Fortnite is a huge game and a massive explosion in the popularity of its genre has led to a lot of people wanting to jump in. And it may the perfect time to jump onto the battle bus with the upcoming release of the next-generation game consoles. Sony and Microsoft both have a huge incentive, notably the massive microtransaction stream within Fortnite, to get the game onto their new consoles to shore up the expansive launches. So will Fortnite be a PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X launch title?
The PS5 is a pretty clear picture in terms of exclusives and its launch lineup. Sony has spent much of the PS4 life cycle cementing exclusive titles onto the console, and bringing in high-quality titles to back them up. The PS4 is currently the king in sales, and the Xbox One has lagged behind for a number of reasons. Even the Nintendo Switch has outsold the Xbox One.
There are a lot of reasons one could point to, but the biggest problem many analysts and gamers highlight is a combination of soured reputation and a lack of compelling exclusives for Microsoft. The launch of the Kinect thoroughly angered many fans of the previous generations of Xbox. The Xbox One launch didn’t have the killer presence of games like Halo with the same intensity that drove sales of the Xbox 360 or the original Xbox.
The Xbox Series X is a much more precarious state. Microsoft has said time and time again that they’re relying much more on a wide range of games, rather than exclusives. Having Fortnite on the platform is a certainty, it’s just a question of when it will happen. It has yet to be revealed if Fortnite will be a launch title, but there is some
Whether either of these ecosystems gets a particular launch title is still pretty unclear. A few next-gen focused games like Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla have been confirmed so far, but Fortnite is not on that list.
One thing that could stop such a deal is the same thing that could push it through, microtransactions. If Epic and the console makers cannot work out a deal to support Epic accounts and thus all the pre-existing purchases, that could be a major issue.
The runs on an older version of the Unreal Engine, version 4.25, with the newly revealed version 5 being a bit of a mystery when it comes to next-gen support. This could help with any issues around older or less-powerful hardware running the game, not that Fortnite is that hard to run, but still, it’s an important factor in a new port.
