Fortnite on the Blockchain

What would a blockchain version of the game look like?

By now everyone has heard of Epic Games’ blockbuster title Fortnite—a massive multiplayer game where survival is based on stealth, quick reflexes, and a lot of luck. As with any free-to-play game, the developers of Fortnite had to pick the right monetization strategy, and they had plenty to choose from due to the game’s popularity: free-to-play with microtransactions, pay-to-play, subscription microtransactions, etc. They ended up implementing more than one of these; their survival mode is in pay-to-play early access mode, while their battle royales mode has seen the release of microtransactions in the form of Battle Passes and V-bucks.

The interesting thing about this specific version of microtransactions is that it compensates players who purchase battle passes for actually playing the game by allowing them to ‘Rank Up’ their battle pass and earn more credits to purchase the next one. Because of this, Fortnite’s microtransactions strategy is one of the few of this type that hasn’t come under fire from gamers, making it harder to critique. That being said, there are a number of ways that blockchain can improve the monetization strategy for players.

Unique Verifiable In-Game Trophies

Player items are one of the most fun aspects of any game. By simply equipping characters with items, players are able to show off in-game achievements or prowess. The issue with in-game items, however, is that they can often be manipulated by players, either through game-hacking or simply purchasing off of another player on unsanctioned black markets, putting players at risk of losing their accounts.

Take Rocket League items for example. In Rocket League, the items are fully tradable, so if you possess one it could mean one of two things: either you have spent a lot of time playing the game to earn it, or you are just really rich. While one of blockchain’s main value propositions in the gaming space is the ability to truly own and trade your assets, an oft overlooked value is that blockchain can verify the method by which a players obtained an item. With blockchain, a game could incorporate an asset that is entirely exclusive to an in-game achievement based on skill. This would come as an improvement to items in Fortnite such as game-win gliders (Paper Parasol, Snowflake, and Umbrella) and would give these items an added sense of awe and admiration when equipped to your player. Simply having this information stored in a universally accessible data source such as the blockchain will allow developers to implement cool user interfaces to brag about game achievements.

While the Fortnite Tracker website has some of this information, a game stored on the blockchain would have all information on players by design. This is because the blockchain is a new type of data structure that is by default accessible to all, whereas the databases that games use today are restricted by design, so all information that we can see on players today must be actively released by the game if players want to see it.

V-buck Player Trading

An easy benefit to gain from incorporating blockchain into Fortnite would be the ability to trade V-Bucks with other players. This is primarily because it allows players to gain advantages outside of the game for the play-time that they have invested. Instead of spending hours playing a game and being rewarded with another cool skin that they might have hundreds of, players can exchange rewards that they earn for an external value, possibly in the form of Ethereum.

Many games in the past have expressed concern about this type of trading because it opens potential avenues for child gambling, as seen with CSGO skin lottery sites that raked in millions of dollars in profit and gave rise to the WAX asset marketplace. That being said, the blockchain in theory can reduce the ability of these marketplaces to function. If game developers understand in advance that their games have the incentives in place for these types of marketplaces, they can code their smart contracts in a way that prevents illicit activity from taking place. The reason that this is possible in blockchain games, where it was not for alternative games, is because any kind of value transfer is done through code in the blockchain. So if you wanted to prevent a type of asset from being purchased with dollars and only accept an equivalent value of in tokens, you could put that in the smart contract.

Trading isn’t managed game developers, which means they have no control over the validity of different payment methods and transactions. Blockchain technology could easily eliminate one of the main concerns with Fortnite’s monetization strategy today—the cash shop. The cash shop is the essence of what most players consider to be ‘microtransactions’; the ability to directly buy in-game assets for money. Fortnite is currently selling these items at outrageous prices and directly profiting the proceeds. If we imagine V-bucks as a token instead of a direct extension of fiat currency, we can imagine a world in which item prices fluctuate with demand, and players can earn this value by playing the game instead of paying for it. At some point, players may even be able to release their own skins and items that they can personally monetize, even if most of that value gets siphoned by Epic Games.

There’s a lot of work to be done with this type of in-game economy, so we’re not likely to see Fornite (or any similar major title) on the blockchain any time soon. However, it’s only a matter of time until it gets implemented with future titles. For now, even though the cash shop is a pain point for player experience, I’m sure that it is hugely profitable for Epic and most likely isn’t going anywhere anytime soon.