Fortnite Festival was released earlier this month at the start of Chapter 5 Season 1 along with Rocket Racing and LEGO Fortnite, completely overhauling the game as we know it, taking it beyond the popular Battle Royale mode. Over a decade after the rhythm-music genre left the mainstream and millions of plastic instruments were left to gather dust, Harmonix has now set its sights on reviving the genre by bringing the classic Guitar Hero and Rock Band gameplay to an audience of hundreds of millions of players.
During an interview with Game Informer, the head of Harmonix, Alex Rigopolous, discussed the future plans for Fortnite Festival and where the mode will be heading within the next year and beyond.
Like the Item Shop, Fortnite Festival has an ever-rotating selection of songs that players can jam out to for free each day, with the option to then purchase them to keep forever. So far, artists such as Kendrick Lamar, Weezer, The Killers, and The White Stripes have been added to the game, but Harmonix isn’t ending there. Alex Rigopolous has revealed that Fortnite Festival will continue to see new songs released weekly, to add over 100 songs per year to meet the long-term goal of thousands of playable songs in the mode.
“We do plan to be rolling out hopefully many hundreds of songs a year, growing to a library of thousands over time. The big difference now – this music will be free to play. We’re going to be releasing new songs every week into the game – top-shelf hit music that is completely free to play, which has just basically never really been done before.”
Recently, PDP Gaming teased that new instruments are in the works and could be released as early as January 2024, marking the first time since 2017 that a peripheral manufacturer has made instruments. It was also recently revealed that instrument support is in the works for Fortnite Festival, with unique instrument charts being found in the files including drum charts. However, Alex Rigopolous noted that any instruments being produced weren’t in official collaboration with Epic Games and would instead be a third-party project, which is still exciting as this could help to bring many new players to fan-made titles such as Clone Hero and YARG.
“We don’t have plans to manufacture new ones. Epic has never done hardware. And I don’t think we plan to. But there are plenty of companies that do, and suddenly, for the first time in a decade, there’s a reason for them to make peripherals again.”
But, if you don’t want to buy a new instrument and happen to still have an old Guitar Hero or Rock Band guitar gathering dust in the corner of your room like I do, you will soon be able to use them on Fortnite Festival, I knew holding onto it for years would finally pay off.
“The intent is to support as many legacy peripherals as we possibly can.”
With new songs being added every week, it shouldn’t be too long until we finally see some of the previously leaked songs including Linkin Park’s Numb, and Evanescence’s Bring Me To Life. It seems a natural fit that songs such as Metallica’s Master Of Puppets will come to Fortnite Festival, especially considering it has been used as an emote in the game already. But, Harmonix could be holding off releasing faster and more complex songs until instrument support is added as playing an eight-minute song full of fast riffs and shredding could be incredibly difficult to play on a controller or keyboard.
Fortnite Festival will also see UEFN support in 2024, allowing players to create their own experiences, which could include custom songs and maps, as well as adding the mechanics into different styles of modes such as a rhythm-based shooter, fighting, or racing mode.
For more Insider Gaming, check out the news that The Finals already has over 10 million players.
