- 11 minutes ago
The End of Fortnite OG
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GamingTranscript
00:00This might be our last season with Fortnite OG.
00:03It went from 44 million players in a single day
00:07to now potentially shutting down forever.
00:09So today I want to examine the OG experiment
00:12to answer whether it was a success or failure
00:15because ultimately that'll tell us what happens next.
00:18You see, this mode was born out of something special,
00:21a golden era that every single Fortnite player looks back on
00:24as the most successful online game of all time.
00:27The entirety of chapter one was back-to-back improvements,
00:31gigantic seasons that got millions of players
00:33and battle passes with iconic original skins.
00:37During that time, its only competitors were PUBG and H1Z1,
00:40two other BRs that were simple and focused on getting the victory over anything else.
00:45Fortnite was kind of the same,
00:46but it pulled it off so much better with the evolving map,
00:49the invention of live events and brand new loot every single week.
00:53So the question everyone asked,
00:54if Fortnite returned to these days, would they actually recapture that magic?
00:59After all, the game had already moved on very quickly.
01:02Chapter two and beyond, it had become a different kind of beast.
01:05Instead of a focus on battle royale, it had turned into this metaverse
01:08where any character could become a skin,
01:09any celebrity could perform a concert,
01:11and the Hunger Games feeling of it all, where anyone could win?
01:14Well, that turned into tournaments with giant cash prizes and Jimmy Fallon interviews.
01:19None of this was a bad thing.
01:20It was Fortnite constantly coming up with ways to improve the game to keep us interested.
01:25Sure, chapter one was nice and simple,
01:27but it would have never survived all these years if it stayed that way.
01:31Despite that, as half a decade went by,
01:33Fortnite kept getting more and more convoluted.
01:36We had creative maps, a new Netflix-style UI.
01:39It was trying to compete with Roblox.
01:41Most importantly, its crown as the biggest game in the world was beginning to fall off.
01:46So after seven years of constantly coming up with new ideas,
01:49they realized that the best one was an old idea.
01:52For one month only, they would take us back to the very beginning.
01:56A taste of the golden era, where we'd be able to experience nostalgia,
02:00and it was a hit.
02:0244 million players jumped in on a single day.
02:05Old names who quit years ago, rushed back to make videos.
02:08It was exactly how we remembered it.
02:10Knowing we only had 30 days to enjoy this made it feel even more incredible.
02:14A limited window to relive the early days with your friends,
02:17and then who knows what would happen next.
02:19Well, the second Fortnite saw how much money they were raking in,
02:22we should have guessed.
02:24Just a couple days after Season OG,
02:26Epic confirmed they were bringing it back in the new year
02:28and turning it into a permanent mode.
02:30Everyone was so excited to hear this,
02:32but little do we know, Epic was going to destroy their own hype.
02:36Firstly, they wanted to profit from all the nostalgia and wanted it immediately.
02:40Within a couple months, they dropped Reload,
02:42the whole map being a remix of OG, but it simply wasn't the same.
02:46This island was clearly designed to bring all the players into their brand new mode
02:50without actually caring about what made Chapter 1 so great.
02:53It was just a way to land at POIs you used to love.
02:56If you wanted the real deal, you'd have to wait for their big announcement.
02:59That day finally came, and Epic revealed the Fortnite OG.
03:03While the previous one had taken us back to Season 5, and everyone loved it,
03:06this time we were starting from scratch, day one of Battle Royale.
03:11At this point, we had a remixed OG map in Reload, UEFN recreations,
03:16a previous mini-season, and now an entire permanent mode.
03:20It was like the fifth time we were doing this,
03:22and they had to get it right because this was Epic's big moment.
03:25The excitement was strong as we all prepared for it.
03:28Within days, people quickly realized they had been blinded by nostalgia.
03:31Season OG had done so well because they threw us into the middle of Chapter 1
03:35when Fortnite's quirks had been solved.
03:37Now, we were in the most basic alpha version of Fortnite,
03:41and would have to wait months for it to catch up to the true golden age.
