Lego Fortnite, a new "survival crafting game", was launched today by Epic Games in partnership with the Danish plastic bricks colossus.
The game requires players to gather resources to craft shelters, tools and weapons to survive the elements and battle weird-looking creatures in a series of vast online worlds.
It sounds a lot like Minecraft to anyone with children of a certain age, while the "survival crafting" genre has grown in popularity in recent years, with titles such as Valheim, Ark: Survival Evolved, Grounded and Raft, while some of the games within the Roblox universe have similarities.
Fortnite, which has imprinted itself on the Gen Z zeitgeist and generated revenue of over US$26 billion to date, currently has around 400 million registered users and around 220 million active players, with various game modes.
In the most popular game mode, Battle Royale, players log on and shoot the living hell out of each other, in solo, duo or squad formations.
According to Lego's parent's guide, the new Lego mode is generally a lot more peaceful as well as adding Lego’s "iconic minifigures as Lego style outfits, bricks and elements" and is rated for players aged 10 and above by ESRB.
Wake up, new game just dropped!
Build, explore, and squad up for a new survival crafting game inside Fortnite! #LEGOFortnite pic.twitter.com/e1nPcWhPXB
— LEGO Fortnite (@LEGOFortnite) December 7, 2023
Like Minecraft, there is the 'survival' mode or a safer 'sandbox' mode.
"Some players will prefer to focus on adventure, harvesting elements to craft the best weapons and teaming up to explore dark and mysterious caves full of loot and enemies and tackling epic boss battles," Lego says. "Other players may focus on founding, building, expanding and leveling up villages, inviting visiting villagers to move in, assigning them jobs and working together to tame their wild world. Still other players can specialize in building, preferring the simple pleasures of constructing their own Lego creations and populating the world with prefab creations that snap together seamlessly."
Epic and Lego are working together as part of a long-term partnership agreed last year to develop "fun and safe digital spaces for children and families".
As part of the agreement, Kirkbi, the family company that controls the Lego Group, invested US$1 billion in Epic.
Epic is also launching two other games this month.
Rocket Racing is a supersonic arcade racer made by subsidiary Psyonix, which made the hit game Rocket League.
Fortnite Festival, its first music game, was developed with Rock Band maker Harmonix, allowing players to play in a band or perform solo on stage with music by their favourite artists.