Epic’s ‘Fortnite’ to Allow Players to Build and Profit From Their Own ‘Official’ Lego Island Games
Epic Games’ “Fortnite” will now allow creators to build their own Lego Islands in the game using Lego templates, props, consumables and items.
There are four different templates currently available to get players started using Unreal Editor for Fortnite (UEFN) and Fortnite Creative. “Fortnite” creators who choose to publish their own Lego Islands and are signed up for the Fortnite Island Creator Program will be eligible for payouts.
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Per Epic and Lego, “All published Lego Islands must have an ESRB rating of E10+ to be accessible to players in the United States, and a PEGI rating of 7 to be accessible to players in most of Europe. All Lego Islands utilize Epic Games’ parental controls and safety features.”
The Lego Islands announcement, which was made during Epic’s State of Unreal panel at the Game Developers Conference (GDC) Wednesday, is the latest development in a long-time partnership between Epic and Lego, with the most recent being the launch of “Lego Fortnite” in December 2023. Since then, Lego has released a couple islands, “Lego Raft Survival” and “Lego Obby,” and revealed three new ones out of GDC Wednesday:
Lego Prop Hunt – builds on popular ‘Prop Hunt’ mechanics to create zany Lego fun for you and other players within the expanse of a wacky shopping mall!
Lego Battle Arena – allows gamers to become the next Spinjitzu master! You can enroll in special training at the Lego Ninjago Dojo with Lloyd and the Masters of Spinjitzu, where you can compete against other trainees, hone your skills, and prove yourself.
Lego Cat Island Adventure – a playful game all about meeting and nurturing your relationship with a friendly cat on an island and spending time together. Players need to complete tasks to keep their cat happy, and they’ll let you know if they are not!
“Obviously, ‘Lego Fortnite’ was a big step in our collaboration with Lego — but it was never the final step. There were two more,” Epic Games executive vice president Saxs Persson told Variety. “One was Lego starting their own game development efforts and they’ve started releasing, and are now releasing three more islands that are just ridiculously adorable, that they’ve been spearheading. And then we’re releasing, essentially, a streamlined program for every creator to make official Lego games. So commercial, legitimate Lego games, that they can put into the ecosystem. With a one-click agreement with the predetermined engagement payout share of 15%, you get access to make your own Lego game.”
Persson says this development “represents exactly what we always wanted” to happen in “Fortnite.”
“We think there’s a space where these large gaming ecosystems are not the Wild West, where IP and creators and first-party and players can all live peacefully together and it’s not a sea of knockoffs,” he said. “Everybody has the possibility to make legitimate games with legitimate IP. Lego is a great, great partner that really pushed for this early on and I think this very much represents how we imagined the industry should be going.”
Along with its Lego Islands news, Epic Games unveiled several announcements out State of Unreal at GDC Wednesday, including a first look at Marvel and Skydance New Media’s new game “1943: Rise of Hydra,” this morning’s release of Unreal Engine 5.4 Preview 1, MetaHumans coming to UEFN as non-playable characters (NPCs), and more new ways to build in “Fortnite.”
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