03:45Sure, OG started off super strong,
03:47but you could already see declining players as the days went by.
03:50Then, as we moved into future seasons, the interest did start to come back,
03:54and fans were finally getting to the good stuff.
03:56And to make it even cooler,
03:57Fortnite revealed they'd be bringing back old live events.
04:00So, we all waited for the rocket launch, the thing that started it all.
04:04While everyone knew it was going to be a simple event,
04:07it'd be our first time experiencing it after so long,
04:09and people rushed to get in and watch it.
04:12But all of a sudden, Fortnite shocked everyone.
04:15This wasn't the same event.
04:17The rift in the sky was now red.
04:19Bunkers have been flashing Morse code teasers,
04:22and it continued to happen.
04:23Then, we all waited for Kevin to finally come back,
04:26and we got this guy instead.
04:28We were quickly realizing this wasn't going to truly be OG.
04:31Fortnite was actually giving us a reason to come back,
04:34other than nostalgia.
04:35They were building an alternate timeline.
04:37It was such a great idea.
04:39It made live events we have watched on YouTube over and over
04:42actually unpredictable.
04:43And plus, it tied into the main battle royale story
04:46we've been following for almost a decade.
04:48The main villain of Chapter 7 straight up visited the OG island,
04:51and the visitor from the rocket event ended up being Genno in disguise.
04:55So yeah, they used OG as a vessel to finally bring Genno to the game.
04:59That's how important this mode was becoming.
05:01To this day, there's still so many unanswered questions
05:04about the connection between this mode and BR,
05:06and also a ton of plot holes.
05:08Like, if it's an alternate timeline, where are the seven?
05:11And if Genno replaced the visitor,
05:12then how are any of the other live events still happening?
05:15The end event is right around the corner,
05:16and it was the day we were finally introduced
05:18to the seven once and for all.
05:20It was going to be a monumental moment for OG.
05:23And before, we would have assumed it would be super different.
05:26Looking back at the past couple live events,
05:28they've actually been identical to Chapter 1.
05:30And Fortnite seems to have abandoned the whole alternate timeline thing.
05:34So what was making OG super unique and refreshing had now vanished.
05:39And in the background,
05:40Epic just kept pumping content with barely any changes.
05:43If anything, the differences were cut content,
05:45like the block, rather than new stuff.
05:47The problem wasn't OG being exactly how it was back in the day.
05:51That's the whole point of it.
05:52The problem was its player count,
05:54and how Epic weren't doing anything to address it.
05:56With each new season, OG got less and less interest from fans.
06:00Even though they were bringing back beloved themes and POIs every so often,
06:04it wasn't enough.
06:05Now, those live events were identical again,
06:08and people barely even logged in for those.
06:10The final showdown is considered a gem of an event,
06:13and yet fans didn't care that it came back.
06:15It was shocking.
06:16Not to mention, the ones who did show up
06:18couldn't even watch it because of server issues.
06:21In two years, we had gone from this being the most exciting part of Fortnite,
06:24to it just being another mode buried in the others.
06:27So, how did it all go wrong?
06:29Another question we have to answer is,
06:31can Epic even fix it?
06:32Or, are they going to pull the plug like the modes before it?
06:35And right now, it's not looking so good.
06:38Important context that we have to talk about
06:40is that earlier this year, Epic laid off over a thousand people,
06:43including some of the most important parts of their Fortnite team.
06:46For months, they were trying to pick up the pieces of what happened.
06:49The game had become a buggy mess,
06:50especially in other modes like Festival, The Reload, and of course, OG.
06:54And it got to the point where Epic had to straight up delete games
06:56like Rocket Racing, Festival, Battle Stage, and Ballistic
06:59because of a lack of resources.
07:01OG was also hit very hard.
07:04Fortnite had promised one-to-one recreations of old seasons,
07:07and instead, we got map issues, broken weapons,
07:10glitches everywhere.
07:11It was not good.
07:13There were bugs that existed in the mode for months
07:15and went totally ignored.
07:17Fans had to track down the glitches for Epic
07:19and suggest how to change it,
07:20with one case of them even telling them simple lines of code to swap,
07:24or also having to correct them on actual gun stats from 2019.
