Epic Games has officially announced that it is bringing Fortnite Battle Royale to mobile. Starting Monday, March 12, you can sign up for an invite event for iOS, though sadly support for Android is slated for release in "the next few months." What is impressive though, is that this mobile version is planned to exist right alongside the PC and console releases, as it will include the exact same content and update schedule. Even more excitingly, it will support cross-play and cross-progression between PlayStation 4, PC, Mac, iOS, and eventually Android. While it does suck that Android is always treated as the redheaded stepchild of mobile, at least we know a release is planned.

So despite a delayed release for Android, it would appear that Epic Games is indeed invested in bringing their battle royale third-person shooter to mobile. Considering that another competitor in the battle royale genre, PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds, is making waves in China with a few different beta releases on Android, it makes sense that Epic Games would be in a pretty big rush to get Fortnite Battle Royale ported over sooner, rather than later.

Details are still pretty light, but if the developers actually succeed in releasing this game in a state comparable to the PC and console versions, then we can probably assume what type of monetization it will use. As it currently stands the battle royale section of the game is free-to-play, though it doesn't utilize any loot boxes and instead takes advantage of an optional subscription-like Battle Pass system that gives players a chance to earn cosmetic rewards in exchange for leveling up and completing challenges. So if the mobile version retains the same type of monetization, it should offer something a little different than the majority of FTP games on the Play Store.

One thing I am left wondering about is how the developers will tackle the controls. If the game is going to support cross-play with the PS4 and PC, players on a touchscreen device are probably going to have a tough time competing. I would hope that controller support will be baked in upon its release. But I guess we will just have to wait and see about that.

So yeah, there you have it. Fortnite Battle Royale is coming to Android sometime in the next few months. With the current popularity of the battle royale genre, I have to wonder how many games of this nature we really need before people get sick of it. While it's nice to see some of the more popular names in the genre concentrating their efforts on our OS, I just hope that the gameplay of these titles can work just as well on a touchscreen as it does when playing on a system that supports controllers or a mouse and keyboard. So at this time, I am going to remain skeptical about how this upcoming release will turn out, at least until more info comes to light. But what do you think: are people going to burn out on this genre before it catches its stride on our OS, or is this merely a case of the more, the merrier?

Source: Epic Games