Epic announces Fortnite Battle Royale mobile port

Epic Games has announced the impending launch of Fortnite Battle Royale on mobile devices, starting next week with a limited roll-out to selected iOS 11 devices.

Launched as a standalone spin-off of the co-operative sandbox survival title Fortnite, co-developed by Epic Games and People Can Fly, Fortnite Battle Royale capitalised on the success of PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds with a very familiar formula: all-for-one combat with up to 100 players at a time, battling in an ever-decreasing playfield. Its success was immediate: Released under a free-to-play model, the Battle Royale variant of Fortnite reached ten million players just two weeks post-launch - and now Epic is looking to boost those numbers still further with a mobile port.

'On phones and tablets, Fortnite is the same 100-player game you know from PlayStation 4, Xbox One, PC, and Mac. Same gameplay, same map, same content, same weekly updates,' pledged the development team in the official announcement. 'In partnership with our friends at Sony, Fortnite Battle Royale will support Cross Play and Cross Progression between PlayStation 4, PC, Mac, iOS and eventually Android. This means players across devices can squad up with friends and play together. We believe this is the future of games. The same game on all platforms. Console quality graphics and action. Play when you want, where you want.'

The mobile launch will begin, Epic has confirmed, this coming Monday via an 'Invite Event'. Those signing up on the official website will be entered into a list from which selected numbers will receive a download link for the game, along with codes to invite friends to download the title too. This slow roll-out will take place over the coming months, the company has admitted, suggesting that it will be taking things slowly at first to ensure the launch goes as smoothly as possible.

Initially, the game will support iOS 11 running on a minimum of an iPhone 6S/SE, iPad Mini 4, iPad Pro, iPad Air 2, or any 2017-era iPad. An Android launch has been promised, but with a vague schedule of 'the next few months'.