Fortnite is well known for its incredible amounts of collaboration. This extends to music and the new Soundwave Series as well. From musical emotes to choreographed dance routines, Fortnite has gone perhaps beyond any other game in terms of its musical collaborations, particularly with concerts. Previous artists to host a concert within Fortnite include Marshmello, Travis Scott, and Ariana Grande. However, Fortnite has now launched a new initiative called Soundwave Series. The first musical guest to be featured on this series was Mohamed Hamaki in September of 2021. Recently, the second musical guest, Tones and I, performed in January of 2022. There are still several announced guests that will likely be featured throughout the upcoming year.
Fortnite’s “traditional concerts” can be defined as the concerts that took place outside of the Soundwave Series. There are two types of traditional concerts: main concerts similar to headline acts, and party royale concerts, much smaller in scale. Fortnite Soundwave Series builds on the success of these previous concerts by copying several successful ideas and formats from each. Players attending a concert do so through a specific playlist. These concert-specific playlists have combat disabled and are generally more musically ambient. This allows players to become immersed in the concert experience. Concerts generally offer ways to earn rewards and battle pass XP by collecting coins or other items scattered throughout the area. Despite the similarities, however, the concerts within the Soundwave Series are different from Fortnite’s previous main concerts in several ways.
A major difference between these traditional concerts and the Soundwave Series concerts is the inclusion of the artist. During the main concerts in Fortnite for Ariana Grande, Travis Scott, and Marshmello, the artists had an in-game rendition perform during the musical act. Unsurprisingly, these in-game renditions would become playable skins that players could purchase. By contrast, neither Mohamed Hamaki nor Tones and I have been rendered in-game nor released playable skins. During the Soundwave Series concerts in Fortnite, these artists would appear as themselves through some type of projection tool, such as a television screen, rather than an in-game rendition. The Party Royale concerts, such as the one featuring Kaskade. J Balvin, is the exception to this, appearing both as himself in a Party Royale concert and also being given a playable in-game skin.
Fortnite's Soundwave Series Is Different From Party Royale Concerts
Despite the lack of skins, both Mohamed Hamaki and Tones and I released an emote to celebrate their concert. Mohamed Hamaki’s emote was Leilt Elomr, named after his song "Leilt El Omr." Tones and I saw the release of the Dance Monkey emote. Both Dance Monkey and Leilt Elomr emotes feature real vocals from the respective musicians. Surprisingly, none of the artists from traditional concerts have had an actual emote featuring real music from their songs.
Marshmello is the closest, receiving an emote titled Marsh Walk, which seems to be a remixed version of Marshmello’s song "Alone," but does not contain the actual audio from the song. Neither Ariana Grande nor Travis Scott, whose emote has since been pulled from the game, contained musical audio from their music in their respective emotes. J Balvin, again, is the exception to this, being given both an in-game skin as well as a musical emote based around a real song.
While Soundwave Series might sound like a Party Royale concert, this is also not true. Unlike Party Royale concerts, the Soundwave Series concerts are increasingly intricate set pieces of beautiful cinematography and choreographic events in a series of visually beautiful and unique settings that rewards player participation and interaction along the journey, akin to major concerts such as the Rift Tour. The Soundwave Series has already pushed the envelope for hosting concerts by building on the successes of previous concert models. With more Soundwave Series concerts announced by Epic Games on the horizon and an increasingly collaborative environment in Fortnite, it is likely that the approach to concerts will continue to evolve and grow.