Is Fortnite a Battle Royal game?

The idea for "Fortnite Battle Royale" arose following the release of the similar battle royale game "PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds", which saw numerous player count records broken throughout 2017. Seeing its rapid growth and commercial success, Epic Games saw the opportunity to create a battle royale mode of their own. Originally released as part of the paid "Fortnite" game, Epic spun out a dedicated version of the game offered as free-to-play funded by microtransactions, sharing in-game currency with the main "Fortnite" game, allowing players to buy or earn cosmetic items to customize their character, as well as completing challenges through a battle pass to earn additional rewards., the game has seen over 200 million players, and has been estimated to have earned in microtransactions. "Fortnite Battle Royale" has become a cultural phenomenon, with streams of the game achieving record-high viewerships, and with several high-profile celebrities stating their appreciation of the game.

Fortnite Battle Royale

Fortnite Battle Royale is a free-to-play battle royale video game developed and published by Epic Games. It was released as an early access game for Microsoft Windows, macOS, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One in September 2017, and for iOS, Nintendo Switch, and Android in 2018. It is a spin-off from Epic's "", a cooperative survival game with construction elements.

As a battle royale game, "Fortnite Battle Royale" features up to a hundred players, either alone, in duos, or in squads of up to four players, attempting to be the last player or group alive by killing other players or evading them, while staying within a constantly shrinking safe zone to prevent taking lethal damage from being outside it. Players start with no intrinsic advantages, and must scavenge for weapons and armor to gain the upper hand on their opponents. The game adds the construction element from "Fortnite"; players can break down most objects in the game world to gain resources they can use to build fortifications as part of their strategy. Limited-time modes are cycled through the game that introduce experimental or unconventional gameplay but otherwise follow the battle royale "last player standing" goal. While the game world remains the same for all matches, Epic presents a seasonal approach that may make small or major changes to the game world, including simultaneous single-time events that occur on all game servers. The game features cross-platform play between the platforms that was limited for the first five seasons, before the restrictions were eased.

The main gameplay for "Fortnite Battle Royale" follows the battle royale genre's standard format. The game normally is played either with each player on their own, or in a squad of two to four players, with up to 100 players participating each round. The round starts with players, weaponless, skydiving from floating buses ("Battle Bus") then deploying a glider onto a region of land. The island's fixed layout includes several landmarks and locations (named in an alliterative fashion, such as "Loot Lake", "Tilted Towers", and "Retail Row") that are mostly ghost towns, while a random distribution of weapons, shields, and other combat support features can be found by searching buildings and other sites. The goal is to be the last player or team alive by eliminating or avoiding other players. Over time, the game's safe zone (representing the eye of a storm), decreases in size, and players caught outside the zone will take damage. This directs the surviving players into tighter spaces, forcing player encounters. Supply drops will spawn in random locations during a match, providing random weapons and items. Like in the original "" game, "Fortnite Battle Royale" is primarily played in a third-person perspective.

"Fortnite Battle Royale"s primary distinction from other battle royale games is the building system, which originated from the original "Fortnite" survival game. Nearly all objects in the environment can be destroyed and harvested for materials (wood, stone, and metal), which can then be used to build fortifications of limited durabilities, such as walls, ramps, floors, and roofs, which can be used to help traverse the map, protect the player from gunfire, or slow down progression of other players. Weaker pieces can be destroyed in a few hits, but can be built quickly, while stronger pieces can withstand more punishment, but take longer to build.
The game is free-to-play, supported by microtransactions that allow players to buy "Vinderbucks", "V-Bucks" for short, the game's internal currency. V-Bucks are also shared with the main "Fortnite: Save the World" game, which offers players the opportunity to earn V-Bucks by completing missions or daily quests. V-Bucks can then be used to buy cosmetic improvements to the player (character, pickaxe and glider skins, back-wear, and emotes). The game is run as seasons, lasting about 10 weeks each. Each season introduces an exclusive set of cosmetic items that can be obtained. These are offered through a dual-track battle pass, which features a number of tiers that players climb through by earning 'battle stars' through completing in-game objectives, while acquiring cosmetic rewards or other items in the process. Each player has access to the "free" track of the Battle Pass, which offers fewer cosmetics that can be earned by clearing multiple tiers, while players can also purchase the Pass' "premium" track with V-Bucks, which offers more challenges and grants prizes for every tier the player advances. Players can use V-Bucks to purchase tiers as well once they have bought the Battle Pass.

Since release, Epic Games has added more features, such as new weapon and items and makeshift vehicles such as shopping carts and golf carts. Epic is also able to deploy hot-fixes to the game to adjust aspects like weapon attributes and distribution, pushing these out in minutes if necessary should they or players discover critical issues or glitches. With the release of Season 7 and "Fortnite Creative" mode, an area of the map called the Block will feature a rotating selection of user-made creations developed in 'Creative' mode and approved by Epic.

Epic has the ability to include limited time modes (LTM) within the game, which provides Epic with experimental capabilities and gain feedback from players to improve upon. One of its earliest additions was a 50-v-50 mode, placing players randomly on one of two teams and dropping them on opposite sides of the map, giving the two teams time to gather resources, create fortifications, and hunt the other team before the storm moved in. Shortly after the launch of the film "", Epic ran a Marvel-sponsored event that featured the Infinity Gauntlet that randomly spawned on the map; any player that equipped it became Thanos with added abilities. A sandbox Playground LTM was introduced in June 2018, which allows up to four players to explore and build anything anywhere on the battle map, while being able to fight each other and respawn upon defeat until the storm covered the map after an hour and eliminated them all; Epic later made this a permanent mode in the game.

Epic has stated that they intend to add ranked competitive play in the future. A preliminary competitive mode, Solo Showdown, ran for a limited time starting in May 2018, ranking players by their final placement in matches and rewarding the top-placing competitors with V-Bucks.

"Fortnite Battle Royale" has created a larger loose narrative that is exhibited through changes in the game map, which generally correlated to the start and end of the in-game season. For example, in the lead up to the fourth season which started in May 2018, players saw a number of shooting stars cross the skies, followed by a giant comet that neared the ground; upon the start of season four, the comet had hit one of the locations on the map, leaving a giant crater, among other changes. This tied into several new cosmetic skins related to superheroes and super-villains that were available that month. Epic has the ability to create custom events that occur across all game servers simultaneously as well; the first example of such was a countdown leading to a giant rocket's launch in June 2018 which, in the aftermath, left cracks in the skies that have grown since that event.

