JOGO Studios wants gamers who are locked out of “Grand Theft Auto 6” in November to head to Fortnite.
JOGO is one of the leading Fortnite creator studios, known for popular Unreal Editor for Fortnite experiences like “Super Red Vs Blue.” On March 14, the company plans to launch its latest Fortnite island, a “Grand Theft Auto” inspired game called “Grand Heist City.”
“By the time ‘GTA 6’ comes out in November, this game is going to be super optimized and have lots of content in it that you can play, and we expect this to be something that we’ll continue to develop,” said JOGO Studios co-founder and chief operating officer Chad Mustard in an interview with GamesBeat.
“Grand Heist City” features a multitude of gameplay elements inspired by “Grand Theft Auto.” Players compete to make money in an open-world environment in which participants can rob cash registers, steal from each other and role-play using character classes like police officer, driver and hacker, each of which with its own unique abilities and exclusive access to portions of the map.
“There are other UEFN titles out there that are the king placeholder for players that want to have this kind of city experience, and so we wanted to nudge ourselves in there and be more established by the time the release happens,” said JOGO lead game designer Jeremy Pedron in an interview with GamesBeat. “For a new player who’s like, ‘if I can’t do “GTA,” where do I go,’ we wanted to make sure that ours was in the mix.”
With “Grand Heist City,” JOGO is betting big on the idea that players who are unable to access “Grand Theft Auto 6” during its initial release will still be swept up in the hype surrounding the highly anticipated game, and will look for free-to-play experiences that mirror “GTA” on platforms like Fortnite and Roblox. They’re targeting gamers who are looking for a Fortnite-styled spin on Rockstar’s upcoming release, as well as cash-strapped gamers who can’t afford the price tag on the so-called quintuple-A game.
“We don’t know how much it is, but it’s probably going to be something around 100 bucks,” Mustard said. “Not everyone can afford $100 to play a game.”
Instead of charging players upfront, JOGO plans to monetize “Grand Heist City” using more of a live-service model. In addition to Epic Games’ engagement payout system, which gives Fortnite creators a cut of the game’s revenue based on total play time and engagement within their experiences, the company is also building “Grand Heist City” to take advantage of in-game purchases, which Epic launched in January for Fortnite creator experiences.
“We just released a game called “Knockout,” Pedron said. “It doesn’t have the same numbers as ‘Red Vs Blue,’ but it has way more purchases. Five percent of players are buying something, which is absurd.”
Releases like “Grand Heist City” show how Fortnite creator studios are looking to move from a one-off game-making business model to a live service approach as they scale up. Mustard acknowledged the help JOGO had received from Epic Games to continue building his business, with Epic providing a MegaGrant to help fund the development of “Grand Heist City.”
“Grand Heist City” includes somewhat experimental features that haven’t yet been implemented in any other Fortnite experiences, including a player-driven economy designed by a dedicated economy game designer hired for the project, with an in-game auction house and a currency called “diamonds,” and persistent player progression using role-playing-game-like builds to improve characters’ stats over time. To make the game’s landscape of stand out, JOGO partnered with the 3D asset development firm KitBash3D to make unique visual elements for the island.
“At a certain point, the economy becomes part of the world design,” said KitBash3D CEO Banks Boutté in a statement emailed to GamesBeat. “When creators can build systems that reward exploration, risk, and investment, you start to see real player spending emerge around those incentives. What’s happening inside Fortnite right now is the first real signal that user-generated worlds can sustain their own, full-sized economies.”
Mustard framed Epic Games’ MegaGrant and other support for “Grand Heist City” as an acknowledgement and validation of JOGO’s attempts to push the technical boundaries of Unreal Editor for Fortnite with the game.
“They’re going to help us on the marketing side a little bit — they can feature us in stuff like Epic’s Picks, or give us an A-spot, which is a big banner that says, ‘here’s a new map,’ or ‘here’s a new event we’re doing,’” Mustard said. “Epic will help us on that side of things.”