When it comes<\/span> to figuring out a formula for a hit game that keeps players coming back year after year, Saxs Persson would know. Now at Epic Games overseeing the Fortnite ecosystem, Persson previously spent 12 years at Mojang building Minecraft into the stratospheric success it is today.<\/p>\n Persson hopped over to Epic in 2022 to work on the Fortnite maker\u2019s roadmap, shepherding Lego Fortnite from a press release last year<\/a> into a polished, ambitious standalone experience<\/a> designed to draw new audiences to Fortnite\u2019s free-to-play world.<\/p>\n We spoke with Persson about Epic\u2019s grand plans for Lego Fortnite and its two other new games<\/a>, Rocket Racing and Fortnite Festival. Knowing Fortnite\u2019s penchant for maximalism and a steady drip feed of fresh content, the trio of games is only just getting started \u2014 but here\u2019s a glimpse of where they\u2019re going.<\/p>\n Questions and answers have been edited for brevity and clarity.<\/em><\/p>\n TechCrunch: With the three new games, and particularly Lego Fortnite, is the goal to broaden Fortnite\u2019s appeal to new kinds of players?<\/strong><\/p>\n Persson: Battle Royale has been extraordinarily popular. And from a Battle Royale perspective we understand our players quite well. We\u2019ve done our very best for the last six years to always make a game that feels fresh, evolves, never stands still, constantly updates and sets us apart from the competition by not taking itself too seriously. That\u2019s always been the goal of Battle Royale.<\/p>\n The next ring that developed from that was when we put out Fortnite Creative and subsequently when we launched UEFN<\/a> [Unreal Editor for Fortnite] in March this year \u2013 that is very much realizing that Fortnite players want to play more games, not just Battle Royale. And the more content they have, and the better content they have and the more varied content they have, the happier they are.<\/p>\n So if your only goal is to say, if you came to Fortnite, we would like you to consider all these different options, and to stay as long as you want to because we hope you\u2019re going to have fun.<\/p>\n TechCrunch\/Epic Games<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Our creators have done a phenomenal job of broadening, already, who plays Fortnite. Battle Royale is really important \u2013 it\u2019s like an anchor tenant, whatever you want to call it. But if you asked players like \u2018what do you play in a week,\u2019 I think the average island played in the week is about seven, seven different islands. And they\u2019re varied in style, aesthetics, genre\u2026 We ask our creators what they would like to create. If they want to create it, we bet there\u2019s going to be players that want to play it. That\u2019s been the strategy up until this far.<\/p>\n \u2026In order for us to make really good tools, we have to use them ourselves. And we know that in order for us to really extend deep tools and new genres, our best bet is that we need to make some first party content that really stretches what Unreal Engine can do. And then take those tools and turn them over to creators and say now you have these capabilities.<\/p>\n So with that in mind, the three games we announced, Lego Fortnite, Rocket Racing, and [Fortnite] Festival all have different goals of extending the toolset in a particular direction, but also attracting new players to say \u2018oh I guess Fortnite is not just Battle Royale. Really, we just need to get them over the hump of installing 54 gigabytes\u2026 and once you\u2019re there, there should be a lot for you to do.<\/p>\n What do those sets of tools look like and what can people build with them?<\/strong><\/p>\n \u201c[With] Lego Fortnite\u2026 we\u2019ve worked a lot on [procedural generation], we\u2019ve worked a lot on different styles \u2013 like adding the Lego styles so you can both play as Fortnite style and as a minifig, as Lego style. And down the line we fully expect creators are gonna have access to that too.<\/p>\n The procedural world is really fascinating. Again, like we\u2019ve always operated on a very static play playing field, but Lego is pioneering a whole lot of procedural tools that hopefully we can extend to creators, and a much bigger island \u2013 like we\u2019re 20 times bigger than a Battle Royale island. So it is a massive island that we\u2019re still working to expand. That again should benefit creators.<\/p>\n Rocket Racing is adding credible racing mechanics to our creators and track design editors and that sort of thing. So the game is important because it comes from Rocket League, and it\u2019s an excellent game. And we really believe in that game. The secondary effect is creators get great vehicle tools.<\/p>\n And finally [Fortnite] Festival. A ton of effort has gone into music generation tools and music editing tools and music making tools and gameplay with music. And a lot of those devices, as we call them, have already been extended to creators.<\/p>\n So that\u2019s the goal. Music attracts a new audience. Racing attracts a new audience. Lego attracts a new audience. Even though we know it appeals to current Fortnite players, it\u2019s certainly going to appeal to audiences that are not interested in Battle Royale.<\/p>\n
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