To avoid trouble, the developer behind the online shooter Fortnite, Epic Games, is happy to reach for the wallet. After a planning error, Epic casually postpones the World Cup qualification for Fortnite and adds $2 million in prize money to calm things down preventively.
What was the mistake? Epic has scheduled two tournaments for the same weekend, on June 15 and 16:
- In the Pro-Am tournament after the E3 2019 , celebrities compete alongside Fortnite players – it’s about $3 million for a good cause: a fun spectacle
- In the week 10 of the World Cup qualification, the Fortnite pros grit their teeth to secure the last ticket for the Fortnite World Cup in Duo mode. This is no joke, but a tough competition, as only 10 Duos will make it through that weekend
Some of the most famous and popular Fortnite streamers in the world sounded the alarm because Ninja (No. 1 on Twitch) and Tfue (No. 3 on Twitch) were booked for the Fortnite Pro-Am tournament but desperately wanted to play in the Fortnite qualifiers.
Because in their first four chances, the Duos “Ninja/Reverse2” and “Tfue/Cloak” had failed to qualify for the Fortnite World Cup.
Especially Tfue’s partner, Cloak, mobilized complaints on Twitter.
Epic doubles the prize money
This is how Epic solved the problem: After the streamers sounded the alarm for days, Epic resolved the issue by announcement on Reddit:
- They simply postponed week 10 qualification by a week to Thursday/Friday instead of Saturday/Sunday as usual
- To preempt any complaints, Epic simply doubled the prize money for weeks 9 and 10 to $2 million each (1.77 million €), to be distributed worldwide
The special thing is that they apparently pay this straight out of their pocket without batting an eye or making a big deal out of it.
It seems to be the norm for Fortnite that Epic adds $2 million.
Why does Epic have so much money? Fortnite is a hit and reportedly made Epic $3 billion in profit in 2018.
In addition to the Battle Pass, attractive skins, like this one that came out at Christmas and is apparently inspired by Elsa, the Ice Queen from the movie Frozen, are responsible.
Epic uses money cleverly to strengthen market position
Does Epic do this often? There is a pattern emerging; Epic has already invested hefty sums from Fortnite in 2019 to gain advantages:
- they boost their own store with exclusive deals to keep Steam games away
- Epic finances a “Mega Sale” in this store at their own expense
- Epic is offering scholarships worth millions of dollars to lure development teams away from the Unity engine to Unreal Engine – the competitor calls it bribery
Some even say: Epic right now doesn’t even know what to do with all that money. For the current Fortnite season, $100 million in prize money is planned, which presumably has not yet been distributed.
On Reddit, someone says: Epic has probably realized that the year doesn’t even have enough weeks to always distribute $1 million per tournament.
