I Won Fortnite Battle Royale For the First Time, But I Felt Underwhelmed

Yesterday, I installed Fortnite on my Xbox One once more after years. I won a solo Fortnite Battle Royale match for the first time ever, but I didn’t find it rewarding at all.

Since its launch, Fortnite has always been a constant gaming trend, and that couldn’t be achieved without the incredible post-launch support of the game by Epic Games.

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For me, Fortnite used to be a seemingly interesting multiplayer that didn’t fit into my gaming taste based on my first experience. The first time I started playing it, I liked the idea, the visuals, and some unique gameplay mechanics like structure building. Despite all the interesting features, I found it a hard-to-master game for myself, especially because of the large number of players opposing each other.

The last time I played Fortnite Battle Royale before my recent experience was during the mid-seasons of Chapter 1. Since then, with every new Fortnite season arriving, I was tempted to reinstall the game. And yet, I fought off my temptation as I thought it wouldn’t take more than a few days until uninstalling it again.

Eventually, I put an end to this awkward loop of my life with Fortnite Chapter 2 Season 7. I reinstalled the game and found it a better experience than the last time. Although I still couldn’t completely get the hang of some features, I felt like I made progress at a noticeably higher rate than the previous time and got up to speed much faster, which ended up in my first Victory Royale experience in Fortnite.

Why the Joy of Winning a Fortnite Match for the First Time Didn’t Last Long Enough

It sure was fun to win a solo match for the first time ever. It did feel great to be the first out of 100 players. I won a new alien-themed glider that only Battle Royale winners can equip. But it wasn’t enough. Winning a solo Battle Royale match is different. It’s a 1 versus 99 game. Winning in such a game never feels like winning in a team-based competition like CSGO, but unfortunately, it’s not rewarding enough in Fortnite Battle Royale.

It felt even worse when I won a solo match for the second time. The only thing I received was extra XP points, which could be obtained much easier through the in-game challenges.

It was a weird experience for me. I felt like I had done a big job, but the reward didn’t match the effort. I found it somehow unfair, so I decided to reward myself by getting the Battle Pass, but I didn’t. Isn’t it the process that Epic Games is waiting for? Of course, it is.

How Fortnite’s Business Model Pushes You Toward Self-Rewarding

With the huge number of cosmetics available in Fortnite, it wouldn’t be that hard to offer a random low-tier item for the winner as a reward. However, it is part of the process to make you feel underwhelmed. The goal is to push you toward rewarding yourself. The goal is to trap players in this loop and increase the number of in-game purchases.

This might sound a bit harsh, but this is a smart business model that encourages players to spend money on in-game items. However, such a model needs to have a large-scale market with a lot of varied items to cover any taste. And that’s the area Epic Games tries to improve the game the most.

Don’t get me wrong. I don’t want to degrade the game’s admirable success in gameplay and post-launch content design. I do like Fortnite - even more than before - and its business model is pretty decent and perfectly legal. The Battle Pass is definitely worth the money you pay. All I’m talking about here is a business model that has been implemented smartly.

Epic Games knows how to make the plan work out, and that’s the smartest part. All these highly popular crossovers help to make this plan work. Epic Games offers you to pay a little bit of money every season and in return makes your Victory Royales much more rewarding than before. And, you’d gladly pay for that.

Battle Royale is Different

Now, let’s take a look at other Battle Royale titles. Call of Duty Warzone shares a similar plan. Although Warzone doesn’t feature too many crossovers, its in-game market does have a lot to spend on. Moreover, the Warzone Battle Pass offers some in-game weapon blueprints as well as cosmetic items.

So, when you make a Battle Royale game and you want it to live long enough, you have to have a proper plan to make it rewarding. If you can build up a luxurious in-game market, go on with Epic’s self-rewarding plan. But if you don’t have the budget for that, you need to reward winners generously.

Think of PUBG. The game once used to have nearly one million co-current players per day on Steam, but now the number barely reaches half a million. It still receives new content, but the reward is not generous enough and the market doesn’t look enticing at all. The same goes for Ubisoft’s Hyper Scape.

Winning in a Battle Royale game feels different, so you have to reward it accordingly.