As you level up your battle pass in the most recent season of Fortnite, you and your team must defend yourselves against insectoid alien adversaries known as Bugs. If that sounds familiar, you’re not the only one.
The creator of Helldivers 2, another shooter in which you team up against insectoid alien adversaries known as Bugs, Arrowhead Game Studios, has now addressed the similarities and implied that copying is flattering.
On the game’s Discord (thanks, Videogamer), community manager Katherine Baskin said, “Hmmm… it’s giving ‘we have Helldivers at home,'” before saying, “I’m not worried.”
“Fortnite is Fortnite, Helldivers is Helldivers,” Baskin went on. “It’s awesome if the titans of video game drip believe our drip is cool enough to… motivate them. However, there is no greater contrast between our games. The king’s table is open to all of us.
In response to a question about his impressions, Arrowhead CEO Shams Jorjani only said that the latest season of Fortnite “feels very democratic,” alluding to Helldivers’ setting in the ‘Great Democratization,’ a period of human expansion into space.
In actuality, Fortnite has already riffed on a large number of different video games, films, and genres; there is hardly anything that it hasn’t either included in its version or worked with others to do. Because it’s Fortnite, the latest season of its popular battle royale also features Spartan soldiers from Halo, the Power Rangers, and a humanoid panda.
The new gameplay seems to be positively received so far, at least. Since gamers started invading Fortnite last week, they have now eliminated over 250 million bugs, according to developer Epic Games. According to reports, Fortnite’s next developments will include pet-like companions, such as a turtle that can skateboard.
