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{Game On} Can Fortnite Fill the PUBG Mobile Void? GE Thinks So

Fortnite has always been in the news, whether it’s for hosting the US$30 million World Cup last year where Kyle ‘Bugha’ Giersdorf won US$3 million at the age of 16, or having more than 350 million users, or turning in US$3 billion in profit last year, or going up head to head against Apple and Google in court for monopolizing the App Store Marketplace.

Fornite, though wildly popular across the globe, hasn’t really hit it big in India with more than a 100 million Indians flocking to PUBG Mobile as their game of choice. However, the recent PUBG Mobile ban in India has left a void in the sports market in the country, a void that Fortnite can fill.

Recognizing this potential, Global Esports, the Asian esports organization, is setting the stage and pushing for a comeback of this much loved game to the Indian gaming scene, which was earlier primarily dominated by PUBG.

“The aim is to give the community exactly what they have wanted for the last 18 months, an opportunity. The Fortnite scene in India has been steadily growing but has been heavily ignored by tournament organizers and esports organizers. We hope to bridge that gap by hosting regular scrims, customs, tournaments and provide talented players with an opportunity to sign with GE and represent us at an International level,” said MD and Founder of GE, Mohit Israney.

Games Scrims and Tournaments

GE has started making a market push to engage the hundreds of thousands of users currently playing the game in India but don’t know where to go for more. The company is hosting regular, custom games, scrims, where pro teams can train for tournaments, as well as tournaments.

The Fortnite scene in India has been steadily growing but has been heavily ignored by tournament organizers and esports organizers. We hope to bridge that gap

Last weekend, it hosted the Global Esports Fortnite Invitational which had over 77 teams of 3 (trios), which registered and participated for a prize pool of US$200. Although the prize pool was not very large, the fact that the Indian Fortnite competitive scene is now getting the support that it needs to give Indian gamers the opportunity to shine and provide a competitive environment along with an ecosystem and a platform for them to both grow and showcase their skills, was welcomed by the Fortnite community of India.

With the aim of making this a regular feat they´ve launched their dedicated YouTube Channel and and creating a discord community.

“We have done this before with our Korean Fortnite roster and trained them and provided them with the infrastructure to grow and perform in, which is what led us to break the Fortnite World Record last year at the Fortnite World Cup Qualifiers and honing some of the best Fortnite Players in Asia over the last 2 years who have competed at prestigious events like Korea Open 2018 & Australia Open 2019 and grabbing the top spots at these events. We’re hoping to take all our experience and put it into practice to have home grown talent from India as well.” said Dr. Rushindra Sinha, CEO and Founder of GE.

Fortnite: A Game with Market Potential

Fortnite’s potential lies in its fun Disney-like cartoon animations, clown, and balloons. Their recent integration with Marvel has added many favourite superheroes to the game. Epic Games’ Unreal game engine has been a popular platform for hundreds of thousands of game studios to build their games upon. Not just games, even movies; Star Wars Mandalorian was completely produced using the unreal engine.

This active push by GE might be exactly what Fortnite needs to get into the limelight in a country like India, where millions of gamers are eager to jump on to the next big thing.

Global Esports

Founded by Dr. Rushindra Sinha and Mohit Israney, GE features six teams across the globe across various gaming titles. The company raised funding from Venture Catalysts last year.

Having been closely involved in the esports ecosystem in Asia for the last two years, the company has created two fully equipped training facilities based out of Seoul (South Korea) and Mumbai (India) and are home to some of the biggest esports talent to have been produced from Asia.

It owns teams, creates content, organizes tournaments and hosts events online and offline and sells merchandise. Its team comprises more than 75 people including teams, managers, coaches, support staff and the management team.

A strong presence in the Asian esports market serves as the strength for GE, as it is home to over 50% esports players out of 2.5 billion across the globe and 51% of the 500 million global esports audience. In under a year of inception, the company has gained 12 esports teams spread across nine game titles with players from over 12 countries. They own and manage pro tier teams in games like Fortnite, Overwatch, CS:GO, Dota 2, PUBG, PUBG Mobile, Rainbow Six Siege, Apex Legends, League of Legends etc. With their newly launched Streamer Program, GE is expanding their reach to gamers around the globe with content as their base.

Navanwita Bora Sachdev

Navanwita is the editor of The Tech Panda who also frequently publishes stories in news outlets such as The Indian Express, Entrepreneur India, and The Business Standard