The game initially launched without any seasonable schedule, but starting with the release of Season 2 in December 2017, Epic has provided new content, which includes new cosmetics, new gameplay elements, and changes to the game's map, on a roughly 10-week basis. This also introduced the use of the battle pass for players to obtain some of this new content by completing challenges and gaining experience.

"Fortnite" had first been revealed by Epic Games in 2011, considered to be a combination of "Minecraft" and "Left 4 Dead" as four players would work together to scavenge resources to built fortifications, traps, weapons, and other objects to survive monster attacks. The game ended up with a protracted development period, in part due to both external pressures, with the industry transitioning to a games as a service model, and internal shifts of focus within Epic (including focusing attention on their first free-to-play title "Paragon") to meet the external challenges. During this period, Epic made a deal with Tencent, giving them about 40% of the company in exchange for their support for the games as a service approach as well as ready access to the Chinese video game market. "Fortnite" was confirmed to have a planned 2018 release in June 2017, with a paid early access period starting a month later; the game is planned otherwise as a free-to-play title supported by microtransactions. With release in early access, the game featured its primary gameplay mode, "Save the World", where players in teams up to four would work cooperatively to survive and complete objectives on randomly generated maps.

During the latter part of "Fortnite"s development, "PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds" was released in March 2017 on personal computers in early access, and quickly became a popular and successful game, becoming the defining example of the battle royale genre. According to Mustard, the Epic team "loved Battle Royale games like [Battlegrounds]", and explored how they could make a similar mode within "Fortnite"s engine. They kept this mode in a separate development team from the main player versus environment modes for experimentation and as to not throw off the balance in the main game. The Battle Royale mode development was led by Eric Williamson with Zack Estep as production lead. Their goal was to develop the Battle Royale mode quickly from the core "Save the World" mode, putting off any complex features that weren't already in place as to launch the new mode as soon as possible; while they explored such potential ideas, they held off inclusion until after the main mode was launched. The development of the "Battle Royale" mode took about two months starting in July 2017 after the "Save the World" mode had shipped, and was aided by the "Unreal Tournament" team. Key differences for Battle Royale that differed from "Save the World" included a more limited progression for weapons, a small subset of traps, and a smoother, more natural terrain for the maps. They also wanted to aim for games not taking longer than 25 minutes, which led to some decisions of which elements from "Save the World" would not carry over. They had including "Fortnite"s building mechanic for fortifications, not sure how players would use that since the safe zone would continue shrinking, but found quickly that the mechanic helped to distinguish the game from "Battlegrounds" and was used by expert players frequently to win matches, and had since implemented more features to help players with rapidly constructing temporary bases.
In those two months of development, Epic's plan was to include "Battle Royale" within the paid "Fortnite" game, and originally announced this approach publicly in early September 2017. Only two weeks before it was released did Epic decide to make it a separate free-to-play title, fearing that having it as part of the paid package would slow down the growth of the title. Epic announced this change formally about a week after first announcing "Battle Royale", allowing those that had purchased early access to "Fortnite" in anticipation of this mode to request refunds. This release, which beat out "Battlegrounds" to consoles, caused some concern with "Battlegrounds" developer Bluehole, as they had been working closely with Epic for Unreal engine support in "Battlegrounds", and were worried that "Fortnite" might be able to include planned features to their Battle Royale mode before they could release those in "Battlegrounds".

With the popularity of "Fortnite Battle Royale" by the start of 2018, Epic split off a separate development team to focus on improvements for this mode. Epic said that their attention to "Fortnite" was causing some of their other games to see lower player populations, leading them to reduce development efforts on these games, particularly "Paragon". By the end of January 2018, Epic announced it was shutting down "Paragon" by April of that year, providing refunds to all players. Similarly, Epic announced it had halted development of the planned free-to-play "Unreal Tournament" game, its team transitioned to "Fortnite", though the game will remain available, playable, and open to end-user modifications. Players on a "Fortnite"-dedicated Reddit forum had expressed concerns that a similar fate could befall the "Save the World" mode of "Fortnite", as externally, the "Save the World" mode has not received the same attention in providing updates and improvements compared to the "Battle Royale" mode since that mode's release.

Tencent, who is a partial owner of Epic Games, will bring "Fortnite Battle Royale" to China; the company is already involved in bringing and supporting "Battlegrounds" in China as well. Tencent plans to spend up to to help promote the game in China, set up eSports tournaments, and fight against copyright infringement and clones of "Fortnite" that have appeared in the country. Epic also worked with Neowiz Games to bring a version of "Fortnite" to South Korea, launched in November 2018.

A release of "Fortnite" for the Nintendo Switch video game console had been rumored in the week prior to the Electronic Entertainment Expo 2018 in June 2018. During the Nintendo Direct presentation, Nintendo and Epic Games announced the release of "Fortnite Battle Royale" for the Nintendo Switch, supporting cross-platform play with any other platform except the PlayStation 4; such users are able to carry over their inventory, Battle Pass status, and in-game currency between these platforms through their Epic user account. The game was released on June 12, 2018, the same day as the announcement. It is the first game to support direct voice chat through the Switch console.

In March 2018, Epic announced it was making "Fortnite Battle Royale" for Android and iOS mobile devices. The iOS version was released first, and was expected to be followed by the Android version by mid-2018. The beta version for iOS devices launched on March 15, 2018, and opened to all players on April 2, 2018. Epic Games stated that it was not possible to release the Android version with the iOS version simultaneously, and declined to provide a concrete release date for it, because the developers wanted to spend a few months making sure that the game will be compatible with as many Android devices as possible, a task that is not easily accomplished due to the high variety of Android hardware.

The Android beta version of "Fortnite" was released on August 9, 2018 with a time-exclusivity for selected Samsung mobile devices until August 12, 2018. On August 13, 2018, Epic began sending invites for the Android version to registered users for non-Samsung devices, and by October 11, 2018, the Android client was made available to all without an invite.

The Android version is not distributed on Google Play Store: users must sideload an installer app from an Android application package (APK) file downloaded from the Epic Games website (although on Samsung devices, the app is also available via the internal Samsung Galaxy Apps service). Epic Games stated that it wanted to have a direct connection to the players of the game, and did not want its microtransactions to be subject to Google Play Store's 30% revenue sharing requirement (considering them disproportionate to the types of services the store provides). Security experts expressed concern over this decision, since this requires users to modify security settings in default Android distributions to allow third-party sites to install Android application packages (APK). This setting can make users, particularly younger players, prone to potential malware, including clones of "Fortnite" that install malicious programming. About a month after the Android release, there were at least 32 clones of the "Fortnite" installer on the Google Store, with half found to include malware. Epic's installer for Android does include a warning message following the install that users should re-enable security controls and warns users of only downloading content from trusted sources. The initial installer was found by Google to have a potential vector that would allow for malware to be installed, though this was patched within 48 hours of discovery and Epic did not believe anyone used the vector.

