Popular multiplayer game Fortnite is taking its Battle Royale mode to mobile devices

Hugely popular multiplayer game Fortnite is on the verge of taking its Battle Royale mode mobile, with an iOS test welcoming applicants from Monday, March 12, an Android version promised, and the promise of cross-platform multiplayer for mobile, PlayStation 4, and computers. [caption id=“attachment_4384053” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Fortnite Battle Royal[/caption] Originally an experiment to see whether the core, last-person-standing dynamics of March 2017 hit PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds could be replicated within fort-building, horde-repelling team game “Fortnite,” “Fortnite: Battle Royale” spun off as a free standalone in September of the same year. Now it’s coming to mobile, with developer Epic Games describing the handheld version as being “the same 100-player game you know from PlayStation 4, Xbox One, PC, and Mac.” From March 12, interested players will be able to sign up for an Invite Event at fortnite.com. “When you are invited, you will receive an email with a link to download the game from the App Store. If you don’t receive an invite right away, don’t worry,” Epic explained in a news post to fortnite.com. “We’ll be adding more players regularly over the coming months.” “Players who receive invites from Epic will also get friend invite codes to share with others.” The iOS version is being made for iOS 11 on an iPhone 6S/SE, iPad Mini 4, iPad Pro, iPad Air 2, iPad 2017, or better. Support for Android is coming “in the next few months,” Epic noted. Furthermore, Fortnite: Battle Royale will bring together players from across PlayStation 4, PC, Mac and mobile. The Xbox One is excluded from the list. Epic not only makes games but also an entire game development suite, the Unreal Engine, and has long had the ability to implement cross-platform play across multiple hardware configurations. It demonstrated as such, whether intentionally or not, midway through September 2017 at a time when the Fortnite Battle Royale mode was still exclusive to paying customers. Players on PlayStation, PC and Xbox found themselves in the same matches over the course of a weekend, though the feature was later deactivated; Xbox and PlayStation tend not to let their player populations mix. Chinese internet firm Tencent, which has a 40% stake in Epic, had previously agreed domestic distribution for not only PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds in China, but also two official mobile games which launched, in Chinese, in February 2018 for iOS and Android.