Many players are currently celebrating the return of ‘OG Fortnite’ referring to the original map of the shooter Fortnite: Battle Royale. But that is not the original Fortnite at all, says MeinMMO author Schuhmann. The true Fortnite is the PvE game ‘Save the World’, which was disgracefully abandoned by Epic Games in 2020, but now enjoys an unexpected rise in player numbers.
What is the ‘true OG Fortnite?’
- Many might not even know it, but Fortnite was released in the summer of 2017 as a PvE game ‘Save the World’. It was not Free2Play, but a paid title.
- In the game, players could search the environment during the day, find materials and weapons, and build a fortress to defend against attacking zombies at night. Hence the title: ‘Fort – Nite’, a fort at night.
- However, the game had an absurdly extensive and costly progression system and was a flop. In just a few weeks, the Unreal Tournament team 2017 produced a blatant copy of ‘Player Unknown’s Battlegrounds’, a blue-haired guy discovered the game on Twitch and the hype around Fortnite was born.
Currently, Fortnite: Battle Royale with ‘OG’ is experiencing a resurgence:
Epic Games kept players of OG Fortnite waiting for years, then disappointed everyone
What happened to this game? It was a very strange story back then, lasting over 3 years. ‘Save the World’ had been released in Early Access and parts of the story campaign were still missing.
It was announced for years that Save the World would continue to be developed and would later be released for free: Many Battle Royale players were waiting for this release, as one could easily earn the coveted V-Bucks in Save the World, which could then be used for skins in Fortnite: Battle Royale.
But the more successful Fortnite: Battle Royale became, the more neglected Fortnite: Save the World was treated, and eventually, in 2020, Epic simply said that the game was now released, but would remain a paid title and would not be significantly developed further.
Fortnite: Save the World suddenly has over 52,000 players
This is now astonishing: Currently, Fortnite is experiencing a huge hype again, as Epic has brought back the original map of Fortnite: Battle Royale with ‘Fortnite OG’. Fortnite: Battle Royale had its best day in the history of the game so far with over 44 million players.
But Save the World also seems to be benefiting from this. In recent days, the game, which has hardly been developed further, had simultaneously up to 52,000 players online – more than several current games (via fortnite.gg).
Previously, player numbers in 2023 had already dropped below 20,000.
No one seems to understand what caused this sudden surge in players, years after Epic Games more or less ended development.
It seems that there are indeed still some who appreciate the ‘true OG Fortnite’, which provided an unforgettable gaming experience.
Player spends $1500 in Fortnite, gets the wrong mythical hero