The iOS version of "Fortnite Battle Royale" alone brought in an estimated in microtransaction revenue within the first three days of in-app purchases being available, according to analysis firm Sensor Tower. "Glixel" considered these numbers impressive, compared to the early success rate of other popular mobile games, such as "Pokémon Go" and "Clash Royale" which earned and in their first four days, respectively. Sensor Tower further estimated that after one month, the mobile title had earned more than in revenue, surpassing revenues from any other mobile games and other several top-grossing apps during the same period.

For the first five seasons, all ports of "Fortnite Battle Royale" support cross-platform play with other versions, but with limited interaction in regards to the PlayStation 4. That is, players on personal computer and mobile versions can cross-play with Xbox One and Nintendo Switch users, or alternatively they can cross-play with PlayStation 4 users. While Epic Games has expressed interest in having full cross-platform play across all available platforms, Sony's continued refusal to allow cross-play between the PlayStation 4 and other consoles rendered this impossible during the game's first year of operation, according to Microsoft. Further, while players can use a single Epic Games account to share progress in "Fortnite Battle Royale" on all other platforms, those who used their PlayStation Network credentials to establish their Epic account cannot use that account on other platforms. The account restriction was confirmed to be as a result of Sony's initial decision to prohibit cross-platform play between its PlayStation 4 and other consoles, rather than a choice Epic had made.

By September 2018, Sony had made a decision to allow cross-platform play for the PlayStation 4 for "select third-party titles", starting with "Fortnite". A beta version of the PlayStation 4 client supporting this was released for the game on September 26, 2018, the same day as Sony's announcement. A means to merge multiple Epic accounts as well as unlinking console accounts from an Epic account to attach to another are planned for release in November 2018.

Solo mobile players, or squads entirely consisting of mobile players will play solely with other mobile players by default for fairness; players however can use cross-platform play to join squads on other platforms, and matchmaking will consider all available matches.

In May 2018, Epic announced a partnership with sports apparel manufacturing company IMG to produce official "Fortnite"-themed clothing. A Hasbro-licensed "Fortnite Battle Royale"-themed version of "Monopoly" was announced for release by late 2018; the "Fortnite Monopoly" game reflects some elements of the video game, such as the money being replaced with player's lives, and the ability to protect properties on the board with walls. Further, with this deal, Hasbro will produce "Fortnite"-based Nerf blasters, which are expected to reach retail in 2019. Funko will release a series of "Fortnite" themed Pop! figurines by late 2018.

"Fortnite Battle Royale" has been packaged as special bundles with both the Xbox One and Nintendo Switch, each version providing redeemable codes for V-bucks and platform-unique customization options. A retail release of "Fortnite Battle Royale", called "Fortnite: Deep Freeze Bundle", was distributed by Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment for the PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch in late 2018. The package included a redeemable code for V-Bucks and unique in-game cosmetics.

In October 2018, Epic launched its "Support a Creator" program for "Fortnite". Individual players could designate one of several popular "Fortnite" streamers, selected by Epic via an application process, to support via the game client. That create would then earn money based on how many V-bucks their supporters spent within the game, at a rate of for every 10,000 V-Bucks (roughly, 5% of the monetary value). Though initially planned as a limited time event, Epic found by December 2018 that millions of "Fortnite" players were using the promotion to support more than 10,000 streamers, and since have made it a permanent option for "Fortnite" and hoping this would help some creators go full-time, and plans to extend this program to other games offered via the Epic Games Store, including "Tom Clancy's The Division 2".

Epic has partnered with the National Football League (NFL) to make character skins for each of the 32 teams in the League available to purchase for a limited time in November 2018, a result of the influence of "Fortnite" on NFL players, who have frequently performed "Fortnite" dance emotes as victory celebrations.

One of the first professional eSports competitions using "Fortnite" was the "Fortnite" Pro-Am event, held on June 12, 2018 during the Electronic Entertainment Expo 2018, with 3000 in attendance. This tournament was announced after the success of the March 2018 stream by Ninja where he played alongside celebrities like Drake. The event featuring 50 celebrities paired with 50 top streaming players competing for prize pool of to be given to winning teams' charities. Ninja and his celebrity teammate Marshmello were the winners of this event.

In May 2018, Epic announced it was setting aside to fund various tournaments throughout the year to help grow "Fornite Battle Royale" into an eSport. During the "Fortnite" Pro-Am at E3 2018, Epic announced it was setting up a 2019 "Fortnite" World Cup event, featuring separate series for solo players and two-player teams. All players, regardless of skill, would have an opportunity to try to gain placement in the World Cup event.

During mid-2018, Epic started running a Summer Skirmish series over 8 weeks, each week having a different format, with to be offered to winners throughout the series. The series had some initial problems; the first week event was cut short due to technical issues with game servers, while the second event ended with accusations of cheating towards the winner which Epic later verified were not true. Epic launched its second competition play series, the Fall Skirmish, on September 21, 2018, with up to in prizes for winners.

"Fortnite Battle Royale" has become a own phenomenon, compared by analysts to the success in drawing in players that are not average video game players as "World of Warcraft" and "Minecraft" had done previously. "Fortnite Battle Royale" obtained over 10 million players two weeks after its release. By March 2018, it was estimated to have more than 45 million players. Three months later, in June 2018, Epic announced they had achieved over 125 million players in less than a year, with at least 40 million players playing the game once per month. In November 2018, "Bloomberg" reported that "Fortnite" had over 200 million registered accounts across all platforms.

Individual platform releases saw initial surges in player counts. Within a day of becoming available, the Nintendo Switch version had been downloaded over 2 million times, according to Nintendo. Epic said that "Fortnite" had been downloaded over 15 million times for Android within three weeks of its launch. On the release of Season 5 in July 2018, Akamai Technologies reported that "Fortnite" traffic neared 37 terabytes per second, the largest recorded amount of traffic for any video game that they have observed. With its quarterly financial report ending September 30, 2018, Nintendo said that "Fortnite Battle Royale" had been downloaded on about half of all Switch systems they have sold, representing about 11.5 million downloads.

"Fortnite Battle Royale" was made available to South Korea and their numerous PC bangs in November 2018; shortly after this point, Epic reported that "Fortnite" has surpassed a concurrent player count of 8.3 million, surpassing the game's previous record of 3.4 million in February 2018.

