Fortnite. It's something you likely heard about many years ago and either completely forgot about or pondered every few months of its whereabouts.
Announced toward the end of 2011 at the Spike Video Games Awards - which have since taken so many turns - the collaboration between Epic Games and regular partner People Can Fly was once described by Epic Games' Tim Sweeney as "Minecraft meets Left 4 Dead". And that's pretty close to the truth 6 years on. You build up forts with your teammates to defend against waves of monsters. In terms of rating, it sits comfortable between the two aforementioned titles.
Allegedly announced only three weeks after the idea was first coined, Fortnight became a very real thing in the back of people's heads. This happened almost a full year before the face of Epic Games' and Gears of War creator Cliff Bleszinski left the company to head his own team - of which is about to put out Lawbreakers later this year.
After 6 years in development and almost no word in-between, Epic Games surprised us all with yesterday's announcement that Fortnite was still alive, always had been and is gearing up for an Early Access release next month - July 25. Of course, there are pre-order bonuses - including 4-day early access (to early access).
Having conducted numerous, near-silent beta tests over the years, Fortnite is taking up a paid Early Access method next month before returning to its free-to-play promise on launch sometime next year. Other publications had extensive hands-on time with the title over the last week, so expect to see impression articles all over the show.
