Tim Sweeney: the Guy who Created Fortnite and Revolutionized the Gaming Industry

Tim Sweeney might not be a household name yet, but he’s certainly one of the biggest influencers in modern gaming. At the young age of 20 years old, he founded Epic Games, better known as the company that created the massive online battle royale game ‘Fortnite’. Although Epic Games has been home to plenty of other video games including Gears of War, nothing has quite left a mark as Fortnite has.

The idea of making a booming business out of a basement might seem like a common fantasy, but Tim Sweeney managed to pull it off. Perhaps the main reason that Fortnite was such a massive success for Sweeney is due to the free-to-play model. While it might seem like ‘free’ means zero profits for the company, this business model actually brings in even more money than other pay-to-play games.

Why Tim Sweeney Opted for a Free to Play Model

The reason that free gaming has worked so well for Tim Sweeney is because of all of the in-game purchasable content. Fortnite allows you to buy character skins, new harvesting tools, gliders, and emotes. The biggest money pull for Fortnite is its famous Battle Pass. This pass contains upwards of 100 rewards for players to quickly earn throughout the course of a couple of months. What’s even better is the fact that it comes at a low cost of just under $10.00 USD.

Many people saw this as a risk, but it’s proven to be one of the most successful choices of Tim Sweeney’s career. Epic Games now ranks among the few gaming companies to pull in several billions of dollars each and every year. This has led to Mr. Sweeney becoming one of the richest gaming CEO’s on the planet, all from ‘free’ gaming!

How Did Tim Sweeney Find Success?

Working hard from a young age by copying his own gaming designs onto floppy disks is where Tim Sweeney started his journey. Shipping them through the mail to customers and gaming companies eventually made him want to create his own business. He spent most of his time producing more games, trying to find one that really hit the market with a storm. Gears of War was a massive success, which gave him a platform for more creativity.

Once millions of players began attaching themselves to Fortnite, celebrities and other stars streamed on the popular site Twitch. Exponential amounts of gamers flooded the free to play game in what seemed like a matter of weeks. Businessmen often recommend giving their best content away for free, and that’s exactly what Tim Sweeney did to find unimaginable success in only a few years.

These days, Tim Sweeney still works around the clock to improve the player experience across all of the company’s games. While each game gets his attention, it comes as no secret that Fortnite is the prized choice for new updates and constant advancements. It has become the centre of the gaming industry, leading dozens of other high-tier companies to offer free play styles with battle passes and other giveaways just as Fortnite does.

Tim Sweeney might always be known as the guy who invented Fortnite, but many others will recognize him as the mind who changed the face of the video gaming industry as a whole.