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Why is Fortnite called Fortnite?
- It’s not been confirmed yet by Epic Games
- The most popular theory comes from a play on the words ‘fort’, ‘night’ and ‘fortnight’
- This theory relates to Fortnite being a PvE game early in development
Since it first released way back in 2017, Fortnite has become one of, if not the most popular game in the world. It consistently rakes in millions of players and every new update is like an event online, so it’s safe to say that it’s a pretty iconic name in gaming by now.
And you’ve probably wondered to yourself at one point or another, what exactly does Fortnite mean? For a lot of games, it’s pretty clear what the name refers to, whether that’s a specific thing in-game or just a concept that the game is centred around. So if you want to find out, we’ve put together this quick guide.
Where does the name Fortnite come from?
The name Fortnite comes from a few different sources. Firstly, it’s obviously a play on the word ‘fortnight’, meaning a period of two weeks (we’ll come back to that later). Secondly, it’s a play on the words ‘fort’ and ‘night’, which were originally conceived to be major concepts in the game during its early development.
Before becoming the battle royale it is today, Fortnite was initially supposed to be a PvE shooter in which players would take on hordes of enemies, similar to something like Left 4 Dead or Killing Floor.
Allegedly, in this version of Fortnite, players would be tasked with building a fort to take cover in and defend from the zombie invaders that would attack at night – thus, forts and nights are both key concepts in the game.
It has also been reported that sessions of the game would take place over a period of two weeks, requiring players to build and defend their bases for a fortnight in game. As such, with forts, nights, and fortnights all involved, all they needed to do was change up the spelling a bit and ‘Fortnite’ as a name was born.
It’s never been completely confirmed by Epic Games whether these are the actual reasons behind the name Fortnite. However, it all seems to add up, and is the generally accepted theory among most players, so until Epic confirm the real etymology, this is as good as we’ve got.
