Party Royale Could Fulfill Fortnite’s Promise As A True Social Space

For a little while it seemed as if Fortnite had lost some of its luster. Following the impressive black hole event that kicked off a new chapter for the game last September, the pace of change slowed significantly, while many of Fortnite’s top players expressed frustration with the lagging competitive scene. Meanwhile, other games most notably Riot’s new team shooter Valorant and Call of Duty’s battle royale competitor Warzone filled the void and began dominating platforms like Twitch. But Fortnite never stays quiet for long. Over the past few weeks, Epic has released a number of updates focusing on what makes Fortnite so great and most of it has little to do with being a battle royale shooter. First there was the Travis Scott music tour, which featured five in-game events over the course of several days. It was psychedelic and surreal and proved extremely popular; upward of 27 million players joined the experience, including more than 12 million during the first virtual concert. Notably, the event was completely free of violence.

As soon as the music started and a giant Travis Scott began stomping around Fortnite’s island, the guns disappeared and all players could do was run around and enjoy the spectacle. Not long after, Epic introduced a brand-new space in the game called party royale. It takes place on a smaller island, one completely free of the two main activities in the battle royale mode: shooting and building. Instead, it’s meant to be a relaxed environment where you can hang out with friends. There’s an outdoor movie theater and a club with towering holographic dancers, alongside race courses and other points of interest like a pirate ship and soccer field. Epic describes it as an “evolving space,” so we’ll likely see more activities and events added in the future. Both of these updates point to Fortnite’s likely future. While the game became a phenomenon based on its winner-takes-all battle royale mode, that was also a game mode riding an industry wave that has, over time, felt like a limiting factor for Fortnite’s ambitions. Much has been made of how the game is really a new, immersive social network and the closest thing we have right now to a metaverse. But the combative nature often got in the way of that. Just think back to the first major in-game event, a rocket launch in 2018, that many players missed because their avatars were murdered. Epic has mostly fixed its approach to in-game collective entertainment since then. You can no longer die during a big event, and over the years, those in-game spectacles have become even more ambitious. Still, when you’re doing things like watching J.J. Abrams introduce a new Star Wars clip, it’s clear the battle royale mode was never built with this in mind. It was very jarring to finish watching Travis Scott only to be immediately dropped into a bloodbath.

Party royale feels like an answer to this problem. The social events and the competitive side of Fortnite have always felt at odds, but now they have their own distinct spaces. One is a battleground, the other a playground. They complement each other. It’s not hard to envision movies or TV shows debuting at the party royale theater or big-name acts stopping by the club for virtual concerts. The mode also gives Epic more room to try new things, as changes to party royale won’t have any bearing on the competitive Fortnite scene. (And that scene can be very vocal with complaints.) Of course, all of this depends on whether the new area takes off. Epic says it’s still an experiment, and it’s unclear how long-lasting it might be. Other similar initiatives, like Fortnite’s Minecraft-inspired creative mode, haven’t quite taken off the way many expected. One of the reasons these large-scale events take place inside of the battle royale mode, despite some awkwardness, is that it’s massively popular and still the dominant reason so many people log into the game each and every day. You go where the people are. But whether it’s successful or not, party royale shows that Epic understands what Fortnite has become and is trying to evolve the experience to match. Often the best parts of the game aren’t really a game at all soon shooting could be the least important part of Fortnite altogether.

The Last Dance Is the Best Thing on Television Right Now

Michael Jordan has largely retreated from public life in recent years, but he conducted eight hours of interviews with Hehir. Sitting against a gorgeous backdrop, with a glass of liquor to his side, Jordan talks candidly about his experiences in his final, storied season with the Bulls, which would win the franchise's sixth NBA title that year. Plenty of other key figures serve as talking heads as well: Scottie Pippen, Dennis Rodman, coach Phil Jackson, owner Jerry Reinsdorf, and even former Chicago resident Barack Obama. The first two episodes jump back and forth in time, offering both a walk up to the central season, detailing the conflict between the players and Bulls' general manager Jerry Krause, as well as the backstory of Jordan and his teammates.

The second episode shifts focus to Pippen and his negotiations with management for fair pay. But the access is also about the archival material. Hehir was granted the right to use never-before-seen footage that NBA Entertainment captured during the lead up to the 1997-98 season, assuming that it would be Jordan's last. But there was a catch. Adam Silver, the current NBA commissioner and then head of NBA Entertainment, essentially gave Jordan the right to say when and now the footage could be used. "Our agreement will be that neither one of us can use this footage without the other's permission," Silver said, according to an ESPN report. "It will be kept I mean literally it was physical film -- as a separate part of our Secaucus [New Jersey] library. Our producers won't have access to it. It will only be used with your permission." Reportedly, a bunch of filmmakers expressed interest in turning it into a documentary over the years, among them Spike Lee and Danny DeVito. Ultimately, producer Michael Tollin, inspired by O.J.: Made in America, sold Jordan on the idea of making a lengthy series, and enlisted Hehir, whose previous credits involve 30 for 30 installments like The Fab Five, which centered on the University of Michigan's freshman phenoms in the early 1990s.

Having only seen two episodes, the question remains how deep The Last Dance is going to dig. Access comes with a price, and that price might be that you're not necessarily getting the most scandalous or controversial version of this documentary possible. Jordan's history of gambling is alluded to in the early hours, but it's not really explored, and his prickly persona off the court toward his teammates is both visible but also largely unspoken. It remains to be seen how deep The Last Dance will get into the reasons behind Jordan's switch to baseball. (Fingers crossed there's at least some discussion of Space Jam.) Meanwhile, over at Slate, Nick Greene has already pointed out at least one imbalance. Krause, the main antagonist of the narrative, is no longer alive to offer his side of the story. Alas, The Last Dance is not bingeable all in one sitting, unless you wait until all 10 episodes have aired. ESPN is rolling it out airing two episodes every Sunday for the next four weeks, through May 17. The new episodes will begin airing at 9 p.m. each night, but will be preceded by the prior two installments, in case you need a refresher or just have nothing else to watch. (Outside the U.S., it's debuting on Netflix.) There are also two versions of The Last Dance you can watch: The first, airing on ESPN, is uncensored, but there's a more family friendly cut airing on ESPN2 at the same time.