Fortnite aiming for more 'casual' audience than Gears of War

Fortnite is "for an entirely different audience," Epic CEO Tim Sweeney said, emphasizing its casual appeal. "It appeals to a wider audience than a hardcore game like Gears of War."

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Very little is known about Fortnite, the next game from the team that developed the Gears of War trilogy. Its debut trailer surprised many, with a cartoony look that was a stark departure from the dude-bros the team has become infamous for. What kind of game is it? Well, we still don't know. However, Epic Games' CEO Tim Sweeney has promised that it will be less "hardcore" than its Xbox 360 franchise.

Fortnite is "for an entirely different audience," Sweeney said, emphasizing its casual appeal. "It appeals to a wider audience than a hardcore game like Gears of War. We are branching out, but we tie it all together with AAA production values."

Fortnite is the result of an internal "game jam" held inside Epic after completing development on Gears of War 3. Apparently, the team wanted to work on it's next AAA project, but wasn't quite ready yet. "Everybody in the company who was available divided up into teams and spent a week creating prototypes," Sweeney described to VentureBeat. "We got a bunch of different prototypes and proposals out of it, with an incredible amount of variety. Fortnite arose through that process."

Although the visuals have a cartoonish look, Sweeney emphasizes that there is still a lot of tech powering the game. "The graphics are not that bad. They have vivid colors and there are real-time shadows everywhere. There is destruction of buildings. The game is a technical powerhouse, though it’s not as obvious as in Gears of War," Sweeney said. "Even when you do cartoon graphics, you can still apply some really serious technology to it. If you look at a Pixar movie, they have impressive effects. It’s more a question of style than technological prowess."

Andrew Yoon was previously a games journalist creating content at Shacknews.

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  • reply
    January 20, 2012 1:30 PM

    Andrew Yoon posted a new article, Fortnite aiming for more 'casual' audience than Gears of War.

    Fortnite is "for an entirely different audience," Epic CEO Tim Sweeney said, emphasizing its casual appeal. "It appeals to a wider audience than a hardcore game like Gears of War."

    • reply
      January 20, 2012 1:35 PM

      LOL, Gears of War is already about as mainstream as it gets on Xbox. They must be aiming for Facebook levels of mainstream with this one. So this statement is obviously an early attempt to curb the inevitable backlash from the dude-bro community.

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      January 20, 2012 1:38 PM

      welp

    • reply
      January 20, 2012 1:39 PM

      I am a hardcore zombie lover.... but I'm not very fond on this cartoon style :( Maybe I'm not casual enough.

      • reply
        January 20, 2012 1:43 PM

        probably aping nightmare before christmas

        • reply
          January 20, 2012 1:49 PM

          Anyway. I know I will get it if only as a collector. And who knows, might be damn fun. If its fun, the art direction can be forgiven :)

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      January 20, 2012 5:24 PM

      Gears is a console game. Any more casual and the game will play itself.

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        January 20, 2012 5:46 PM

        OHHH FUCK. YOU JUST TOLD THOSE CONSOLE FUCKS!!! DAYUMMMMMMMMM

    • reply
      January 20, 2012 5:36 PM

      and they'll still advertise it as "from the creators of Gears of War" and scare off the super casual demographic :(

      • reply
        January 21, 2012 1:57 AM

        But perhaps it will attract more of the nominal-casual crowd.

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      January 20, 2012 9:05 PM

      I'm all over this one. Looks fun.

    • reply
      January 20, 2012 9:08 PM

      Sweet Tasty!

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