Rumors have long been swirling that Fortnite might support VR. However, Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney recently made it clear that the company has no current plans to bring the world's most popular battle royale to VR, and that the core consideration is to overcome the VR motion sickness challenges caused by motion mechanics.
Sweeney elaborates: "We don't have plans to do that at this time. For Fortnite to shine in VR, we had to make sure that players across all platforms enjoyed the game without the motion mechanics that are unique to VR, which required a lot of time for players to adapt to specific game environments, and current technological advances have not yet reached this ideal state. While significant progress has been made in improving the mechanics of popular moves, it has yet reached a tipping point that triggers widespread acceptance. ”
This isn't the first time Epic has clarified the issue of VR support for Fortnite. Back in 2022, Sweeney pointed out that Fortnite was not suitable for a VR environment due to its high-intensity dynamic experience, and was concerned that the introduction of VR would divide the player community, citing cases such as Robo Recall and Unreal Tournament as references.
Interestingly, however, the Flat2VR team, which focuses on enhancing the Unreal Engine game VR experience with UEVR mods, came up with a different perspective on the X platform.
Observing the success of titles like Gorilla Tag and Roblox VR, they believe that even though these games have made a limited contribution to solving VR motion sickness, their popularity indicates that the market potential is huge. As a result, they suggested that Sweeney re-evaluate VR motion sickness as a VR-enabled obstacle in Fortnite, arguing that perhaps the time had come for the decision to revisit the decision.
While the official VR version of Fortnite isn't yet here, the Epic Unreal engine has already made significant strides in optimizing VR scenes. One example of this is the Universal Unreal Engine VR Mod (UEVR) developed by the Praydog team, which allows PCVR users to enjoy near-engine-level VR support, including headset position tracking, and is compatible with games built on Unreal Engine 4.8 and above.
For gamers who crave the joy of tactical competition in the VR world, there's no shortage of great titles on the market. Population: One is a VR game with a similar Fortnite style, with the Phoenix Royale update bringing new maps and dynamic gameplay.
In addition, games such as Rec Royale and Contractors Showdown in Rec Room offer a rich and varied VR battle royale experience, with the latter boasting the largest 60-player battle map in VR.
All in all, while Fortnite's VR journey is still a long way off, we can expect to see this classic game bloom in VR in the future as the technology continues to advance and the market continues to mature.