Its safe to say that Fortnite has proven once again that its a game that should never be counted out, as the live service shooter reached a new peak (Since Epic Games made player stats public) of 6 million concurrent players on Saturday. This is following the games launch of their new season, Fortnite OG which brings players back to the early years of Fortnite. Players can drop right now into fan favorite locations such as pleasant park, tilted towers, risky reels, greasy grove and many many more. Fans of the genre defining battle royale have been in a state of euphoric nostalgia, as the release of the new season has prompted old friends to reunite and bond over memories of years past. 

It’s time to drop into #FortniteOG!https://t.co/QA2HuRVfTB pic.twitter.com/OJ71PVOHYi

— Fortnite (@FortniteGame) November 3, 2023

The most impressive thing about this whole scenario is how Epic’s servers have been amazing, only a few players have noted connectivity issues but it’s very impressive to see just how much the game can handle, meanwhile new release like PayDay 3 still don’t have servers fully operating over a month after release. Another thing to show how massive the player count was how Epic’s servers did have to place a queue for a large amount of player traffic, with many players seeing as much as 20 minutes to log in. 

The were many rumors prior to the season’s launch regarding if the game was going to go back to its core mechanics as well in regards to movement, but players are delighted to find out that its not the case. The newer Fortnite mobility including hard sprinting, manteling, and climbing is still very much in tact and how provided a new way to experience the original map. While everything else has changed, such as the aforementioned map, all the old weapons from Chapter 1 have returned, and even hybrids of earlier Chapter 1 battle pass skins are in this season’s “OG pass”. 

An interesting question that’s popping in many players’ heads is why? Why did Epic decide that now randomly was the time for Fortnite to have its nostalgic turn like many game and film studios are doing? Well, the answer seems kind of obvious when one looks deeper into the current trends of the videogame industry. More specifically, how many top-level studios have been laying off huge waves of employees, Epic Games being no different. In an article from Bloomberg, it was reported that Epic Games laid of about 16% of its workforce, more specifically 870 people. This comes after reports of Fortnite not being as profitable as it once was therefore leading to major cuts in the studio. Now whether or not this season is part of Epic’s plans to reinvigorate Fortnite into the behemoth it once was, or if it’s just a simple cash grab is still yet to be seen.