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Epic Games banked a $3B profit in 2018

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Re: Epic Games banked a $3B profit in 2018

#51

Post by minimaxir »

chc4 wrote: post #31
minimaxir wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This can be debated. Although Rust/H1Z1/PUBG were certainly popular battle royale games before Fortnite, Fortnite was the only one that brought it mainstream , outside the hardcore gamer ecosystem.

I'm sorry? PUBG sold 50 million copies. It is the 5th highest selling game in history. You can't honestly claim that's not mainstream.

That's why I added "outside the hardcore gamer ecosystem". PUBG was incredibly big yes, but parents weren't asking questions about their children's addiction to PUBG and talk shows didn't have long segments about PUBG.

Fortnite became a place for people to hang out: https://twitter.com/anoopr/status/1071921080485457920

Re: Epic Games banked a $3B profit in 2018

#52

Post by ethbro »

disishhsha wrote: post #30

$3B profit doesn’t really seem consistent with $15B valuation. Tech companies these days seem valued at 20x revenue or more. Why would they bother raising $1.25B at that price? I suppose Fortnite is a fad, so there is a pessimistic case to be made to cash in as much as possible.

The impression I get is that the video game industry is extremely hit / miss.

Hence the large graveyard of publishers and developers who at one time made excellent, well-selling games. (E.g. Interplay Games)

Money comes cheaply at times of hits. Money comes much more expensively at times of misses. So it behooves Epic to build up a war chest if they can.

Re: Epic Games banked a $3B profit in 2018

#53

Post by diminoten »

Reedx wrote: post #7

> ...has popularized the battle royale category — think Lord of the Flies meets Hunger Games — almost single-handedly... Almost single-handedly? This is a bizarre claim and it's like rewriting history.

I don't think you're appreciating the penetration that Fortnite has. PUBG may have come first, but Fortnite has 10x the players.

Re: Epic Games banked a $3B profit in 2018

#54

Post by diminoten »

chc4 wrote: post #31
minimaxir wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This can be debated. Although Rust/H1Z1/PUBG were certainly popular battle royale games before Fortnite, Fortnite was the only one that brought it mainstream , outside the hardcore gamer ecosystem.

I'm sorry? PUBG sold 50 million copies. It is the 5th highest selling game in history. You can't honestly claim that's not mainstream.

Compared to Fortnite, 50 million isn't that much.

Re: Epic Games banked a $3B profit in 2018

#55

Post by standerman »

sfilargi wrote: post #45
usaphp wrote: post #6

What does HN people think on the whole idea of stealing concept from PUBG? I am kind of divided on this topic.

Correct me if I am wrong, but I don't think it was PUBG that came up with the battle royal concept. I believe H1Z1 had battle royal mode before PUBG existed.

A Minecraft mod seems to get credit for being the first: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_royale_game

Re: Epic Games banked a $3B profit in 2018

#56

Post by z0r »

limaoscarjuliet wrote: post #21
beastman82 wrote: post #3

Tim Sweeney is a good person, good for him

I can confirm. We wrote couple of games together in 1995-98 (Fire Fight being the biggest). He is genuinely a good guy.

Fire Fight! That's a blast from the past. I remember being amazed by how cool it looked and felt to play when I was 12 or 13.

Re: Epic Games banked a $3B profit in 2018

#57

Post by Mikeb85 »

disishhsha wrote: post #30

$3B profit doesn’t really seem consistent with $15B valuation. Tech companies these days seem valued at 20x revenue or more. Why would they bother raising $1.25B at that price? I suppose Fortnite is a fad, so there is a pessimistic case to be made to cash in as much as possible.

Growing tech companies are valued at 20x revenue. Mature companies aren't. Epic was in trouble and managed one hit, that revenue isn't guaranteed to last, hence the conservative valuation.

Re: Epic Games banked a $3B profit in 2018

#58

Post by badpun »

pssflops wrote: post #48
Reedx wrote: post #7

> ...has popularized the battle royale category — think Lord of the Flies meets Hunger Games — almost single-handedly... Almost single-handedly? This is a bizarre claim and it's like rewriting history.

Is it even more odd that I can't figure why they did not reference the literal movie 'Battle Royale' that the concept was roughly based on?

I always saw it as inspired by the Hunger Games, which in turn captured the zeitgeist of the post-2001 and post-2008 society.

Re: Epic Games banked a $3B profit in 2018

#59

Post by cristiancavalli »

MrMember wrote: post #37
cristiancavalli wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s interesting becuase I saw PUBG as an adaptation of Sa-Matras excellent Arma 3 wasteland mod which included all of the elements seen in fortnite/pubg like: scavenging firearms, building and free-for-all/teamwork choice through the Blufor/Opfor/Independent team selection. https://wasteland.arma.su

The lead designer on PUBG, Brendan Greene, had previously made a Battle Royale Arma 2 mod.

I think Brendan’s mod came out ~2015 and Sa-Matras came out around 2013 which, itself is an adaptation of another mod. Please correct me if I am wrong. Not to say any of this is really new or original. As I recall there is an Arma 2 wasteland mod that came out before Arma 3: https://forums.bohemia.net/forums/topic/134450-arma2ru-waste...
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