We’ve been having a bit of back and forth here at Forbes on one of the biggest rivalries in gaming right now: Fortnite: Battle Royale and Player Unknown’s Battlegrounds, two games that feel strangely different despite being identical in so many important ways. Fortnite may have been derided as a PUBG clone when it first came out, Paul Tassi argues, but in its short runtime it appears to have outstripped the older game and may even be siphoning off players from the competition. That’s likely true, Erik Kain says, but PUBG still produces a sort of slow, powerful tension that the wacky Fortnite can’t quite match. I won’t argue with that, but it’s worth looking at the one big reason why Fortnite can look like it’s running circles around PUBG: it all comes down to speed.
Both Fortnite and PUBG are slow games compared to most every competitive game on the market. Matches can be long, with huge amounts of downtime in between brief encounters, and even a shorter match still involves a lengthy windup of parachuting down to the map and gearing up before combat can even commence — Call of Duty this is not. Tension is at the heart of the genre no matter which game you’re playing, from the long windups to those heart-pounding moments when you hear footsteps behind you or bullets zipping across the ground at your feet. But while waiting can be exhilarating, it’s also a tough sell. That long-simmering framework is exactly why Fortnite realized it needed to trim fat wherever possible to maintain the basic premise of the Battle Royale game but turn it into something a little less prickly.
Everything about Fortnite revolves around distilling the essence of Battle Royale tension and administering it as quickly and as often as possible. Fortnite’s map is smaller and forces engagement more quickly. A vastly streamlined inventory and weapon system means less time spent in menus. Destructible environments make camping a less viable option, leading to less time spent crouched in corners with shotguns and more time having the floor blown out from under you with a rocket. Increased player mobility allows for more aggressive play that shortens most shooting encounters with a kind of frenetic energy, and even a more varied environment with more outlandish features helps to bring in-match variety.
That’s all rolled up into backend speed. Matchmaking remains an impressive accomplishment on the part of Epic Games, though one that’s increasingly bolstered by huge concurrent player counts. PUBG is no slouch in this department either, but it still can’t quite match Fortnite’s instant-hit gratification. I rarely spend more than thirty seconds or so between starting the process and flying out on the battle bus, and it’s usually less than 15. It makes going for broke more of a viable option: if I can make it back into the game that quickly I’m more likely to just land in the chaotic mess that is Titled Towers and try to make something happen.
The speed is absolutely key to taking an essentially unfriendly experience and making it remarkably approachable. Like PUBG, Fortnite has a quick time-to-kill that will put a less-than-cautious player down in moments, and that creates a feeling of danger around every corner that’s vital to the genre. But Fortnite wants to bring you into contact with danger that much quicker, it wants to kill you quicker, and it wants to bring you back into the game quicker. It’s an addictive loop that has you reaching for a new match seconds after you finish the old one.
That speed isn’t just about the player’s experience, either. It also comes from a slick development team that managed to retool a zombie survival RPG into a competitive shooter in a matter of months and appears to have built a reliable content pipeline . Since the game launched we’ve gotten a suite of new weapons, a constant stream of new cosmetic items, gameplay refinements and an ambitious map overhaul. PUBG, in the meantime, has had to divert development resources to the a a continuing anti-cheat battle. And so even if you’ve grown weary of the Battle Royale formula, you might want to turn up for a new weapon or mode, or even just to grind a bit for a nice piece of loot. It also ensures that Fortnite produces a steady stream of headlines to keep attracting curious players.
Tension, Erik Kain argues, is the key to why he likes PUBG more than Fortnite. I can agree with that — Fortnite is still a deeply tense experience, even if it can’t quite match that drawn-out dose of adrenaline you get from PUBG. But speed is the flipside of that coin. What Fortnite loses in stomach-churning tension it gains in approachability and the addictive prospect of hopping in for one more game.
