How Fortnite and PUBG made battle royale the hottest trend in gaming
It’s the hottest game genre around right now: 100 players parachute on to a deserted island, scavenge for weapons, and fight to be the last one standing. PUBG and Fortnite are both battle royale games.
It’s a simple premise.
100 players jump out of an aircraft, heading for an island. The island is deserted, but its many buildings and structures are littered with weapons. Players scramble to arm themselves -- and then fight to the death, battling to be the last player standing.
That’s the basic structure of all battle royale games, 2018’s hottest gaming genre. Popularised by PUBG, it was taken to a new level by the incredible success of Fortnite, which transcended its gaming roots to become a cultural phenomenon.
But battle royale’s origins date back much further than PUBG’s debut in 2017. In fact, they date all the way back to, well, Battle Royale -- a Japanese film released in 2000.
CINEMATIC ORIGINS
Battle Royale, the film, featured a group of teenagers marooned on an island, forced to fight to the death until only one remains. Based on a novel, the film proved controversial and critically successful, attracting a cult following.
