Epic Games has pledged to pay out as much as $100 million for competitive Fortnite gaming over the 2018-2019 season, dishing out big prizes over the next year of competitive play. Epic hasn't yet revealed what kind of tournament structure or esports standards it will employ over that period, but we do know that it will be paying out big money.
Epic Games isn't the industry giant it once was, but having a massively successful game like Fortnite and the backing of one of the world's largest publishers, Tencent, seems to have made it confident of its future, with Epic clearly happy to set aside more than most game developers earn in their lifetimes, just for the next year.
When asked whether it would opt to follow competitive play models like those used by Valve or Riot Games, Epic said that it wanted to follow its own path.
"Our approach will be different," it said, via PCGamesN. "We plan to be more inclusive, and focused on the joy of playing and watching the game."
Tencent has previously announced that it would invest some $15 million in Chinese competitive play when the game launches in that territory, though $100 million is unprecedented in the industry. Where Valve drops more than $20 million at a time on The International, that is largely crowdsourced. Epic is clearly seeding a competitive scene and with that kind of money, will no doubt draw in some of the world's best gamers.
