Summary
- A Holocaust museum has been approved for publication in Fortnite, aiming to increase Holocaust education and reach a wider audience.
- Fortnite has expanded beyond being a simple video game and now allows players to create and share their own experiences using the Unreal Editor.
- The developer of the museum, Luc Bernard, has disabled emotes, destruction, and weapons on the map to maintain respect and create a protected space for learning.
A Holocaust museum has been built in Fortnite and is scheduled for publication within the coming weeks. The developer saw the Fortnite Unreal Editor that was released earlier this year as an opportunity to dramatically increase the scope of Holocaust education, a mission that he and Epic Games have collaborated on before.
Fortnite has evolved significantly from its roots. The famous Battle Royale mode did not even exist when the game first launched and was introduced months later, intended to draw people towards Save the World, the original PvE premise. The following years saw Fortnite become a household name and arguably the most popular game on the planet. From crossovers with many prominent fictional IPs to entire concerts headlined by some of the biggest celebrities, Fortnite has somewhat transcended the idea of being just a video game. With the release of Unreal Editor for Fortnite (UEFN), that is even more true, and players are now able to build bespoke experiences and publish them for anyone to play in Fortnite.
Luc Bernard saw the Unreal Editor as a perfect opportunity to expand the scope of Holocaust education and has now received approval from Epic Games to publish a museum in Fortnite dedicated to it. Bernard notes that 80% of Americans have not visited a Holocaust museum and believes that the best method is to bring the information housed within them to the digital sphere. It is not yet publicly available, but Bernard hopes to push it out soon.
Some questioned Bernard about how the experience could be kept respectful, seeing as Fortnite is more synonymous with animated chaos and elaborate emotes than meaningful tributes. He noted in response that emotes, destruction and weapons are all disabled on the map, claiming that it is even more protected than real-life memorials where people are known to take selfies. Bernard released The Light in the Darkness earlier this year, a free game available on the Epic Games Store, that sees players put in the shoes of a Polish Jewish family trying to escape the Holocaust in France.
It is not the first time that game companies have invested in educational tools, with one of the most prominent examples being Ubisoft and Assassin's Creed. The franchise is famous for replicating a certain period and involving historical figures within fictional stories, but with Assassin's Creed Origins, the educational potential was explored through the Discovery Tour mode. Every major installment since has included a Discovery Tour, which allows players to explore and learn about Ancient Egypt, Ancient Greece, and Valhalla's Middle Ages absent of distractions.
Fortnite is available on Mobile, PC, PS4, PS5, Switch, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.