Esports and content organisation 100 Thieves has announced Bank Heist, a custom game for Fortnite that has been built using the Unreal Editor for Fortnite.
Bank Heist is the first-ever game project from 100 Thieves, which has previously spoken about its intentions to develop a fully independent game. Bank Heist is not that, but is the company’s first foray into the world of game development, making use of the Unreal Editor for Fortnite which allows people to directly publish new experiences into the battle royale sensation.
The new game mode features two teams battling it out to attack and defend a bank. The attackers need to get in, take the loot and get out on a helicopter, while the defenders have to stop them and delay them as long as possible. It’s not the most imaginative concept in the world, but it does take Fortnite in a more competitive, fast-paced direction that is closer to the likes of Call of Duty than the traditional battle royale experience.
Some of 100 Theives’ top creators such as Matthew “Nadeshot” Haag, Rachell “Valkyrae” Hofstetter, and Jack “CouRage” Dunlop gave their advice to the team during development with the latter two even featuring as narrators.
Bank Heist is set to launch on all compatible Fortnite platforms tomorrow, July 11 and will be available to play for free.
For 100 Thieves, this is just the start of their plans for creating games and experiences. While they still plan to develop their independent title Project X, using the Unreal Editor for Fortnite seems like the perfect way to engage their community and is an area they will be looking to utilize for a while.
“This is a new platform with tens of millions of users. So, it offers a complete reset of the existing competitive landscape,” said John Robinson, President & COO of 100 Thieves. “The advantages of incumbent publishers such as IP, massive development teams, and $100M+ marketing budgets are largely neutralized on new platforms. Major publishers didn’t figure out mobile until after successful players like Rovio with Angry Birds and Supercell with Clash of Clans emerged. And, we think UEFN could offer the same opportunity.”
They of course also hope to make some money off it, with Epic Games announcing a revenue share with developers of experiences with the EUFN earlier this year. With the marketing power 100 Thieves and their influencers have, it would not be a surprise to see Bank Heist sit at the top of the charts and therefore take a lot of cash from the revenue share.
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