Fortnite has quickly become one of the biggest stories in the gaming industry currently thanks to its Battle Royale mode. With all of the success, the weekly events, the new content it might seem like this was part of a very long, carefully executed plan, but turns out – that’s not the case at all. Epic Games has confirmed that the Fortnite Battle Royale development period lasted only two months before the mode’s launch. and what a successful launch it had.

A special session titled “Fortnite: An Unconventional Launch” was given at this week’s GDC  by Epic Games’s Ed Zobrist revealing interesting details about the launch of the title’s hit Battle Royale mode. During the panel, Zobrist stated that the Battle Royale mode was developed and released in just a two month period. “We started working on this just about the time Save the World was coming out,” Zobrist mentioned. “Two months in development, launched in September 26. So let’s do some math: Save the World, the PvE game, launched July 21. [Battle Royale] comes out September 26.”

While Zobrist was discussing the timetable, he also gave us some insight on how differently this could have all gone. One decision could have completely trashed any chance at success, nevermind the record breaking hype the title is currently experiencing. The decision in question is that Battle Royale was originally just going to be a part of the Save the World mode. This would have not made it its own entity and would have also stripped it of its free-to-play status. The original plan was to have the Battle Royale mode packed away behind a 40 dollar pay wall and only until the very last minute did they decide to make it its own mode and have that mode be the free-to-play option available today.

Be sure to stay tuned for the latest Fortnite news, such as Epic Game’s reasoning for removing friendly fire from Battle Royale mode, here on Don’t Feed the Gamers! Follow us on Twitter to see our updates the minute they go live!

Co-written in part by Cory Lara