Fortnite Ballistic is the new product from Epic Games, and one of the biggest changes to the original Fortnite battle royale game in years. The title is a first-person shooter (FPS), which is a big step away from the ever-present third-person action of the original Fortnite. Besides that, Ballistic was created as a round-based 5-vs-5 competitive game, where both teams have distinct objectives.
Between the rounds, players generate and spend funds on gear and equipment, as they slowly build towards the ultimate team victory or loss. The game entered its Early Access stage on December 11, 2024, following a short but very intense promotional campaign, including a widely-shared trailer on social media.
Ballistic is again putting the wider Fortnite game in the global spotlight, and it also expands its basic shooter appeal to a whole new audience of tactical FPS fans. Ballistic also promotes the Fortnite Creative and UEFN modes that are fully grounded in the first-person perspective. These could help the publishing ecosystem in 2025 and perhaps entice more shooter players to enter it. Having in mind the size of the multiplayer shooter audience on a global level, that influx could provide Epic Games its first big leverage over its main competitors - Minecraft and Roblox.
Ballistic represents a big shift from the battle royale key gameplay mechanics that allowed the original Fortnite to become so popular. Besides the first-person camera, Ballistic will focus, according to its creators, on a combination of the right strategies, teamwork that is tactically relevant (continuous during the rounds and between them) and of course, individual prowess.
In the game, teams will compete as the Attackers and the Defenders. The attackers have the task of planting a Rift Point Device, while the defenders try to stop them from doing so. The roles then switch, and all the while, players earn credits from kills and other in-match achievements, which are then spent to gear up for the next round.
All of this looks and feels almost identical to the setup of Counter-Strike games, including both CS2 and CS:GO. Ballistic includes all of the tactical shooter essentials and feels very much like a Counter-Strike game, especially when it comes to the management of purchases on the team level between the rounds. However, the variability of the game’s engine and its UGC space is also present in the Early Access version.
One of the key features that Ballistic offers (which isn't present in CS games), is what the developers call "Flex Gadgets". These will offer things like mines, shields, reconnaissance tools, and items that impact the physics of the level, like throwing both allies and enemies into the air. Each player will be able to have up to two of these in their inventory. From the Flex Gadgets, it is clear that the developers of Ballistic thought about expanding the CS:GO offer and are trying to make their game feel more unique.
At the same time, the presence of these items will easily allow for their expansion and subsequent evolution, if they are well-received by the gaming community. This can become one of the key tools for the UGC creators in this niche. With a familiar core gameplay look, tactical shooters could be modified in a range of ways that ultimately can turn into user-generated gaming hits on their own.
The development of Ballistic did not take place in an isolated corner of Epic Games’ projects. For more than a year, both Fortnite Creative and UEFN have been introducing camera devices and changes to the pre-set third-person perspective of Fortnite. So far, the UGC space has also already seen big and insanely successful creations in this first-person action space.
For example, the FPS CAM 1 UEFN-made map, created by the prolific UGC creator JSFILMZ, focuses on a first-person perspective and a high level of realism. It came out on June 10th, 2024, and so far made around 40,000 USD. The creator's library of Fortnite Creative games saw nearly 69 million minutes of gameplay and an estimated revenue of nearly 60,000 USD. If Ballistic becomes more popular and manages to pull players from the Counter-Strike space, these scenarios will become more common. Still, they also need to pull players from games like Valorant, Warzone, and many other widely-played FPS competitive titles, in order to establish the game as a success.