Analysis firm SuperData estimated that "Fortnite Battle Royale" made over in February 2018, surpassing "Battlegrounds"s revenues for the same period of. SuperData estimated "Fortnite"s revenues over all platforms to exceed for the month of March. By April 2018, SuperData estimated that "Fortnite Battle Royale" had surpassed both sales and player count on all platforms over "Battlegrounds". The game generated in revenue in April, followed by in May, according to SuperData. By July 2018, "Fortnite Battle Royale" had been estimated to have brought in over in revenue. Prior to the Season 5 start in July 2018, Sensor Tower estimated that the mobile version of "Fortnite Battle Royale" made over daily; following the launch of Season 5, revenues jumped to per day. SuperData estimated that "Fortnite Battle Royale" brought in in revenue during 2018, the highest annual revenue of any free-to-play title.

At the time of Tencent's investment into Epic in 2012, Epic Games had a valuation. Because of "Fortnite Battle Royale", Epic's valuation increased to. "Bloomberg" raised the estimate to around by the end of 2018 should "Fortnite Battle Royale" reach during the year. Partially due to the influx of revenue from "Fortnite Battle Royale", Epic reduced its portion of sales it collected from the Unreal Engine Marketplace from 30% to 12% in July 2018, applying that retroactively to past sales.

Journalists attributed "Fortnite Battle Royale"s success over "PlayerUnknown Battlegrounds" as a combination of several factors: besides being free-to-play and available on consoles, the game was released at a time when "Battlegrounds" was struggling with game cheaters and a toxic community, and that it features a less violent, cartoonish quality to it that, like "Minecraft", was able to draw in a younger and mixed-gendered audiences to play. Further, Epic has maintained frequent updates for the game, adding new weapons and in-game tools alongside limited-time events and longer-term narrative elements that help to further draw in players. The high interest in the game within March 2018, which has been able to draw larger audiences compared to existing multiplayer games like "Grand Theft Auto Online" and "Destiny 2", has had a financial impact on competing publishers Take-Two Interactive and Activision Blizzard, their stocks having fallen during this period, according to analysts from Morgan Stanley and KeyBanc Capital Markets Inc. Activision's CEO Bobby Kotick, on their quarterly results released May 2018, stated that "Fortnite is definitely a lot of competition right now...it’s been a really important catalyst in attracting new gamers to gaming", and the company is looking to develop its own battle royale title. Electronic Arts CEO Blake Jorgensen also considered both "Fortnite Battle Royale" and "Battlegrounds" as having a significant market impact. Jorgensen said " [Fortnite is] bringing younger people into the marketplace and younger people into first-person shooters, and I think that's good for the long run health of that category for all of us in the industry". Non-video game entertainment companies have also seen the impact of "Fortnite". Netflix, in reporting its Q4 2018 results, stated that their competition is more with "Fortnite", including streaming content related to the game, rather than rival television network stations like HBO.

Part of the game's success is also considered to be related to its impact on social media. By March 2018, "Fortnite Battle Royale" became the most-viewed game on Twitch, exceeding the average-concurrent viewership numbers of "League of Legends" and "Battlegrounds". One notable streamer was Tyler "Ninja" Blevins, who gained a large number of subscribers by March 2018, in part due to his skill and through promotions on Twitch that offered free "Fortnite Battle Royale" cosmetic items; by March 2018, he was estimated to be making a month from his streaming revenue. YouTube streamer Rubén Doblas Gundersen held a "Fortnite Battle Royale" match with 99 other well-known YouTube streamers in late March, which drew over 1.1 million viewers, making it one of the most-watched gaming YouTube streams. The "Fortnite" Pro-Am event held at E3 2018 was estimated to have drawn over 1.3 million views across Twitch and other streaming services, making it one of the highest-viewed live-streamed event to date.
A number of celebrities and athletes have said they play "Fortnite Battle Royale", such as Chance the Rapper, Joe Jonas, Finn Wolfhard, Roseanne Barr, and Norm Macdonald. For athletes, their appreciation for the game has taken on the form of recreating the various emotes in game as part of their on-field celebration dances. Such "Fortnite" celebrations were frequently throughout the 2018 FIFA World Cup event in June and July 2018, including by Antoine Griezmann after a scoring penalty kick during the final.

In March 2018, Tyler Blevins hosted a stream that included Drake, Travis Scott, Kim DotCom, and Pittsburgh Steelers wide receiver JuJu Smith-Schuster all playing the game. The stream broke over 635,000 concurrent viewers, making it the highest-watched stream on Twitch outside of eSports tournaments. By the end of 2018, Blevins had reported he had made nearly from his "Fortnite" streaming activities in 2018 with over 20 million subscribers to his YouTube and Twitch channels. Other notable people have expressed their fondness for the game; the Russo brothers, directors of "", stated that they often played "Fortnite Battle Royale" during breaks on the film's development, leading them to propose the idea of the Thanos LTM for the game. The awareness of the game from well-known celebrities has been considered a reason for further popularity and player growth of the game.

"Fortnite Battle Royale" has been jokingly referred to as the honomyn "Fork Knife" on social media, believed to have originated with people, unfamiliar with the game, described their friends and family spending time playing the game. Epic added a harvestable, non-playable "Fork Knife" food truck to the game map as the term gained popularity. In September 2018, "Fortnite" was featured as a question on the game show "Jeopardy!", and was spoofed in a skit on the September 29, 2018, episode of "Saturday Night Live". The "South Park" episode "The Scoots" featured the cast wearing "Fortnite"-based Halloween costumes. In "The Big Bang Theory" episode "The Citation Negation", Bernadette attempts to learn how to play "Fortnite Battle Royale" to beat Howard. "Fortnite" also makes an easter egg appearance in the Disney animated film "Ralph Breaks the Internet". "Fortnite" was a central focal point on the 2018 YouTube Rewind year retrospective, and included an appearance by Ninja.

With the release of the mobile version, teachers, parents, and students have found that the game had become popular to younger players due to the free-to-play nature, its cartoonish art style, and its social nature. This carries over into schools, which has been seen as a disruptive element within the classroom and affecting students' ability to complete homework assignments. Epic has since added warnings on the game's loading screens to discourage students from playing it during classes. The UK's Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, Matt Hancock, expressed concern at how much time children were playing "Fortnite Battle Royale" and similar video games without a balance of physical exercise and social interactions. Other agencies, including the United States' Center on Media and Child Health and the United Kingdom's National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children have cautioned parents that children may be influenced by the violent behavior due to "Fortnite Battle Royale". At the same time, parents have expressed appreciation for "Fortnite" to have their children engage socially outside of their core groups of friends in a game that is otherwise not excessively violent, or see offering "Fortnite" as a reward for encouraging children to do well in school, offering their children the purchase of V-bucks in exchange for good grades. Some parents see potential in their children becoming skilled in "Fortnite" as to become professional players and compete for part of the large prize pools, creating a market for tutors to help children improve their skills in the game.

