The Death Of Paragon And The Rise Of Fortnite
News hit last week that Epic Games will shut down Paragon, its free-to-play action MOBA, on April 26. The game went through several changes over its two years of open betas and early access, but a final release won't see the light of day. Despite building a community of its own and reaching over five million players during its course, Paragon never found stability. It also seems that Epic struck a gold mine with Fortnite; not because of the original Save the World mode, but because it was able to capitalize on the battle royale trend by adapting the core game to a drastically different style.
In the video above, we explore in-depth what went wrong with Paragon; a game that seemed to have the foundation of a potentially successful MOBA. Can we attribute this to Fortnite's rapid success by riding the battle royale wave, or how Epic reacted to the increasingly competitive space in MOBA games? Maybe there's a larger business reason at play--or maybe it's a combination of all those factors.
Paragon and Fortnite had somewhat similar paths at their start. Both were presented as free-to-play, but also had paid early access versions with tons of digital content for early adopters. Paragon went through many iterations with tweaks to pacing, balance, and other issues, which Epic worked to resolve with varying degrees of success. Fortnite set out to be a Gears of War- or Orcs Must Die-like Horde mode/tower-defense game with construction mechanics similar to Minecraft. But following in the footsteps of PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds, Fortnite: Battle Royale is what launched the game into massive popularity, reaching 45 million players and dwarfing the numbers Paragon could muster. That's only part of the story, however. We hope you watch the video above as Jake Dekker digs deeper into the fall of Paragon and the rise of Fortnite.
For more coverage on Paragon's sunset, read about how players are getting refunds for money spent in the game or what Epic Games had to say about their decision. We're continually covering Fortnite's development, so be sure to check out the game's new content, keep up with sever maintenance issues, or watch our livestream of the battle royale mode.
from GameSpot http://ift.tt/2GJT58T