Lego joins forces with Fortnite to launch Minecraft rival

7 December 2023, 19:17 | Updated: 7 December 2023, 19:30

Lego has launched a new game mode with Fortnite that could be set to challenge Minecraft.

Fortnite, the massively popular online shooting game, has launched the new survival mode where players build with Lego blocks.

The new game mode, Lego Fortnite, launched on Thursday on Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Windows PC, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X.

Like the most popular mode, Lego Fortnite is free to play.

It appears to have been created as a rival to Minecraft, the best-selling video game of all time, where players build their own worlds using building blocks.

LEGO Fortnite Cinematic Trailer

Gameplay features like growing vegetables, eating around a campfire and building fences around sheep appear to have been inspired by Minecraft.

Fortnite originally launched with a survival mode, but its Battle Royale mode - where as many as 100 players fight it out with only one winner - became so popular that it became the game's main selling point.

Fortnite developer Epic is clear that they want the game to surpass even its current level of popularity, with 100 million registered players, 70 million of whom play each month.

Part of the attraction of working with Lego is its appeal to younger children.

Discussing the new mode, Adam Sussman said: "This is absolutely about expansion.

"This is also an expansion in terms of having these experiences appeal to a wide variety of audiences, ranging from kids to teens to adults," he told the BBC.

Fortnite has previously collaborated with high-profile musicians for concerts within the game, such as Ariana Grande and Marshmello.

Lego has also often worked with other brands on games, including Star Wars and Harry Potter.

And Fortnite game mode could be the start of a series of collaborations, with "new ideas" on the horizon.

The company's chief product and marketing officer Julia Goldin said: "We don't yet know exactly how the game is going to land, what kids want to do versus what others would like to do, which things are gonna resonate and which things will not.

"So there are some plans already on the kinds of updates and new ideas that are going to be coming... other types of games that will start also being available on the Fortnite platform over the course of 2024."