Epic Games Launches Fortnite’s Spy Within Social Game With Houseparty Video Chat

Epic Games is releasing a new social game called Fortnite’s Spy Within, which is the company’s take on popular betrayal titles like Werewolves and Among Us.

The game is based on and named after the popular user-generated Fortnite Creative map, Spy Within, created by player / creators KKslider and Dolphin Dom. Many players might see this as a predator, as Epic Games is trying to break through in Among Us, a popular indie title. But it’s a familiar pattern, as Among Us is based on the previous Werewovles title and Fortnite’s Battle Royale mode is based on PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds design. Epic’s model is to evolve Fortnite to be whatever it takes to hold onto its users.

While Among Us came out in 2018, its popularity soared this year after streamers started playing the simple 2D game. And that inspired KKslider and Dolphin Dom to create a version of the game within Fortnite, which has a section of the map where players can create their own environments for games, called Fornite Creative.

In the Fortnite version, players are dressed as characters from Fortnite, the popular Battle Royale game that has had more than 350 million downloads. Spy Within has two players, known as the spies, who attempt to eliminate other players on the space station without revealing their identities as spies. They must do this before the rest of the crew (eight other players) complete their tasks or vote for the spies.

Players can use Houseparty’s new Fortnite video chat feature to meet and find the spy. Spy Within is a new, limited-time Fortnite event for the holidays. Epic Games acquired Houseparty as a face-to-face synchronous social network with video communication on mobile devices and desktop computers.