Imagine a world without Fortnite.
In an interview with Game Informer, former Epic Games production director Rod Fergusson says that if he had stayed at Epic, he “would have cancelled Fortnite.”
Fortnite: Save the World, a sort of horde mode defense game that featured the same building mechanics, was the original incarnation of the now massively popular franchse. It wasn’t until developers implemented a battle royale mode a couple months later in August 2017 that Fortnite began to explode in popularity, earning the most annual revenue of any game in history last year.
Fergusson, who is now head of Gears of War developer the Coalition, left Epic Games in 2012.
“When it was [Fortnite] Save the World, that was a project that just had some challenges,” Fergusson said. “As a director of production at the time, that game would not have passed my bar for something we should continue to keep going. So any time people look at me and go ‘don’t you feel bad?’ I’m like no, you should feel really good because that game you love and that’s a worldwide sensation would not exist had I stayed at Epic.”
When asked if he loses sleep over the success of Fortnite and his involvement, Fergusson said he’s “happy for [the Fortnite team’s] success.”
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Joseph Knoop is writer and web producer for IGN. Thank the bus driver with him on Twitter @JosephKnoop.
