I’m Brian Gordon , tech reporter for The News & Observer, and this is Open Source, a weekly newsletter on business, labor and technology in North Carolina.
Fortnite happened very slowly, then suddenly. And it almost didn’t happen.
The irreverent video game that pits players against 99 others in an animated fight for survival is now 7 years old. Along with perhaps Red Hat Enterprise Linux , Fortnite is the most widespread piece of technology to come out of the Research Triangle. It is certainly among the most fun.
I set out to tell the story of how an idea inside the Cary headquarters of Epic Games became a video game with more than 800 million player accounts. Fortnite popularized dance moves, pioneered IP crossovers, monopolized countless hours of (mostly young) people’s lives, and made a handful of Epic employees wildly wealthy. It was initially called Fortress, a kernel of a concept in a developer’s sketch book. Multiple near-cancellations followed.
Epic Games developed Fortnite over more than five years — then rapidly reimagined it during a fateful few weeks. It took hold of the gaming world in late 2017 and hasn’t quite released its grip. Now, Fortnite is the portal for Epic CEO Tim Sweeney’s metaverse ambitions, a reality that both inspires and confounds former employees.