Marshmello and Fortnite

Epic is arguably the most strategic asset in technology right now. Chinese internet companies have been fascinated with competing in the United States for years — Joe Tsai once described it as a “beautiful dream.” Ironic that Tencent is now effectively now a significant Facebook competitor due to their 40% ownership of Epic, the creator of Fortnite. I don’t think the US government — fairly or unfairly — will love this and I do think Epic could be sold.

At the risk of being a broken record, “Fortnite isn’t a game, it’s a place” per Owen William’s fantastic article from December, which now looks prescient. The fact that the in-game Marshmello concert attracted more than 10m concurrent users and was likely watched by another 10–15m people on Twitch is powerful. It has implications for every consumer internet company. Ready Player One’s Oasis is becoming a reality in Fortnite and the original promise of Second Life is being fulfilled. Fortnite is now a digital media distribution platform, a truly ephemeral social network that allows for anonymity and a world class game. Fortnite’s Twitch viewership looked like it had peaked in mid 2018, but a successful holiday event drove an 83% MoM increase in Fortnite’s IOS revenue in December. I am super curious to see what happens next — imagine what will happen when they have a great VR experience and an AR version of Fortnite.

I am sure Facebook would love to buy it, but tough timing for them. I believe there would be a significant bidding war between Google, Microsoft and Apple to acquire Epic. And obviously the US videogame co’s would love to own it.

* All these thoughts were originally posted on Twitter @bakergavin