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Veteran fans of all-encompassing battle royale Fortnite have a treat in store: the original “OG” version of the game re-launches next month.
In a tweet, developer Epic Games announced the OG Fortnite experience returns on December 6, but this time is “here to stay.”
That means players can relive Fortnite battle royale from the start when it launched in September 2017 and explore the OG map, collect OG loot, and relive OG seasons.
Epic had said that Fortnite OG and the original map would return at some point this year after relaunched in limited-time form back in November 2023. Enthusiasm for Fortnite OG was overwhelming and saw Fortnite enjoy its “biggest day” ever with over 44.7 million players jumping in to take a trip down memory lane.
Last month, Epic boss Tim Sweeney insisted the company was “financially sound” after a tumultuous period in which 830 staff were laid off. In September 2023, the North Carolina studio behind Fortnite and Unreal Engine suffered a significant round of layoffs that saw 830 employees, about 16% of its workforce, lose their jobs.
Separately, Epic divested music service platform Bandcamp and spun off most of SuperAwesome, a kid-safe technology company. These were acquired by Epic Games in 2022 and 2020, respectively. Around 250 people left Epic through the divestitures.
At the time, Sweeney said the company had been spending “way more money than we earn, investing in the next evolution of Epic and growing Fortnite as a metaverse-inspired ecosystem for creators.”
He also pointed to a “major structural change to our economics” after Fortnite growth transitioned from the explosively popular and highly profitable battle royale that funded its initial expansion, to the lower margin business that came from creator content with significant revenue sharing.
Speaking during a presentation at Unreal Fest 2024, Sweeney said that Epic “spent the last year rebuilding and really executing solidly on all fronts.” He added: “I’m happy to tell you now that the company is financially sound, and that Fortnite and the Epic Games Store have hit new records in concurrency and success.”
On that front, Fortnite hit 110 million monthly active users over the 2023 holiday season, an impressive milestone for a game now seven years old. To put that into context, in August 2018 Fortnite hit 78.3 million MAUs.
Epic rarely makes Fortnite player numbers public, and when it does so it uses various metrics that make direct comparisons difficult. Last year’s Season OG, which brought back the Chapter 1 Season 5 map and with it classic areas like Tilted Towers, Pleasant Park, and Risky Reels, saw Fortnite hit a new peak of 44.7 million players in just one day. Epic previously said Fortnite saw a concurrent player record of 15.3 million players for the December 2020 end-of-season live event, which saw players teaming up with Iron Man, Wolverine, and other Marvel heroes to defeat Galactus.
Wesley is the UK News Editor for IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at [email protected] or confidentially at [email protected].
