Fortnite is on a roll. And for the most part, Epic Games is continuing to bolster its flagship game with added support and a new program.
The company’s announced its bought game and player security firm Kamu, according to VentureBeat. The company, which was founded in 2013, runs the Easy Anti-Cheat service used across 80 games by 100 million users worldwide, and looks at providing community building, game security, game management, player satisfaction, and telemetry.
The acquisition also allows Epic to place a foothold in Finland, where Kamu is based in the capital of Helsinki, to attract engine, online technology service, and technology developers respectively.
Deal terms were not disclosed.
“Kamu’s team and tools have been key to building a vibrant Fortnite multiplayer experience that’s fair for all players,” said Epic Games CEO and founder Tim Sweeney. “Building and launching games today is incredibly challenging and only half the battle. Kamu’s tools for managing live games help developers grow and sustain their games successfully after launch. At Epic, we succeed when developers succeed.”
“Joining the Epic family is not only a childhood dream come true but a huge boost for our mission to help developers create beautiful gaming experiences,” added Kamu CEO Simon Allaeys. “Battling cheating in games was just the start; today our products also help developers stay competitive by identifying player needs as quickly as they emerge.”
Epic is also looking at ways to not only improve the security side of Fortnite and even the Unreal Engine, but to introduce new ways that help content creators.
It’s also announced a new, limited-time ‘Support-A-Creator’ feature for the game that will bring in a new revenue stream for content makers, according to GamesIndustry.Biz. For every 10,000 V-Bucks ($99.99 in real-world money) spent in-game, a certain amount of selected streamers will receive $5 in return.
Epic is currently soliciting applications for the program from Fortnite-specific content creators “large and small”, with requirements being that creators have made content in Fortnite in the past 30 days and that they have at least 1,000 followers on either Twitch or YouTube.
The program commences from the next update up through to December 31 of this year.
Content creators won’t be the only ones making money, though. According to a new report from analyst firm Sensor Tower, Epic is continuing its treasure bath, raking in $300 million on the iOS version alone since the game’s beta launch in March of this year.
The latest report mentions that 65 percent of that revenue came from within the United States alone, and that the game brought in $20 million from that $300 million number the week after Season 6 launched.
Fortnite has grossed 32 percent more than Supercell’s Clash Royale and more than twice as much as Tencent’s Honor of Kings from the Chinese App Store in its first 200 days. Clash Royale took 249 days to hit $300 million, while Honor of Kings took 316 days. But Fortnite isn’t the fastest grossing free-to-play game in the App Store. That honor belongs to Pokemon Go, which brought in $300 million in 113 days.
An average of $1.5 million is spent daily within Fortnite iOS and around $2.5 million has been spent since Season 6 launched.
Fortnite’s closest rival, PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds, has only grossed $47 million since it started taking in-app purchases for that game’s iOS version 173 days ago in mid-April.
With the addition of Kamu to help bolster security, an official creators program for content creators to make money off the game until the end of the year at least, and Epic continuing to bring in all the money in the world, the Fortnite juggernaut continues to roll on and doesn’t show any signs of slowing down anytime soon.
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