Did you know that the widely popular and free to play game, “Fortnite”, has brought in over $1 billion for the development team at “Epic Games” in just over 1 year? The Sterling sought to find out why Fortnite gained such popularity, and what is in store for the game’s future by asking staff and students what their take is on the subject.

          Fortnite was developed by the development team known as “Epic games” and according to CNBC.com, Fortnite and its development team celebrated the game’s first birthday on July 24, 2018. According to Businessinsider.com, in the month of  May alone, Fortnite made more than $300 million , proving how widely popular the game really is. To go along with that fact, Time.com reported that about 70% of the player base has spent on average $85 on in-game cosmetics.

          Senior Ashley Ortiz, who isn’t the biggest of gamers, was asked if she had ever heard of the game before. She remarked, “Yes, I’m sure everyone at this point has heard of Fortnite at least once.” When The Sterling informed Ms. Ortiz that out of the 70% total gamers that have spent money on the game have also, on average, spent about $85 in total on purely cosmetic items, she stated, “I think it’s dumb that that many people could accumulate so much money over just some skin.” The Sterling wanted to hear from a member from the active Fortnite community, so we asked Senior student Angel Romero what he thought about the video game. When asked whether or not he takes the game seriously, he responded, “During the summer I took the game very serious but now with school in session I just play casually.” Another student, Senior Adrian Cassimiro, is also a big gamer and the Sterling decided to ask him some questions. We asked if he has made any new friends from the video game, and he stated that he has “made a couple of friends” purely because of Fortnite, including the author of this article, Kevin Abraham.

      Although Fortnite appeals to a younger demographic, what does an older person think about the game and its impact? To answer this question, we decided to ask Niles West High School Teacher of Orchestra,

Mr. Thomas Chester. We asked Mr. Chester how much time a parent should allow their kid to play fortnite a week, in which he sternly replied, “The amount of time the kid practices on their instrument at home.” We then asked him about his thoughts on paid Fortnite tutors. He believes it is “idiotic” that parents would rather pay tutors for video games, but wouldn’t “cough up $10 dollars for a tutoring lesson once a week to improve their kid’s instrumental playing.”

Overall, opinions on the video game “Fortnite” vary from person to person, whether you’re asking a high school teacher or a teenage gamer. However, it is very evident that the video game has had a huge impact on our society, both gaming and non-gaming.