The CEO of Epic Games talks about the game Paragon. The end has already been announced. Many attribute its downfall to the success of Fortnite, but there seem to be other reasons as well. Though Fortnite does seem to benefit from the end of Paragon.
The CEO of Epic Games, Tim Sweeney, spoke in an interview at a developer conference about the fate of the MOBA shooter Paragon.
The story of Paragon is quickly told: Paragon was announced at the end of 2015, and players could enjoy the shooter since March 2016 on PlayStation 4 and PC. The end of Paragon was announced by Epic Games on January 27, 2018. The game will run only until April 26.
Many fans blame Fortnite for the end of Paragon
The remarkable thing is how generous Epic Games has been regarding the end of Paragon:
- Epic has refunded all players for any purchases they ever made in Paragon
- And Epic has released all assets for Paragon, which amounts to data worth 12 million dollars
Many fans have criticized even before the end: The success of Fortnite is swallowing our favorite game Paragon. The developers are being pulled away and are no longer working on Paragon, but on Fortnite.
And indeed, Fortnite now seems to benefit from the end of the MOBA. Nearly all of Epic’s 700 employees are reportedly involved in one way or another with Fortnite. But it goes further: Fortnite is inheriting something that was specifically developed for the shooter Paragon.
Fortnite now benefits from the replay system
A system that Epic built for Paragon will soon be used in Fortnite. It is the replay system that was recently announced for Fortnite. It should be usable in about a month with update 3.5.
The replay system is more than just a simple kill cam. Epic hopes to provide people with a powerful tool that they can use in their own way.
Sweeney states: “At the moment, the tool serves to compile clips, but it could also work live. A streamer could play and a caster shows live what is happening right now.”
Why is Paragon being shut down?
Overall, Paragon is a sobering and sad story for Epic Games. Paragon simply did not resonate with players.
It was said to be a game that many played. They found it high quality and respected the work put into it. However, most only played it for a while and then stopped.
Only a fraction of the players who downloaded it played it after a month, Sweeney shares.
In the end, Epic was left with a very small fanbase that adored Paragon. But they could never satisfy a truly large number of players.
Maybe we would have found the magic formula without Fortnite
Paragon was a great tragedy. They poured their heart and soul into the game and did everything for it.
It is difficult to learn anything from Paragon. They achieved great things, but cannot diagnose what went wrong.
If they hadn’t had Fortnite, they might have continued to experiment with Paragon and perhaps found the magic formula. But now it’s impossible to know how that would have turned out.
It must be noted that nearly everyone in the 700-person studio Epic Games is currently working on Fortnite, leaving other projects behind. This also explains the insane speed of development:
Fortnite is coming “just like that” to mobile – Why is everything happening so fast?
