Fortnite officially announced at the VGAs

t he story of Fortnite begins in a moment of optimism. Epic had just closed the book on

GearsofWar3, wrapping up the most profitable period of the company. They were to chart a new path with a cartoony, Minecraft- lite co-op shooter called Fortnite (then styled FORTnITE). It was announced via a teaser at the 2011 Video Game Awards.

Cliff Bleszinski took to the stage: “We’ve had amazing success with games like GearsofWar and InfinityBlade this year, but we decided it was time to switch things up a little bit and do something different and fun. Imagine a world where you explore, you scavenge, you build and ultimately you survive.”

In 2017, creative lead Donald Mustard told Ars Technica that the VGAs unveiling was orchestrated only three weeks after Epic came up with the design doc. Fortnite wasn’t a game, or even a proof of concept, when Epic told us they were making it, which became increasingly apparent as the delays piled on.