Other issues related to children's interest in "Fortnite" have been raised. Several of the security issues raised around the game are heightened with younger players who may not easily recognize such illicit schemes and put themselves at risk to privacy invasion. There is some concern that pedophiles would be able to easily make contact with underage players, with at least one documented case from Florida.

"Fortnite"s popularity has drawn a network of hackers since March 2018 that target accounts with lucrative skins and emotes as to resell those accounts to other users. Some of those hackers, speaking anonymously to the BBC, stated they were making thousands of British pounds a week through these actions. Authorities that monitor the dark web have found that "Fortnite Battle Royale" has become a popular way to engage in credit card fraud: criminals with access to stolen credit card information use that to purchase V-bucks on a freshly-made "Fortnite" account when they then sell through services like eBay players at a discount, often preying on children and young adults with these schemes.

Separately, other security experts have found exploits with "Fortnite" and its underlying services that allow hackers to gain access to some accounts, enabling them to gain personal details, buy V-bucks, and listen in to the account's owner when they use the game's voice chat system. Epic has closed a key exploit that enabled this by January 2019.

In January 2018, Bluehole's PUBG Corp., the South Korean company behind "PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds" ("PUBG"), filed a lawsuit against Epic Games, claiming that "Fortnite Battle Royale" was a copyright infringement of "Battlegrounds"; they accused Epic Games of copying "PUBG"s user interface and game items. According to "Korea Times", market observers predicted that there would be little likelihood of Bluehole winning the case, as it would be difficult to establish the originality of "PUBG" in court due to the battle royale game genre, which includes both "PUBG" and "Fortnite Battle Royale", being derived from the 2000 Japanese film "Battle Royale". The case has since closed, with PUBG Corp. dropping the lawsuit in June 2018 under undisclosed reasons.

In May 2018, Epic Games filed a lawsuit against quality assurance tester Thomas Hannah after he leaked information regarding Season 4. Hannah, who had joined Epic in December 2017, breached the non-disclosure agreement by sharing details of the Season with Adam DiMarco. DiMarco later shared information in a Reddit post, spoiling the theme of the Season. Epic stated that Hannah "diminished the enjoyment of the people who play, or who watch others play, Fortnite by ruining the suspense that had been building in the Fortnite community in anticipation of upcoming season".

The popularity of "Fortnite"s dance emotes, which borrow from dance moves in popular culture, have led the creators of these dances to express concern and take legal action about these moves being sold by Epic, even though the United States Copyright Office had issued statements that individual dance moves are uncopyrightable. These include rapper 2 Milly regarding his "Milly Rock", and actor Donald Faison related to a dance move he used on the TV show "Scrubs". 2 Milly has started taking legal action against Epic with copyright infringement over the "Milly Rock"-based dance emote as well as asserting claims against personality rights under California law. Actor Alfonso Ribeiro filed a similar suit against Epic for their "Fresh" emote dance, which Ribeiro says was directly based on his character Carlton Banks' dance from "The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air". "Backpack Kid" Russell Horning, whose dance move the Floss was popularized through live performance with Katy Perry, has also initiated legal action against Epic for copyright infringement of his dance. Another lawsuit by the parent of the child that created a popular "Orange Shirt Kid" dance has also filed a lawsuit against Epic on similar grounds; in this case, while the child had submitted the dance for an Epic-run contest for a new "Fortnite" dance emote, he did not win, but fans petitioned Epic to include the dance anyway. The lawsuit challenges that the child was not recognized or compensated for the dance move. BlocBoy JB filed another suit against Epic over his "Shoot" dance move, represented by the in-game "Hype" emote, by late January 2019. Similar suits have been filed against the same dance moves used in 2K Games' "NBA 2K" games, while the offending dance moves were removed in January 2019 from the game "Forza Horizon 4", though it is unknown if this was due to legal action.

In October 2017, Epic Games filed civil complaints against two associates of the website Addicted Cheats, which for a payment provided cheating services to players. The company argued that the two defendants made and used altered game breaking code that was against the End User License Agreement and the Copyright Act.

In October 2018, Epic Games sued YouTuber Brandon Lucas, who posts videos on the channel, Golden Modz. The lawsuit details that Lucas, cheats at the game and "...promotes, advertises and sells software that enables those who use it to cheat." The lawsuit also names Lucas's secondary website in which visitors are encouraged to purchase the hack and/or Fortnite user accounts preloaded with hacks.

Epic also sent FNBRLeaks, a group that datamined the files "Fortnite" to determine new features and events that were likely coming in the near future, a cease & desist letter in December 2018, stating that their reporting of these upcoming features were negatively harming Epic and spoiling the game for the players. FNBRLeaks complied with the terms of the letter.

"Fortnite Battle Royale" has also become a cultural online phenomenon, with several celebrities reporting they play the game, and athletes using "Fortnite" emotes as victory celebrations. A notable streaming event in March 2018, with streamer Ninja playing "Fortnite Battle Royale" alongside Drake, Travis Scott, Kim DotCom, and Pittsburgh Steelers wide receiver JuJu Smith-Schuster, broke viewership records for Twitch to date, and led to Epic arranging a "Fortnite Battle Royale" pro–am with 50 pairs of streamers and professional players matched with celebrities at the Electronic Entertainment Expo 2018 in June 2018. Epic Games is working to develop organized eSports competitions around "Fortnite Battle Royale", including a "Fortnite" World Cup tournament in 2019.

Fortnite

Fortnite is an online video game developed by Epic Games and released in 2017. It is available in three distinct game mode versions that otherwise share the same general gameplay and game engine: "", a cooperative shooter-survival game for up to four players to fight off zombie-like creatures and defend objects with fortifications they can build, "Fortnite Battle Royale", a free-to-play battle royale game where up to 100 players fight to be the last person standing, and "Fortnite Creative", where players are given complete freedom to create worlds and battle arenas. The first two game modes were released in 2017 as early access titles and "Creative" was released on December 6, 2018. "Save the World" is available only for Windows, macOS, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One, while "Battle Royale" has been released for those platforms in addition for Nintendo Switch, iOS and Android devices.

While the first two games have been successful for Epic Games, "Fortnite Battle Royale" became a resounding success, drawing in more than 125 million players in less than a year and earning hundreds of millions of dollars per month, and since has been a cultural phenomenon.

