Kevin Reed | Entertainment Editor

Thanks to the huge success of Fortnight and “PlayerUnkown’s Battlegrounds” — or “PUBG” — similar video games have been coming out and trying to recreate their success. All of these games have brought new life to the battle royale genre. So why are these games so popular across all gaming platforms?

The basic concept of a battle royale-style title is this: a large number of players are dropped into a large map and the last player standing is victorious. The concept is a lot like “The Hunger Games” in a video game. Players have to loot and pillage the map for randomized weapons and items. To ensure that the game doesn’t last indefinitely, the map will shrink as the game progresses. Over the course of a single match usually a safe zone will appear and all players have to move into that safe zone — this will happen periodically until the remaining players have nowhere to hide from each other. Vehicles are important in battle royale titles and can make the difference between players getting in the top five or not. However, some recent games don’t currently have vehicles like “Fortnight.” However in titles like “H1Z1” and “PUBG” vehicles are a major part of the games play-style. Other game mechanics like crafting, building and hunger depend on the title.

A Japanese book, “Battle Royale” by Koushun Takami, actually helped inspired all modern battle royale games. In the novel, 42 high school students are taken to a deserted island and forced to fight to the death. “The Hunger Games” by Suzanne Collins also contributed to the original idea that started the whole genre.

Back in 2013, a mod was made of “ARMA: 2” called “DayZ,” where players tried to survive in a zombie apocalypse situation. This mod was important and eventually became its own standalone game. After Suzanne Collins’s novel became popular, developers decided to remove the zombies and make a game mode for “DayZ” where players fought themselves instead of the undead.

The next big game to come out for the genre was a game made by Daybreak Game Company called “H1Z1.” The game didn’t fully release until February 2017, but was in Steam Early Access long before that. With a massive 150-person lobby, games were hard fought and very long. “H1Z1” caught the eye of Twitch streamers and YouTube stars alike and the community around this game grew massively. In the past “DayZ” had been streamed but never caught this level of popularity. Many game developer companies saw this success and tried to replicate it in their own games by creating battle royale game modes. Titles like “Minecraft,” “Ark: Survival Evolved,” “Grand Theft Auto Online” and “Paladins” created battle royale style game modes. Then new standalone games started getting released.

Currently, all around the gaming community, battle royale games are booming. “Fortnight” and “PUBG” are massively popular and new games are sprouting up more and more. The whole structure of video games is based around risk and reward. In battle royale games you need a combination of luck, strategy and skill to be able to win a round.

Winning in other video game genres comes and goes frequently, except for professional players; winning in this genre is rare. Every decision is a risk and a chance you have to take whether it’s picking a place to drop in, which weapon to use, or what vehicle to use. It’s this high-risk scenario that immerses gamers and makes them love these games even more. Battle royale games have been in the backseat of gaming for years but now they are taking the community by storm in a big way.

Contact the author at kreed17@wou.edu

Photo by: Playbattlegrounds.com, Bohemia.net, H1z1.com