Fortnite’s new ‘Party Worlds’ put the focus firmly on socializing - The Verge

“Party Worlds” are new spaces coming to Fortnite which are designed to focus on socializing over combat, the game’s developer Epic Games has announced. “These are experiences that are designed as places for players to hang out, play fun mini-games, and make new friends,” the developer says, adding that Party Worlds cannot be centered on “combat or damage.”

To kick off the initiative, Epic has collaborated with community members fivewalnut and TreyJTH on a pair of example Party Worlds. One is an amusement park called Walnut World, and the second is called Late Night Lounge and has more of a nightclub vibe. The developer says it’s taking submissions for more community-made spaces. Just use the tag “Party World” for an island, and submit it through this submission form.

Party Worlds are Epic’s latest attempt to transform Fortnite from a competitive online game into a broader online social space. This has already resulted in numerous features ranging from one-off events like an in-game concert from Travis Scott to the combat-free Party Royale mode. Users can also already create islands to serve as social spaces rather than arenas using the game’s Creative mode. But with its latest initiative, Epic appears to be explicitly promoting and encouraging users to make these social-first spaces.

Party Worlds also don’t link out to other islands, so they’re meant as a destination rather than a “discovery tool.”

And yes, this all ties in to Epic’s plans to create a so-called “metaverse,” a fully integrated 3D online space for people to exist in. Epic is now far from the only company explicitly targeting this future (see also: Meta), but the maturity of Fortnite’s technology, not to mention the game’s enduring popularity, mean Epic’s ambitions deserve to be taken seriously.

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