How Games like Fortnite and PUBG are Key Players in the Metaverse

Arya Almeda
6 min readJun 6, 2021

The metaverse represents the next version of the internet. The term “metaverse” is borne from science fiction and describes a virtual space that is consistently active and online without people logging in.

The metaverse will boast of its economy complete with employment opportunities, jobs, shopping malls, and virtual physical recreational spaces. The metaverse is considered an inevitable technology that will give Silicon Valley Companies a run for their money as they rush to invest in virtual shared spaces. Already, Silicon Valley C-Suite is obsessed with the idea of the metaverse, and so are many big techs across the globe.

So, how will the metaverse services be funded? Well, the NFT, non-fungible tokens, will be used as virtual currencies. The non-fungible tokens will be leveraged as the standard currency in the metaverse. What is important is that just like bitcoin, the non-fungible tokens will play a central role in defining the metaverse economy. This is how essential the NFTs will be in securing the metaverse.

In the recent past, there have been several talks on how to build the metaverse, and who will build it first. One only needs to think critically about Facebook and Google’s internet success today to understand why companies are hurrying to occupy this next frontier. In observing this hot pursuit of who will delve first, there is the possibility that Fortnite has long been building the internet of the future right before our eyes.

Using Fortnite and PUBG for instance, in-game purchases will be initiated through the non-fungible tokens. Therefore, using the gaming application available in the blockchain, the items are owned and authenticated in different other platforms which makes them non-fungible. The NFTs are crucial players in actualizing the metaverse and ensuring users have transactional power when using digital resources, including the metaverse.

How Fortnite Built the Metaverse Right Before our Glazed Eyes

Fortnite is a video game brand built by the popular video game company Epic Games. The Fortnite was designed and developed with three distinct video game mode versions: Fortnite Save the World, Fortnite Battle Royale, and Fortnite Creative. Upon its release in 2017, Fortnite became a phenomenon that turned players into celebrities and celebrities into players.

After working with Travis Scott and Marshmello, Fortnite announced a three-week-long concert series that christened Spotlight. The ultimate goal of the Spotlight series is to transform Fortnite into a virtual living space where different artists can hold concerts without Epic Game’s intervention. Such an exciting development shows how precisely video game brands like Fortnite are forging a path for the first metaverse.

Fortnite Creative gives players complete freedom to design and build virtual battle arenas and worlds. The second Fortnite game mode version is Fortnite: Save the World. This is a defense shooter game of up to four players fighting zombie-like creatures and defending fortifications and objects with traps. The Fortnite Battle Royale is the third game mode version featuring up to a hundred players that fight up to the last man standing.

Looking at these exciting developments, it is clear to see that Fortnite, the video game that led to a phenomenon of changing celebrities into players and vice versa, has been at the center of the focus on the future of the metaverse. Indeed, Fortnite developers at Epic Games have never been shy of bringing forth their ambition about the future of Fortnite.

Epic Games CEO Mr. Tim Sweeney has made overt public references to making Fortnite something more than a game. Sweeney has even hinted that these developments could be over as soon as the end of 2021. The CEO remarked, “Fortnite is a game! But ask that question in the next one year.” Such a remark can only imply that Fortnite will transform the video game industry through new virtual dynamics and smart algorithms that enable users to connect, trade, play, and be part of something big.

Therefore, looking closely at the exciting developments engineered by the Epic Games in its latest feature of Fortnite, it is evident that this particular video game could set the pace for the metaverse. Already, the Fortnite Creatives has shown immense abilities of players to create their cities, world, and battle arenas. Similarly, developments like Fortnite: Save the World and Battle Royale are matching up to the expectations, requirements, and anticipations set for the metaverse.

Therefore, evidence shows that as video games redefine their approach, brands like Fortnite will lead players in ushering in a completely new world. The metaverse. With the emergence of the different versions of the Fortnite game, there have been serious talks around a more actualized and tangible form of the internet that will redefine how things are done and how people interact and associate in shared digital platforms.

What about the PUBG? What Promise Does it Hold for the Metaverse?

PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds, commonly known as PUBG, is an online multiple-player game developed by the PUBG Corporation. PUBG Corporation is a subsidiary of the South Korean Video Game Corporation, Bluehole. This game was inspired by the 2000 Japanese Film titled Battle Royale.

In PUBG, over a hundred players parachute into an island and scavenge for diverse weapons like guns, grenades, bombs, and similar artillery. The available safe area inside the map reduces with time, thus directing the surviving players into the tighter, less secure areas to counter their opponents. The only standing person wins the game. The PUBG Game utilizes a virtual infrastructure that allows players to be fully immersed in shared interfaces where they can scavenge for weapons and artillery.

There is evidence that video game vendors like Peacekeeper Elite and PUBG have been experimenting with some of the features found in Fortnite. For instance, Peacekeeper Elite was able to host in-game concerts and events featuring top-flight models and Chinese pop idols during Chinese New Year’s Eve. This exciting development of featuring pop idols in in-game concerns is borrowed straight from Fortnite’s book.

This fact confirms that features available in PUBG and Fortnite are emblematic of the tremendous shift that metaverse will represent. Fortnite’s book details developments that are currently being documented and integrated into popular and reputable games, such as PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds and Peacekeeper Elite. This means that with time, such gaming developments will define the virtual architecture that will constitute the metaverse.

NFTs and Blockchain Gaming

An increasing number of Silicon Valley companies are shifting their attention towards gaming as the most likely sector to be disrupted as blockchain solves important issues like transparency, security, and user autonomy. In December 2019, the BBC released a report that Fortnite hackers had attempted to hack users’ accounts by downloading a list of accounts and passwords.

Therefore, as NFTs financially drive the metaverse economy, the need to protect and safeguard the integrity, accountability, and transparency of shared systems will rise. Already, NFTs have an immense transactional capability. That means they can be applied to finance commercial undertakings in and outside the metaverse.

How PUBG and Fortnite Befit the Metaverse

The metaverse reality is possibly years away, but Epic Games CEO Sweeney has been pushing for the immediate creation of the metaverse. He is not alone. Other developers are yearning for a shared virtual platform that echoes and fulfills real-world needs and problems.

It is no doubt that creating the metaverse is the macro goal of many in Silicon Valley. They are highly obsessed with Nelly Stephenson’s book titled “Snow Crash,” which conceptualized the metaverse. In recent years, tech moguls such as Google, Facebook, and Samsung have made heavy financial and infrastructural investments in anticipation of the metaverse.

For example, Facebook Horizon that was announced two years ago is a VR social space that serves as a metaverse. Google virtually shared workspace tools that were developed by huge financial investment in cloud computing all represent small but consistent efforts to institutionalize this culture.

However, according to an essay by Amazon executive and venture capitalist Matthew Ball, Epic Games, with its Fortnite feature, has the best possibility of actualizing the metaverse. Although Fortnite’s entry into the virtual reality space was all by accident, the gaming industry and many big techs have been working towards the possibility of actualizing the metaverse. It is no doubt that the metaverse will come from gaming because it is designed for many, and it is made for users with the most pressing technological needs.

This is why games like PUBG and Fortnite are key players in the metaverse.

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