Currently, "Fortnite" is distributed as three different game modes, using the same engine and has similar graphics, art assets, and game mechanics.In the first two modes, players can use a pickaxe to knock down existing structures on the map to collect basic resources that are wood, brick, and metal. Subsequently, in all modes, the player can use these materials to build fortifications with, such as walls, floors, and stairs. Such fortification pieces can be edited to add things like windows or doors. The materials used have different durability properties and can be updated to stronger variants using more materials of the same type. Within "Save the World" this enables players to create defensive fortifications around an objective or trap-filled tunnels to lure husks through. In "Battle Royale", this provides the means to quickly traverse the map, protect oneself from enemy fire, or to delay an advancing foe. Players are encouraged to be very creative in designing their fortifications in "Creative".

All game modes are set to be free-to-play titles, though, as of 2018, "Save the World" is in early access and requires purchase to play. The first two games are monetized through the use of V-Bucks, in-game currency that can be purchased with real-world funds, but also earned through completing missions and other achievements in "Save the World". V-Bucks in "Save the World" can be used to buy pinatas shaped like llamas to gain a random selection of items. In "Battle Royale", V-Bucks can be used to buy cosmetic items like character models or the like, or can also be used to purchase the game's Battle Pass, a tiered progression of customization rewards for gaining experience and completing certain objectives during the course of a "Battle Royale" season.

"Fortnite" began from an internal game jam at Epic Games following the publishing of "Gears of War 3" around 2011. Though it was not initially one of the developed titles during the jam, the concept of merging the construction game genre, representing games like "Minecraft" and "Terraria", and shooter games arose, leading to the foundation of "Fortnite". Development of "Fortnite" slowed due to several issues, including switching from the Unreal Engine 3 to Unreal Engine 4, a deeper role-playing game approach to extend the life of the game, and a switch of art style from a dark theme to a more cartoonish style. Further, Epic was looking to get into the games as a service model, and brought in Chinese publisher Tencent to help; Tencent took a large stake in Epic as part of this, leading to the departure of several executives, including Cliff Bleszinski, who had been a key part of "Fortnite"s development. "Fortnite"s approach was changed to be Epic's testbed for games as a service, and further slowed the development.

Ultimately, Epic was able to prepare to release "Fortnite" as a paid early access title in July 2017, with plans to release it as free-to-play sometime in 2019 while gaining feedback from players to improve the game. With the release of "Fortnite Battle Royale", the player-versus-environment mode was distinguished as "Save the World".

Near the same time that Epic released "Fortnite" into early access, "PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds" had become a worldwide phenomenon, having sold over 5 million copies three months from its March 2017 release, and drawing strong interest in the battle royale genre. Epic recognized that with the "Fortnite" base game, they could also do a battle royale mode, and rapidly developed their own version atop "Fortnite" in about two months. By September 2017, Epic was ready to release this as a second mode from "Save the World" in the paid-for earlier access, but then later decided to release it as a free game, "Fortnite Battle Royale", supported with microtransactions. This version quickly gained players, with over 10 million players during its first two weeks of release, and leading Epic to create separate teams to continue the "Fortnite Battle Royale" development apart from the "Save the World" mode, outside of common engine elements and art assets. This allowed "Fortnite Battle Royale" to expand to other platforms otherwise not supported by the "Save the World" mode, including iOS and Android mobile devices and the Nintendo Switch.

A creative mode launched on December 6, 2018, coincident with the start of Season 7 of "Fortnite Battle Royale". Here, each player has access to a private, persistent island which they construct buildings and add and manipulate objects as desired. Players are able to invite friends to this island, and participate in unofficial games such as race tracks or jumping courses. Initially, only players who bought the Battle Pass could get their own private island, but players who didn't purchase it got access to this game mode for free on December 13.

With all modes of "Fortnite" still considered to be early access, journalists have yet to provide comprehensive reviews of any mode.

The "Save the World" mode achieved over one million players by August 2017, just prior to the release of "Battle Royale".

"Fortnite Battle Royale", on the other hand, became a significant financial success for Epic Games, leading them to separate the teams between "Save the World" and "Battle Royale" to provide better support for both modes. Within two weeks of release, over 10 million players had played the mode, and by June 2018, just after the Nintendo Switch release, had reached 125 million players. Revenue from "Fortnite Battle Royale" during the first half of 2018 had been estimated in the hundreds of millions of dollars per month. with total 2018 revenue estimated at by analysis firm SuperData Research.

There has also been growing concern over "Fortnite Battle Royale"s draw toward young children, emphasized with the release of the mobile client. Parents and teachers had expressed concern that students are being distracted and drawn away from school work due to playing "Fortnite". Concerns have also been raised about the impact that playing a game involving repeated depictions of gun violence may have on young children.

In 2017, the game was nominated for "Best Co-op Game" by "PC Gamer", and for "Best Spectator Game" by IGN. In 2018, the game won the award for Best Ongoing Game by "PC Gamer" and IGN, the latter of which nominated it for "Best Nintendo Switch Game", "Best Mobile Game", and "Best Action Game".


When was the SMS Gneisenau built?

SMS "Gneisenau" was an armored cruiser of the German navy, part of the two-ship. She was named after August von Gneisenau, a Prussian general of the Napoleonic Wars. The ship was laid down in 1904 at the AG Weser dockyard in Bremen, launched in June 1906, and completed in March 1908, at a cost of over 19 million goldmarks. She was armed with a main battery of eight guns, had a top speed of, and displaced at full combat load.

SMS Gneisenau

"Gneisenau" was assigned to the German East Asia Squadron based in Tsingtao, China, along with, in 1910. They served as the core of Vice Admiral Maximilian von Spee's fleet. After the outbreak of World War I in August 1914, the two ships, accompanied by three light cruisers and several colliers, sailed across the Pacific Ocean—in the process evading the various Allied naval forces sent to intercept them—before arriving off the southern coast of South America. On 1 November 1914, "Gneisenau" and the rest of the East Asia Squadron encountered and overpowered a British squadron at the Battle of Coronel. The stinging defeat prompted the British Admiralty to detach two battlecruisers to hunt down and destroy von Spee's flotilla, which they accomplished at the Battle of the Falkland Islands on 8 December 1914.

"Gneisenau" was laid down at the AG Weser shipyard in Bremen, Germany in 1904, under construction number 144. She was launched on 14 June 1906, and commissioned into the fleet nearly two years later on 6 March 1908. The ship cost the German government 19,243,000 goldmarks. The ship had been designed for service with the High Seas Fleet, though it was found to be too weak for service with the battle fleet; instead it was deployed overseas, a role in which it performed well.

