A lot is riding on TENET, the next movie from Christopher Nolan, because it's the first big budget major studio movie that will open in theaters after the lockdown is eased, in mid-July -- meaning its success or failure at the box office will greatly shape the future of the film industry. So it's also notable that the world premiere for its next trailer will be in a virtual world: Today at 5pm PT in Party Royale.
As the name suggests, Party Royale is the new, non-violent virtual world expansion for Fortnite Battle Royale:
Shows at the Main Stage are just some of the many attractions at Party Royale. In this new experimental and evolving space, there are many things to do and places to explore. For example: take on aerial obstacle courses at Skydive Rift, participate in boat races at Fishsticks’ Boat Race, and grab items at The Plaza such as the new Paint Launcher. There are no weapons or mats in Party Royale — it’s all about just hanging out and having fun. No Sweat. All Chill. Let’s Party!
Let's all watch the trailer to Party Royale before watching the trailer to TENET in Party Royale:
Looks fun, if fairly bland. Biggest surprise to me is there's nothing about building tools, even though those are key to virtual worlds and to Fortnite Battle Royale. But we will be seeing more of Party Royale in the future. Even non-gaming virtual world blogger Ryan Schultz is convinced it's going to be big:
[I]t’s time to firmly put Fortnite on my radar. I am adding Fortnite Party Royale to my List of Non-Combat, Open-World Exploration/Puzzle/Life Simulation Games, instead of my much longer Comprehensive List of Social VR Platforms and Virtual Worlds, because it seems to fit in bettter among the games on the first list. However, you could argue that Fortnite Battle Royale is the first tentative step for Epic Games to expand Fornite from just a game to a full-blown, open-ended virtual world like Second Life.
"Like" if not "equal to". For one thing, Fortnite/Party still don't have a full-fledged economy -- a major challenge to implement, especially when it's open for kids to play. (Regulations around money and fraud become even stricter around the world, when minors are involved.) For that matter, for similar reasons, Epic will need to address the Time to Penis problem.
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