Fortnite creators are making studios to build ambitious — and branded — worlds
Last year, Fortnite developer Epic Games launched a big partnership with high fashion house Balenciaga. In addition to a collection of skins decked out in Balenciaga gear available to purchase, Epic also promoted a Balenciaga-themed zone players could visit. It looked like a virtual city square dropped into Fortnite, but at the heart was a recreation of a Balenciaga retail store.
It’s an impressive world, and feels almost like something plucked from the Fortnite battle royale island. But it was actually made by just three creators who are full-time Fortnite Creative experts that have formed their own company to build in-game worlds for brands.
“The fact that I can build games now with a team of almost 10, and we all do it for a living, I think that’s pretty impressive,” Kasper Weber, a Fortnite creator, said in an interview with The Verge. “I don’t think my parents would ever think that would be a thing.”
Weber is a co-founder and CEO of the company Beyond Creative. “Beyond builds unique experiences within Fortnite,” the company says on its website. “We bring our clients’ ideas to life using the powerful Fortnite Creative platform.” The company lists an impressive selection of clients including Verizon, the NFL, Nvidia, AMD, and even Chipotle.
Beyond Creative isn’t the only company doing this kind of work. I talked with three other groups of people working in full-time remote teams making branded Fortnite Creative worlds. TeamUnite is responsible for an entire in-Fortnite RPG based on the movie The Northman. Alliance Studios has worked on Grubhub and Tomb Raider-themed worlds, among others. Zen Creative worked with other creators on a recent concert starring Brazilian rapper Emicida, which took place in a series of
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