Even Fortnite Can’t Be Bothered With Streaming Flop Google Stadia
If you're really looking into invest in a platform that doesn't support uber-ubiquitous Fortnite, Google Stadia is it. | Source: Ina FASSBENDER / AFP
- Epic Games CEO says it has no interest in bringing Fortnite to Google Stadia.
- Tim Sweeney cites the need for a mass-market user base to warrant the work involved in porting the massively successful title.
- Fortnite is available on virtually every other platform, marking today’s news as a substantial snub.
Epic Games has no interest in bringing its massively successful battle royale shooter Fortnite to Stadia, Google’s struggling cloud gaming platform, Stadia.
That’s according to Epic CEO Tim Sweeney, who shared as much when quizzed on Twitter about why Fortnite isn’t available on Stadia .
While Sweeney has made no qualms about slamming Google for perceived monopolistic Play Store policies and 70/30 revenue split , the decision stems from Stadia’s underwhelming track record so far. Sweeney explained there was little value in tackling the complexity of pushing out weekly Fortnite updates on a platform that has yet to show signs of mass-market adoption.
‘There’s not a deep reason. We fully support Stadia in Unreal Engine however the effort required to release Fortnite updates weekly in sync across 7+ platform is extreme and that makes it hard to add platforms that don’t yet have mass market user bases.
Fortnite Everywhere But Stadia
It’s damning stuff from a developer who hasn’t shied away from releasing their flagship cash cow on virtually every platform under the sun – PC, Mac, PS4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, iOS, Android, and soon PS5 and Xbox Series X.
Players can even play Fortnite via NVIDIA’s nascent GeForce NOW cloud gaming service. However, NVIDIA achieves this by streaming the PC version to subscribers rather than through proper porting wizardry.
In contrast, a Stadia version would require all the work and maintenance we’d see on other dedicated platforms such as PC and consoles. Epic Games doesn’t think it’s worth the trouble.
Ironically, Fortnite is the type of mass-appeal game that could be pivotal in reversing Stadia’s fortunes: the kind to secure ‘mass-market user bases.’ The battle royale shooter has the chops and popularity to lure in a wave of new Stadia users, which, in turn, could prompt fence-sitting developers to release their games on the platform.
Despite solid technical foundations , the predominant gripe about Stadia among critics and players is an underwhelming slate of games. Fortnite, and the associated reputational boost it could offer, would drastically improve Stadia’s existing portfolio of games. Yet, as it stands, even the platform-agnostic Fortnite wants nothing to do with Stadia.
