the most popular professional esports players in the world. But a mobile version close at hand (and available now, if you’re Canadian) is reason to get excited.
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Fortnite Battle Royale gets an updated map
Fortnite, which has topped 50 million players, has released an update to the game in the form of version V.2.2.0. The patch is significant in that it brings a long-awaited update to the Battle Royale map. Fortnite Battle Royale quite literally takes a page out of the PUBG playbook. In it, 100 players are dropped into a map, where they loot for gear and try to take down the competition. But… Read More
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