14 DAY TRIAL // Epic Games, the developer behind the upcoming free-to-play experience Fortnite, has confirmed that the new title could debut on the PS4 and Xbox One platforms, although right now the focus is on the PC edition of the online shooter.
Fortnite is the next big project from Epic Games, a studio that brought the world great franchises like Unreal Tournament or Gears of War. The title has been in development for many years and is set to show off the capabilities of Epic's own Unreal Engine 4 technology.
The game is so far confirmed for a release on the PC platform as a free-to-play multiplayer shooter experience, but this doesn't mean that Epic Games is ruling out a potential release on new-generation consoles like the PS4 or Xbox One.
While talking with Eurogamer, Lead Designer Darren Saag mentioned that Fortnite is currently a PC project because that's where it made the most sense when actual work started. According to him, new consoles were still far away and it wasn't clear how they would treat free-to-play experiences.
"I think it was more about the timing of the original development schedule," he said. "It was still a little unsure about where the next generation of consoles were going to land with iterative and free-to-play games. PC just allowed us to push patches and push updates quicker and do heavy iteration. At the time we were conceiving of the project, that was why."
However, both the PS4 and Xbox One are now available on the market and, as it turned out, they're both welcoming a lot of free-to-play experiences while imposing very few restrictions.
Saag noted this state and mentioned that, so far, the release of Fortnite isn't exclusive to just the PC platform. He did, however, stop short of confirming anything else about the possibility of PS4 or Xbox One versions being in development right now.
"Things have changed from the console space and have adapted to the new market, which is cool," he added. "So because of those adaptations the future for where Fortnite ends up is not set in stone. I think there's lots of possibilities about how you can interact with Fortnite on different platforms."
Fortnite is set to receive an alpha stage later this year on the PC platform, but it's unclear if it might actually be released under an open beta for all the world to try out until 2015.
Expect Epic to make some more announcements soon enough.