"Gneisenau" was long overall, and had a beam of, a draft of. The ship displaced standard, and at full load. "Gneisenau"s crew consisted of 38 officers and 726 enlisted men. The ship was powered by coal-fired triple expansion engines that provided a top speed of

"Gneisenau"s primary armament consisted of eight 21 cm (8.2 inch) SK L/40 guns, four in twin gun turrets, one fore and one aft of the main superstructure, and the remaining four were mounted in single wing turrets. Secondary armament included six 15 cm (5.9 inch) SK L/40 guns in MPL casemates, and eighteen 8.8 cm (3.45 inch) guns mounted in casemates. She was also equipped with four submerged torpedo tubes. One was mounted in the bow, one on each broadside, and the fourth was placed in the stern.

Field Marshal Alfred von Schlieffen, the former Chief of the General staff, christened the ship at her commissioning on 6 March 1908. Captain Franz von Hipper was the ship's first commanding officer; he took command of the ship the day she was commissioned. He was tasked with conducting the ship's shakedown cruise, which lasted from 26 March to the middle of July. She officially joined the fleet on 12 July. The ship then departed for Asia, though Hipper left the ship and went on to command the I Torpedo-boat Division in Kiel. "Gneisenau" was assigned to the "Ostasiengeschwader" (East Asia Squadron), where in 1910 she joined "Scharnhorst", which had been assigned to the unit the previous year. The two ships formed the core of the squadron, with "Scharnhorst" serving as the flagship. The pair were crack gunnery ships; "Gneisenau" won the Kaiser's Cup four times during her career: twice while in German waters in 1908 and 1909 and twice in Asia in 1910 and 1911, and "Scharnhorst"s finished in second place in 1913 and 1914.

In June 1914, the annual summer cruise of the East Asia Squadron began; "Gneisenau" rendezvoused with "Scharnhorst" in Nagasaki, Japan, where they received a full supply of coal. They then sailed south, arriving in Truk in early July where they restocked their coal supplies. While en route, they received news of the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand in Sarajevo. On 17 July, the East Asia Squadron arrived in Ponape in the Caroline Islands. Here, von Spee had access to the German radio network, where he learned of the Austro-Hungarian declaration of war on Serbia and the Russian mobilization. On 31 July, word came that the German ultimatum, which demanded the demobilization of Russia's armies, was set to expire. Von Spee ordered his ships be stripped for war. On 2 August, Kaiser Wilhelm II ordered German mobilization against France and Russia.

At the outbreak of World War I the East Asia Squadron consisted of "Gneisenau" and "Scharnhorst", and the light cruisers,, and. On 6 August 1914, "Gneisenau", "Scharnhorst", the supply ship "Titania", and the Japanese collier "Fukoku Maru" were still in Ponape; von Spee had issued orders to recall the light cruisers, which had been dispersed on various cruises around the Pacific. "Nürnberg" joined von Spee that day. Von Spee decided the best place to concentrate his forces was Pagan Island in the northern Marianas Islands, a German possession in the central Pacific. All available colliers, supply ships, and passenger liners were ordered to meet the East Asia Squadron there. On 11 August, von Spee arrived in Pagan; he was joined by several supply ships, as well as "Emden" and the auxiliary cruiser "Prinz Eitel Friedrich".

The flotilla was reinforced with the arrival of "Emden" and "Nürnberg"; the ships then departed the central Pacific, bound for Chile. On 13 August the captain of "Emden", Commodore Karl von Müller, persuaded von Spee to detach his ship for commerce raiding. On 14 August, the East Asia Squadron departed Pagan for Enewetak Atoll in the Marshall Islands. The ships again coaled after their arrival on 20 August. In order to keep the German high command informed, von Spee detached "Nürnberg" on 8 September to Honolulu to send word through neutral countries. "Nürnberg" brought back news of the Allied capture of the German colony at Samoa on 29 August. "Gneisenau" and "Scharnhorst" sailed to Apia to investigate the situation, but on 14 September found no suitable targets.

At the Battle of Papeete on 22 September, "Gneisenau" and the rest of the East Asia Squadron bombarded the colony. During the bombardment, the French gunboat was sunk by gunfire from the German ships. Fear of mines in the harbor prevented von Spee from seizing the coal that lay in the harbor. By 12 October, "Gneisenau" and the rest of the squadron had reached Easter Island. There they were joined by and "Leipzig", which had sailed from American waters. "Dresden" was stationed in the Caribbean, but had been in San Francisco when von Spee issued the order to consolidate German naval forces in the Pacific. After a week off Easter Island, the ships departed for the Chilean mainland.

To oppose the German squadron off the coast of South America, the British had scant resources; under the command of Rear Admiral Christopher Craddock were the armored cruisers and, the light cruiser, and the auxiliary cruiser. This flotilla was reinforced by the elderly pre-dreadnought battleship and the armored cruiser, the latter, however, did not arrive until after the Battle of Coronel. "Canopus" was left behind by Craddock, who likely felt that her slow speed would prevent him from bringing the German ships to battle.

On the evening of 26 October, "Gneisenau" and the rest of the squadron steamed out of Mas a Fuera, Chile, and headed eastward. Von Spee learned that "Glasgow" had been spotted in Coronel on the 31st, and so turned toward the port. He arrived on the afternoon of 1 November, and to his surprise, encountered "Good Hope", "Monmouth", and "Otranto" as well as "Glasgow". "Canopus" was still some behind, escorting the British colliers. At 17:00, "Glasgow" spotted the Germans; Craddock formed a line with "Good Hope" in the lead, followed by "Monmouth", "Glasgow", and "Otranto" in the rear. Von Spee decided to hold off on engaging the British until the sun had set more, at which point the British ships would be silhouetted by the sun. At this point, Craddock realized the uselessness of "Otranto" in the line of battle, and so detached her.

At 19:00, the German ships closed to attack. In the span of five minutes, the German cruisers' guns had seriously damaged "Good Hope", which was destroyed by a magazine explosion. "Monmouth" attempted to escape to the south; she was burning furiously and her guns had fallen silent. "Nürnberg" closed to point-blank range of "Monmouth" and poured shells into her. "Glasgow" was forced to abandon "Monmouth" after 20:20, before fleeing south and meeting with "Canopus". "Monmouth" eventually capsized and sank at 21:18. Over 1,600 men were killed in the sinking of the two armored cruisers, including Admiral Craddock; German losses were negligible. However, the German ships had expended over 40% of their ammunition supply.

Once word of the defeat reached London, the Royal Navy set to organizing a force to hunt down and destroy the East Asia Squadron. To this end, the powerful new battlecruisers and were detached from the Grand Fleet and placed under the command of Vice Admiral Doveton Sturdee. The two ships left Devonport on 10 November, and while en route to the Falkland Islands, they were joined by the armored cruisers,, and, the light cruisers and "Glasgow", and the "Otranto". The force of eight ships reached the Falklands by 7 December, where they immediately coaled.

