MCV/DEVELOP News, events, research and jobs from the games industry
Epic is paying something back to its community in a limited ‘Support-A-Creator’ event, which will see regular users’ in-game purchases contributing to video creators and streamers’ wallets.
The initiative is being launched as a time-limited event, so won’t be around forever – though it’s not outside the realms of possibility this is just a test, and it might be extended to a full-time thing should the results be to Epic’s satisfaction.
To be eligible creators need to apply via Epic’s site and provide details of their channel/s, as well as have covered Fortnite ‘regularly’ over the past 30 days and have 1,000-plus followers on a social platform. If accepted, they can then be supported by other players who choose to do so – and for every 10,000 V-Bucks each individual spends in-game, the chosen creator gets $5 (or local equivalent, so £3.84) sent their way.
Support-A-Creator runs from Fortnite’s update, arriving today (October 8), through to December 31. At the risk of editorialising, it is incredibly unlikely to create any new video/streaming superstars and instead will just line the pockets of those already phenomenally popular in and around the game. But hey.
Elsewhere in the world of Fortnite and slightly larger sums of money, Sensor Tower revealed the game’s iOS debut has indeed made bank for Epic. Since launching some 200 (and a bit) days ago, the game has brought in over $300 million (£230m) in revenue.
65 per cent of the money has come in from players based in the US, and a whopping $20 million (£15.3m) came in just off the back of Season 6’s launch less than two weeks ago. Fortnite isn’t the quickest title to hit the $300m barrier, with that honour going to Pokemon Go, but it is so far leaving the iOS version of PUBG in the dust, with its battle royale competitor bringing in a mere $47 million (£36m) since April 15.
