Fortnite: Battle Royale’s recent Season 8 update introduced a lot of changes to the game, but one of the more interesting and understated additions is a new ‘ping’ system — very similar to that of Fortnite’s rival battle royale game Apex Legends.
Apex Legends saw unprecedented success following its surprise release back in February 4, even if it entered the battle royale arena that many assumed was dominated by Fortnite. One of the factors that really contributed to Apex’s success was that it brought a lot of things to the table — one of them a ping system — that is clearly good for the genre.
Apex’s ping system is very comprehensive and includes a lot of options for pings that easily tells squad members things like “an enemy was here previously” or “we should defend this area.” Having such a ping system is crucial for Apex, as squad-based gameplay is one of its core aspects.
While Fortnite leans more towards solo or duo play, there’s no denying that Apex’s ping system would be a good addition to the game — even if it would be tantamount to copying a rival.
In any case, Fortnite’s ping system is essentially a slimmed down version of Apex’s. Season 8 having a pirate theme makes much more sense now.
Anyway, Fortnite pings lets players place a distance marker that can be seen through walls, but without the added bother of bringing up the map. Players can also quickly double tap on an enemy, as well as specific weapons or items, to ping them.
Even if Fortnite’s pings are not as comprehensive as that of its rival, it gets the job done for what the game needs. Squad play in Fortnite without a mic, especially if you happen to get into a squad of strangers, can be very difficult. For what it’s worth, Fortnite has made that much, much easier with its new ping system — even if they just essentially copied it.
That’s not really a bad thing though. Many Fortnite players have been complaining that their game has become either too stale or gimicky, but the sudden appearance of Apex may have forced Epic Games to step up their game. In the end, such competition — even if it leads them to copying from one another — can be beneficial for both games.
