For years, music games like Guitar Hero and Rock Band captivated players worldwide, offering the thrill of performing hit songs with virtual instruments. Now, Epic Games, the powerhouse behind Fortnite, is stepping into the music arena with Fortnite Festival, a brand new game mode developed in collaboration with Harmonix, the creators of Guitar Hero and Rock Band themselves. This exciting launch promises to bring the rhythm-based gameplay familiar to Guitar Hero fans to the massive Fortnite universe.
The seeds for Fortnite Festival were arguably sown with events like Travis Scott’s groundbreaking virtual concert within Fortnite in April 2020. That event drew a staggering 12.3 million concurrent players, showcasing the immense potential for music experiences within the game. Despite the success of such events, Nate Nanzer, VP of partnerships for Epic Games, noted that music had been treated as occasional events rather than a core, ongoing feature. “We’ve done a concert here, and then a year-and-a-half later there’s another one. We haven’t had a persistent space to celebrate music before,” Nanzer explained.
Travis Scott
Fortnite Festival changes this paradigm by offering a dedicated, persistent space for music within Fortnite. Launched on Saturday, December 8th, it allows players to form bands with friends or play solo, performing popular songs on a variety of virtual instruments. Alex Rigopolous, co-founder and studio lead of Harmonix, emphasizes the scale of this new venture. “For almost 30 years now, we have been trying to invent new ways for people to experience music through gameplay,” he stated. “We never had an opportunity to do that on anything like the insane scale that Fortnite offers.” This collaboration brings Harmonix’s decades of expertise in music gaming, honed through titles like Guitar Hero, to the vast Fortnite player base, potentially creating a massive new platform for music engagement.
While Epic Games has previously explored music-related ventures, such as acquiring Bandcamp in 2022 (and subsequently selling it), Fortnite Festival represents a more direct and integrated approach to music within their flagship game. Tim Sweeney, CEO of Epic Games, highlighted the strategic shift towards creator content and revenue sharing as key drivers for Fortnite‘s growth. Fortnite Festival aligns with this strategy by offering a new avenue for user-generated content and community engagement around music.
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The core gameplay of Fortnite Festival will feel familiar to fans of Guitar Hero. Players can choose to drum, strum, sing, or play various other virtual instruments to over 30 initial songs, including hits like The Weeknd’s “Blinding Lights,” The Killers’ “Mr. Brightside,” and Psy’s “Gangnam Style.” Just like in Guitar Hero, brightly lit notes will appear on screen, guiding players on which buttons to press on their keyboard or console to play along to the music. Beyond the standard guitar and drums, players can also select vocals, bass, keytar, and more, offering a diverse range of musical roles within a band.
Epic Games has ambitious plans for Fortnite Festival, aiming to expand the song library to “hundreds” of tracks. Nanzer explained the business model: “There will be a rotation of songs that anyone can play for free. If there’s a song you really like and want to be able to play whenever you want, you can go buy that song“. This system allows players to sample a variety of music while also providing a revenue stream for music rights holders, who will share in the sales of songs within the game.
Initially, Fortnite Festival will focus on featuring well-known, chart-topping hits. Rigopolous acknowledged this, stating, “Most of the music in the game is going to be huge hit music, household names.” However, the long-term vision includes incorporating music from “lesser known artists who are cool and people should hear,” providing a platform for emerging talent to reach a massive audience. Nanzer added that they have already received numerous pitches from music labels, indicating strong industry interest in leveraging Fortnite Festival as a promotional and engagement tool. Ultimately, Fortnite Festival aims to become a significant opportunity for the music industry to connect with a vast gaming audience in unprecedented ways, bringing the engaging gameplay of Guitar Hero into the Fortnite universe.
