Category: In the News

Is Fortnite the next YouTube? Perhaps — but Epic Games has higher aspirations.

As Fortnite evolves from a popular video game into a robust ecosystem of creators, brands and virtual worlds, some observers have begun to compare Fortnite to other creator platforms, like YouTube. These comparisons have only grown as Epic Games continues to build out its creator tools, including expanded data collection tools and AI-enabled coding assistants that were unveiled at last week’s Unreal Fest conference in Orlando, Florida.

Although Epic Games’ leadership appreciates the parallels, CEO Tim Sweeney has mixed feelings about the analogy. He views Fortnite’s ongoing push to onboard creators as a stage of the platform’s evolution, rather than a means to an end. Epic Games is trying to build the metaverse, per Sweeney, rather than just create a destination for creators to entertain audiences and generate revenue.

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Yet again, generative AI is likely to be center stage at this year’s Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity from June 16 to 20 – a development that may be expected for some agency execs and exhausting to others. 

“I wish there was a word counter that could somehow read the amount of times that AI gets mentioned at Cannes,” said Nick Miaritis, chief client officer at VaynerMedia, a creative and media agency. “I can’t even imagine that it lets any other word in.”

AI buzzwords and jargon, like digital twinning and anomaly detection, have saturated Cannes Lions and other industry conferences for the last two or three years. But agency execs say this year, they’re expecting more practicality and less hot air. Now, the focus is on how AI can improve marketing business ROI, whether that be creative automation, audience targeting or scale. Execs say they’re looking for data integrations to understand how AI can be paired with agency and brand client data, and efficiency outputs that’ll allow marketers to do more with less, from tech partners and AI platforms. 

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