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Epic Games Shifting Dev Resources From Paragon Over To Fortnite

Things aren't looking good for Epic's MOBA, but it's not Para-gone just yet. 

Blake Morse

January 18, 2018 4:17 PM

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Going with what works is not a new concept. When people see one thing succeeding and another effort faltering, it's not unusual to shift focus away from the latter. While Paragon has been a mild success for Epic Games, the free-to-play MOBA has struggled to find mainstream popularity. In the meantime, Fortnite has been exceeding their wildest expectations.

It seems Epic was not ready for the 40 million fans that have downloaded the free-to-play beta of Fortnite's Battle Royale mode. As a result, some development team members have made the jump from working on Paragon to helping out the Fortnite staff. 

Epic took to Reddit to offer some transparency on the situation: "Work on Paragon continues. V.45 ships this week with both Hero and Card balance as well as stability improvements."

"However, progress has been slower lately for two reasons: First, the team’s time is split between immediate improvements and longer-term efforts, so there’s less visible progress. Second, a number of Paragon team members jumped onto Fortnite to help sustain the game as it has grown far larger than anything in Epic’s past."

Epic went on to explain that they haven't given up on Paragon just yet, but the future does not sound promising at this time: "We’re talking about the future of Paragon in pretty much the same terms as you’re talking about it. The core challenge is that, of new players who try Paragon, only a small number continue to play regularly after a month. Though Paragon has evolved, no iteration has yet achieved that magical combination of ingredients that make for a sustainable game."

"Over the next few weeks, we’ll be figuring out if and how we can evolve Paragon to achieve growth and success, and trying some things internally. In the meantime, Paragon’s release cadence will be slower."

Fortnite's latest map patch for Battle Royale mode went live today. Paragon's V.45 update is set for launch this week as well. 

Blake Morse

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Blake has been writing and making videos about pop-culture and games for over 10 years now. Although he'd probably prefer you thought of him as a musician and listened to his band, www.cartoonviolencemusic.com. If you see him on the street, buy him a taco or something. Follow him on twitter @ProfRobot