The Giant Slayer

Below, I will attempt to analyze and explain what has happened in the sparkle of time that allowed this new video game to become a threat to Fortnite.

Disruption is what brings down giant companies of all kind. Market leaders have seen their position replaced by emerging companies that, performing simpler services, stole their businesses in a matter of years.

Not long ago, this phenomenon was named disruption. One of the best strategists to formalize it was Teixeira, a Harvard Business Strategy that understood exactly why giant companies such as Best Buy where losing all their customers to companies like Amazon (T. S. Teixeira, 2019). Other examples of Disrupting companies are the well-known Uber and Netflix.

This is how disruption works: a company provides value to customers by selling two or more interlinked (bundled) services. A disruptor only focuses on one of these bundled services, becoming more appealing to the consumer.

For example, a kiosk is selling both Hot Dogs and Soft Drinks together for 1.80 $. A second Kiosk is selling them separately, for 1.00 $ each. The second Kiosk has disrupted the first one: the niche of clients that only want to buy a soft drink are no longer forced to buy the entire set from the first Kiosk.

Because they are competitors, the Niche of customers of the first Kiosk, who had no need to buy an entire set, switched to the second Kiosk.

Fortnite is currently the most played games in the world. Is f2p (free to play) game, and players cannot buy advantages in the game, yet it still makes Billions.

The game mechanics are simple: you land in one island with other 99 players. You start with no weapons, you will collect everything on the spot. The last one to survive, or the last team to survive, wins.

In just one month, Apex Legends, the new competitor of Fortnite, gained 50 Million users: way faster than Fortnite!

After claiming the undisputed leadership in competitive games one year after its release, two years later a new game title was launched, declaring war to Fortnite. During the February 4th 2019, all the main streamers were hired to play and advertise the game on Twitch, the most viewed video game streaming platform: it was an innovative Launch Strategy that proved successful.

1 Hour, 1 Million

1 Day, 10 Million

1 Week, 25 Million

1 Month, 50 Million

What is surprising, is that the game was essentially a copycat. It had all the main aspects of Fortnite, just with a few improvements: was that enough to bring down this Giant? There is only one big difference in game mechanics that separates the two games: the building feature, and that is exactly where the disruption happens.

In Fortnite, in order to win, player need to master both building and shooting ability.

For a new player, in order to become enough competitive to enjoy the game, it requires an outstanding number of hours. In Apex Legends, instead, people just need shoot each other, and that’s it. The difference, is that player can choose a substitute of Fortnite, but with a way lower skill cap.

According to the principles of disruption we have just outlined, Apex Legends is offering a simpler service: Fortnite aficionados that were unable to be competitive due the skill gap in the game, simply switched to Apex Legends.

Although the still existing war between the two titles, even if Apex was unable to bring down Fortnite in the long run, it definitely forced a response. Fortnite was able to work on its missing game mechanics and introduced new ones to respond aggressively (D. Clinton, S. V. Sloun, 2019).

Thales S. Teixeira, 2019, Unlocking the Customer Value Chain: How Decoupling Drives Consumer Disruption

Related posts:

Greetings Swytch community, June is going to be a very exciting month. On June 12th our public sale will begin, so if you want to get in on the private sale you have a very limited time to complete…

It is basically a phrase which underestimates one’s ability (not necessarily imposed by society always but more originating from one’s lack of confidence) It does NOT allow us to do what we want to…

They say the gods of our ancestors follow us for as long as they live in our memories. So I’m not surprised when, in the course of fleeing the body of my dead husband, an Ifrit blocks the doorway…