Former Epic Games Developer Says He Tried To Cancel The Launch Of ‘Fortnite’

Fortnite‘s developer Epic Games has been one of the most successful game companies of the last few years thanks to Fortnite. The battle royale game was the first of its kind on consoles to have major success. But there wasn’t always a clear vision for it. Former production director Rod Fergusson says that he tried to cancel it in its alpha and beta development stages.

“If I stayed at Epic, I would have canceled Fortnite,” Fergusson said, according to Game Informer. “Before I left, I tried to cancel Fortnite. When it was Save The World, that was a project that had some challenges.”

Save the World is another mode in the Fornite system where it’s a PvE type mode where you fight off waves of zombies in a co-op type mode. Save the World is based off another Epic Games project, Gears of Wars‘ horde mode. The two are practically identical in terms of the aspect of the game. Save the World was Epic Games’ only mode in Fortnite until they added a battle royale mode that really kicked off their success.

Fergusson is now the head developer at the Gears of War tent.

“As the director of production at the time, that game would not have passed my bar for something we should have continued to keep going,” Fegusson said, according to Game Informer. “That game you love, the worldwide sensation, would not exist had I stayed at Epic.”

Fergusson later revealed he isn’t bothered by the success of Fornite and its major popularity, but rather says that he is happy for Epic’s success with the game. While he isn’t with the Fortnite team, Fergusson is currently working on a former Epic project that has since moved to the development of a new team. Fergusson displayed a new Gears title with The Coalition, Gears of War 5 at this year’s E3, which showed that The Terminator will be in the newest installment of the game.