07:27The fans who joined for nostalgia
07:29grew frustrated with how much they were fumbling it,
07:32while the ones who wanted a fresh take on Chapter 1
07:34were also annoyed by how little updates we got.
07:36And eventually, Epic began giving up.
07:38We stopped getting trailers for new seasons.
07:41Live events were now announced with just a tweet at the last second,
07:44and even the in-game teasers would break,
07:47like the Rift Beacons not showing up.
07:48To their credit, the bugs have been fixed over time,
07:51and now that we're in Season X,
07:52it seems like Epic have finally started to take the mode seriously again.
07:55But is it enough?
07:56Player counts have plummeted,
07:58and right now, we're in the final weeks of Chapter 1
08:00before it vanishes possibly forever.
08:02So what happens next?
08:04Let's talk about that.
08:05There are four different ways this could go,
08:08and while the last one is what most fans would be happy with,
08:11it's Epic's riskiest plan.
08:12The first is the most grim outcome of all.
08:15As we've seen with Epic's other modes,
08:16if there's no cosmetics forcing them to keep it going,
08:19like jam tracks or minifigures,
08:21they'd rather shut it down,
08:22and right now, OG seems like a burden to them.
08:25They barely promote it,
08:26events have stopped being unique,
08:27and all their manpower is focused on BR itself.
08:30With Season X ending on the same day Chapter 8 begins,
08:32there's a real possibility
08:33that Epic just wants to take a break from the nostalgia for a while,
08:36and just shut down OG forever.
08:38I mean, think about it.
08:39When the Black Hole event first happened,
08:41they put down the game for two whole days,
08:43and fans were so worried it would never come back online.
08:46So what if the Black Hole shows up again in OG,
08:48but this time, it stays that way?
08:50It would be both poetic and devastating.
08:53But there is a reason to have hope,
08:55a different path forward.
08:56And that's a reset button,
08:58making OG loop all the way back around again
09:00and throwing us into Season 1,
09:02ready to try again.
09:03Honestly, it sounds awful,
09:05and this probably won't happen,
09:06but I guess Epic could maybe start remixing the seasons
09:09every time they do it,
09:10and actually give OG that fresh coat of pain it desperately needs.
09:13The third path is keeping Chapter 1 forever,
09:16but on rotation.
09:17Just like Reload,
09:18OG could do away with the strict rules
09:20of following Chapter 1 to the letter,
09:22and putting the seasons casually in the game.
09:24Then, every hour or so,
09:26the map changes to a different theme,
09:27and they could have a special OG loot pool
09:29that unlocks a crazy potential,
09:31like using mechs on the Season 6 map,
09:33or giving us combos never possible before.
09:36This would lower everyone's expectations,
09:38give us room for unpredictable content,
09:40and would make those earlier seasons
09:41less simple and boring to play.
09:43The boldest option is a plan
09:45that'll make sure OG survives for years on end.
09:48Let's break it down.
09:49Once the Chapter 1 finale happens,
09:51we could see ourselves blasted into Chapter 2.
09:54After all, it's been long enough now
09:55that technically even this is considered OG.
09:58While the mode never slowing down
09:59would be the most exciting option for everyone,
10:01it's also the riskiest.
10:03Epic would have to keep investing tons of money
10:05into OG to make this happen,
10:06even with less employees around to look after it.
10:09Not only that,
10:10but as they keep adding more seasons,
10:11the risk of them bringing back a hated theme
10:13is gonna get even higher.
10:15Let's face it,
10:16OG was already struggling
10:17during some of the most popular seasons in history,
10:19so how are they gonna cope
10:21when we have to replay Primal again?
10:23It's a ginormous risk.
10:24Plus, we already went back to Chapter 2
10:26in the Remix season,
10:27and they had to turn the whole thing into a wrap theme
10:29because they were scared fans would get bored.
10:31Let me know what you think
10:32is the most likely route Epic takes.
10:34It has been Tommy,
10:35and keep it here on Top 5 Gaming.