With Fortnite heading into its highly anticipated Season 8, developers at Epic Games appear to have copied one of Apex Legends’ best features. It’s close at the top, but with Apex Legends growing at an exponential rate, the battle royale brawler is coming for Fortnite’s crown.
Epic Games just dropped the expansive Season 8 of Fortnite, which came with plenty of changes. As well as plundering pirates and a lava-spewing volcano, Fortnite has introduced a ping feature. Over on Respawn Entertainment’s Apex Legends, pinging important locations, loot, or nearby enemies has become a popular way of communicating without spamming a microphone.
Getting to grips with the new season of Fortnite, players can now press the middle mouse button (PC), left bumper (Xbox One), L1 (PS4), or L (Switch) to mark points on the map. It’s a handy addition to have in the middle of a map if gamers need their squad to know where something is. Pressing the button once will create a ping, while a second tap will highlight a nearby enemy with a red marker. The idea is so useful, it’s a wonder that Epic Games hasn’t introduced it earlier.
Although Fortnite’s ping system is nowhere as in-depth as Apex Legends, it doesn’t really need to be. While the big pull of Fortnite is to go it alone to be last player standing, Apex Legends relies on putting gamers into squads and working together. Ironically, Apex Legends’ team mentality has led to one of the game’s most annoying problems as teammates horde weapons and ammo. Ultimately, Apex Legends is still in its early stages but growing a lot faster than Fortnite is, so it will be interesting to see if any other features appear in both games.
Remembering back to last year, there was a brutal legal battle between PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds and Fortnite, where Epic Games’ title was accused of ripping off PUBG. Whether Respawn Entertainment would have a case against Epic Games remains to be seen, but the timing is a little suspect. Admittedly, Epic Games could’ve been working on its own ping feature before Apex Legend released in February, but it raises a few questions.
Considering Apex Legends is all anyone is talking about right now, it makes sense that Fortnite ‘borrows’ some of the game’s best features. Elsewhere, Fortnite has clearly spotted the competition and finally introduced a free Battle Pass for completing in-game objectives. It’s been a long time coming, but Fortnite Season 8 is finally moving with the times to compete with its up-and-coming competitor.
