The walls between gaming and entertainment get weaker every day. That’s especially true when it comes to video gaming and music. The world’s biggest online video games are played by millions of people per day, and musicians would give their right arm to get access to that kind of audience. And every player at an online casino can also get free $50 pokies no deposit sign up bonus Australia. If even a tenth of that audience went on to buy or stream their music, it could send them rocketing up the charts in an instant. That’s why it’s becoming increasingly common to see major recording artists partnering with world-famous gaming brands to create one-off virtual events.
Video games don’t come much bigger than “Fortnite” by Epic Games, and although “Fortnite” wasn’t the first game in history to stage a virtual concert, it’s become the go-to place for anyone who wants to step into the digital realm. Internationally-renowned DJ Marshmello was the first to take the plunge, but the high point of the game’s concert history thus far was a performance by rapper and producer Travis Scott in April 2020. More than twelve million people logged into “Fortnite” to watch his avatar give a ten-minute performance. That’s an incredible number, but what’s more astonishing is that he was allegedly paid twenty million dollars for his work. In terms of both reach and financial reward, the chance to play a “Fortnite” gig is the kind of opportunity that every musician dreams of.
With so much to be gained from making the leap into the gaming world, it’s a wonder that no one more famous than Travis Scott has tried. That might be about to change. According to a social media “leaker” and “Fortnite” expert with a long track record of correct predictions, one of the biggest stars of the modern music world will show up in “Fortnite” later this year. In fact, the performance is said to be so imminent that the virtual event is already in final testing stages. If the leaker is to be believed, we’ll see Ariana Grande take to the “Fortnite” stage at some point in 2021. When it comes to YouTube views, social media influence, and streams in the past five years, there’s no recording artist bigger than her.
This news is a big surprise, but it won’t come as a complete shock to anyone that’s been monitoring the finer points of the ongoing Apple vs Epic trial. Enormous tranches of documents have been made public during the trial, and within them are plans for concerts by not only Ariana Grande but also Lady Gaga. Those performances were supposed to happen in 2020 but were presumably delayed for pandemic-related reasons. The court documents also mention an in-game LeBron James skin. That skin is now available to players. If what we’re getting in 2021 is a delayed delivery of things we should have got in 2020, it might mean that a performance by Lady Gaga is still on the cards. That would also be an enormous event. We wouldn’t like to predict which artist would draw the biggest “crowd” between the two.
The leak, which first appeared on Reddit, contains further information that “Fortnite” fans are getting excited about. As well as more musical performances, Epic apparently plans to introduce more television and movie tie-ins for future “Fortnite” seasons. Characters from both “Suicide Squad” and “Justice League” are expected to turn up in the game world, along with animated characters from the Manga series “Naruto” There’s even talk that the next season of the enormously popular Netflix science-fiction show “Stranger Things” will receive a tie-in of some kind, with monsters from the show released into the game world to cause havoc. All of this should be treated as speculation until Epic confirms it, but so-called “data miners” have apparently already found references to the content hidden within the most recent “Fortnite” update.
If you’re the kind of “Fortnite” player who’s more interested in the game itself than the celebrities and famous characters who might turn up in it, there’s one more leak that might mean more to you than all the others. We’re rapidly approaching the end of Chapter 2 of “Fortnite.” When that happens, you can expect to see the existing map disappear and the game become unavailable again for around twenty-four hours, just as it did at the end of the first chapter. Unfortunately, we don’t yet have any information regarding when that might happen, but it wouldn’t shock us if it were before the end of the summer. The Ariana Grande concert might even be a way of signing the chapter off – although it could just as easily be a party to kick off the third chapter.
Ariana Grande embracing “Fortnite” will have significant consequences in the music world. Her performance will legitimise the medium and make other world-famous stars more likely to engage with the idea. In some ways, we’ve already seen this happening in other spheres of gaming. It’s been a few years since Guns n’ Roses approved an official online slots game that uses their music and likenesses. When they kicked down the doors, dozens of other bands followed them. Check out one of the bigger online slots websites today, and you’ll find that musical acts as wide and varied as Deadmau5 and the Village People have jumped aboard the online slots train too. There’s a lot more to performing as an avatar inside a video game than there is to giving the green light to an online slots game, but the trend demonstrates that musicians are aware of the benefits of reaching out to gamers.
This wouldn’t be Ariana Grande’s first foray into gaming. She’s worked with Square Enix in the past, recording content for the “Brave Exvius” entry in the “Final Fantasy” series and making an in-game appearance as a pixie-like version of herself. Although she’s never confirmed or denied it, she might even be a gamer herself. She’s of the generation that plays “Fortnite,” so it doesn’t take a big leap of the imagination to believe that she wants to appear in it because she’s already a fan. The multi-million-dollar paycheck that would come with it would be a nice bonus, too. If this news is confirmed, you won’t have to look very hard for it. We suspect that it will make headlines all over the world.
