Oh...so Fortnite Festival looks interesting?
Some Predictions: What Epic Games chooses to do could hint towards their future plans with music inclusion.
So, let’s break this up as usual:
What sort of gameplay can we expect?
What sort of money & money mechanics are we talking?
What sort of artists could we expect?
Firstly, on the evening of the 3rd of December 2023, Fortnite launched one of their in-game events titled The Big Bang:
There are 3 sub-games added to the next season: Lego Experience, Rocket Racing, and Fortnite Festival. I’m interested to see a modern music experience with Epic Games’ budget. With Fortnite having already generated $26 billion to date, I’m sure they have some spare tuppence to throw at such a spectacle.
What sort of gameplay can we expect?
Let’s see what their website has said about it:
Fortnite Festival is a new music game where players can play in a band with friends or perform solo on stage with hit music by their favorite artists. Built by Harmonix, the studio behind the iconic music game Rock Band, Festival marks the beginning of music gaming in Fortnite.
Harmonix helped develop Fortnite Festival. Harmonix also developed Guitar Hero and Rock Band, and is now owned by Epic Games too (if you’re reading this I don’t doubt you’re aware of its impact but Guitar Hero 3 was a big deal). The fact that Epic Games owns Harmonix and is getting them involved suggests this won’t be a short term thing.
Harmonix’s involvement has got to be a huge hint that they will introduce a similar gameplay mechanic. Back in the day, Guitar Hero style games made a big cultural dent for music through gaming - we have not see anything on that scale cut through to bridge music and gaming, but if anyone has the budget & network for it - it’s Epic Games.
Given Fortnite’s above description said ‘can play in a band with friends or perform solo on stage’ it would be very much like a typical rhythm minigame that enables other to co-operate together, and I suspect this will be just like Rock Band. There would be an interesting opportunity to make a brand-new mechanic that utilises their avatar’s ‘free roam’ capability, making this mini-game transferrable to other platforms too. We will see, but I doubt they will push the boat out on season 1.
Also look at this rather upsetting video about a world record in Guitar Hero 3...in a living room. A lot has changed in competitive gaming in the last 15 years.
What sort of money & money mechanics are we talking?
I’d like to know what the artists or music companies will get from their inclusion.
Here’s what we saw with Guitar Hero with Aerosmith’s involvement, with the below comment taken from this article, suggesting there is serious money for companies and artists involved:
“The scratch Steven Tyler, Joe Perry, and the rest of the band hauled in through the release of albums like Toys in the Attic, Rocks, and Permanent Vacation was less than what they brought in through the video game Guitar Hero: Aerosmith. This assertion comes straight from the head of Activision, the video game company that released the popular video game.”
And this article explores more about how their feature gave them exposure to a new audience, and how they made more derivative sales through their involvement that ended up impacting their negotiation/leverage with record deals and the like:
“[Their] version of Guitar Hero generated far more in revenues than any Aerosmith album ever has," said Kotick. "Merchandising, concert sales, their ability to sign a new contract [have] all been unbelievably influenced by their participation in Guitar Hero."
Also from the same above article, there is evidence that both legacy and newer artists will benefit from inclusion:
“Games such as Guitar Hero and Rock Band 2 are also "reshaping the radio play" in the US, says PC Mag. "Between reviving old favourites, showcasing new songs, and earning bands money hand over fist, video games are clearly good for the music industry."
These artists will likely get paid for their inclusion, given the above, but it could work the other way - why wouldn’t it be that artists and labels pay to be included too? There will surely be a deeper microtransaction model for this too, and what percentage would the artists make back from such ‘products’? Who will build these items and at what cost? And will they be kept within the sub-game if it becomes a permanent or re-occurring feature? This could tell us a lot about the future intentions of Epic Games with music inclusion.
Word on the street is that Fortnite Festival will have music packs you can purchase called ‘Spark Tracks’. These are music packs that contain music that you can play only in this game mode. Given this sub-game will likely be around for a while, Fortnite seem like they are making a whole new way to buy music, enabling players to buy an artist’s music for just this in-game usage. (For all those music industry people who remember ringtones…this rings a bell, doesn’t it?)
They are rumoured to have 55 tracks for launch. They are also preparing sub-folders, and therefore are expecting many players to purchase multiple songs in order to categorise. How big will this catalogue get - if this sub-game gets big enough over time, could players buy a subscription to access all the tracks, like streaming? The royalty rates will no doubt be released so I will be keeping a close eye.
What sort of artists could we expect?
This is the most interesting question to me as it will tell us the intention of this sub-game. We already know The Weeknd is leading the first season.
Today, games are being made by giant companies like Epic Games and impressive titles have also been made by solo developers such as Stardew Valley. The budget for games come in all sizes. In a way, the artist deals within Fortnite Festival are going to show an unrealistic expectation of what artists should expect from game inclusions. It wouldn’t surprise me if artists with major label budgets are the only artists that have the biggest reach to work with events of this size. I’m not the biggest fan of such a cultural chokehold.
Are we not missing out on an incredible opportunity for music discovery? There are two types of discovery I’ve shown in this article:
There could be re-discovery and re-contextualisation of legacy artists, which will be favoured most from the major labels given their ownership of catalogue repertoire (see Aerosmith above).
There is huge potential for emerging artists to be seen by big numbers here - but how do these artists get selected?
Mainly on point 2, I have a few thoughts. Given my recent forecasting on Riot becoming a record label in my previous post, Fortnite could use this as a way to springboard a new artist. Why would they do this for any artist though? They aren’t a charity are they. If they don’t want to be ‘tastemakers’, they clearly want a stake in the earnings of such a decision. Are Fortnite planning on launching their own artist/group? If so, they could retain the master rights for / publishing too, and if it is a digital artist, the artist’s royalty entirely? This is not out of the question in my opinion.
There is always room here for a major company or a heritage, unsung legacy artist to have a new context wrapped around their music to be shown to new audiences, similar to Aerosmith but even deeper. I’m thinking of what Babydriver did with ‘Bellbottoms’ by The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, by having such an iconic track use bringing that track back into pop culture. A majority of this rep is wrapped up by major labels who, if particularly savvy, could have tee’d up a deal to get that inclusion, and put in a great structure to reap the benefits from the derivative sales (merch, streams etc).
The standard way an artist would get involved is an artist’s management negotiating with Epic Games directly. Here, the artist could leverage their record label and publisher to co-ordinate licenses (or if they own their own rights, lend them directly), as well as being wholly in control of the ‘name and likeness’ of the artist and how their image is used in the game. An artist’s involvement and support of such an inclusion is imperative, and it would make the most sense for artists and management to lead these talks if they are happy to lean into gaming.
I think that Fortnite has a huge potential for music discovery here and if/how they decide to lean into that tell us a lot about Epic Games potential with music. This is clearly going to test the water as a bit of fun, but it is also creating an interactive stage for artists. As opposed to Riot Games’ IP-heavy approach, I think Epic Games will aim to become the ‘Event Stage’ of the gaming world, providing a digital platform for artists to perform on. This will have potential for smaller artist to support or get exposure - but at what cost? If not money, then equity? And would an early emerging artist getting involved straight away be defined by their inclusion? Something for the next generation of managers to watch out for.
TLDR:
Epic Games have some serious dollar. Fortnite Festival is likely Rock Band mechanics in Fortnite. It will probably only have big artists for the first few seasons. Epic Games seem like they want to be the digital event space of the gaming world. A heap of TBC's to be concluded in my next post.