"Gneisenau" and "Nürnberg", the first two ships in the German line, approached the Falklands on the same morning, with the intention of destroying the wireless transmitter there. Observers aboard "Gneisenau" spotted the two battlecruisers in the harbor of Port Stanley, and when shells were fired from "Canopus", which had been beached as a guard ship, the Germans turned to flee. The Germans took a south-easterly course at. Von Spee formed his line with "Gneisenau" and "Nürnberg" ahead, "Scharnhorst" in the center, and "Dresden" and "Leipzig" astern. The fast battlecruisers quickly got up steam and sailed out of the harbor to pursue the East Asia Squadron.

By 13:20, the faster British ships had caught up with "Gneisenau" and the other cruisers, and began to fire at a range of. Von Spee realized his armored cruisers could not escape the much faster battlecruisers, and so ordered the three light cruisers to attempt to break away while he turned about to engage the British with "Gneisenau" and "Scharnhorst". However, Sturdee detached his armored and light cruisers to pursue the German light cruisers, while the battlecruisers dealt with "Gneisenau" and "Scharnhorst". "Inflexible" attacked "Gneisenau" while "Invincible" opened fire at "Scharnhorst". Sturdee attempted to widen the distance by turning two points to the north to prevent von Spee from closing to within the range of his smaller guns. Von Spee counteracted this maneuver by turning rapidly to the south, which forced Sturdee to turn south as well. This allowed "Scharnhorst" and "Gneisenau" to get close enough to engage with their secondary guns; their shooting was so effective that it forced the British to haul away temporarily.

At 16:04, "Scharnhorst" was observed from "Inflexible" as having rapidly listed to port, and she sank at 16:17. Shortly before she sank, von Spee transmitted one last order to "Gneisenau": "Endeavor to escape if your engines are still intact." Damage to the ship's boiler rooms had reduced her speed to, however, and so the ship continued to fight on. "Gneisenau" scored a hit on "Invincible" as late as 17:15. By 17:30, however, the ship was a burning wreck; she had a severe list to starboard and smoke poured from the ship, which came to a stop. Ten minutes later, the British ships closed in and the flag on "Gneisenau"s foremast was struck; at 17:50, Sturdee ordered his ships to cease fire. "Gneisenau"s captain ordered the crew to scuttle the ship, as they had expended their ammunition and the engines were disabled. The ship slowly rolled over and sank, but not before allowing some 200 of the survivors time to escape. Of these men, many died quickly from exposure in the water. A total of 598 men of her crew were killed in the engagement. "Leipzig", and "Nürnberg" were also sunk. Only "Dresden" managed to escape, but she was eventually tracked to the Juan Fernandez Island and sunk. The complete destruction of the squadron killed some 2,200 German sailors and officers, including two of von Spee's sons.Online sources

SMS Gneisenau


Where are the Harris Corporation headquarters?

Headquartered in Melbourne, Florida, the company has approximately $7 billion of annual revenue. It is the largest private-sector employer in Brevard County, Florida (approximately 6,000). The company was the parent of Intersil (Harris Semiconductor). Most of the wireless start-ups in South Brevard County were founded and are staffed by former Harris Corporation engineers and technicians. The company's Digital Telephone Systems (DTS) division was sold to Teltronics.

Harris Corporation

Harris Corporation is an American technology company, defense contractor and information technology services provider that produces wireless equipment, tactical radios, electronic systems, night vision equipment and both terrestrial and spaceborne antennas for use in the government, defense and commercial sectors. They specialize in surveillance solutions, microwave weaponry, and electronic warfare.

In 2016, Harris was named one of the top hundred federal contractors by "Defense News". In January 2015, "Wired" Magazine ranked Harris Corporation—tied with U.S. Marshals Service—as the number two threat to privacy and communications on the Internet.

The "Harris Automatic Press Company" was founded by Alfred S. Harris in Niles, Ohio, in 1895. The company spent the next 60 years developing lithographic processes and printing presses before acquiring typesetting company Intertype Corporation. In 1957, Harris acquired Gates Radio, a producer of broadcast transmitters and associated electronics gear, but kept the Gates brand name alive by putting the Gates sticker on the back of numerous transmitters that were labeled Harris on the front panels.

In 1959, they acquired microwave technology company PRD Electronics of Brooklyn, New York.

In 1960, they merged with Radiation, Inc. of Melbourne, Florida, a developer of antenna, integrated circuit and modem technology used in the space race. The company headquarters was moved from Cleveland to Melbourne in 1978.

In 1969, Harris Corporation acquired RF Communications and Farinon Electric Corporation, furthering its microwave assets. The printing operations were sold off in 1983 and are now known as GSS Printing Equipment. GSS Printing Equipment later acquired Lanier Worldwide, which itself was spun off from Harris Corporation in the late 1990s.

In 1979, Harris formed a semiconductor joint venture Matra Harris Semiconductors (MHS), from which Harris withdrew in 1989. After further changes MHS was taken over by Atmel.

In 1988, Harris acquired GE's semiconductor business, which at this time, also incorporated the Intersil and RCA semiconductor businesses. These were combined with Harris' existing semiconductor businesses.

In 1996, Harris Corporation formed a joint venture with Shenzhen Telecom Company to produce and sell Harris' digital microwave radios and integrate them with other systems.

In November 1998, Harris sold its commercial and standard military logic (semiconductor) product lines to Texas Instruments, which included the HC/HCT, CD4000, AC/ACT and FCT product families. Harris retained production of the Radiation Hardened versions of these products.

In 1999, Harris spun off their remaining semiconductor business as an independent company, under the Intersil name.

In 2005, the corporation spent $870 million on research and development.

Harris Corporation developed a Hand Held Computer for use during the address canvassing portion of the 2010 United States Census. Secured access via a fingerprint swipe guaranteed that only the verified user had access to the unit. A GPS capacity was integral to the daily address management and the transfer of information that was gathered. Of major importance was the security and integrity of the personal and private information of the populace.

In January 2011, Harris re-opened its Calgary, Alberta avionics operation, Harris Canada Inc.. The expanded facility's operations include among others the support of the work to be completed under the company's six-year, $273 million (CAD) services contract with the Government of Canada for the CF-18 Avionics Optimized Weapon System Support (OWSS) program.

On December 2012, Harris Corporation sold its broadcast equipment operations to the Gores Group which operated as Harris Broadcast and is now GatesAir. Harris received $225M for the transaction, exactly half of what it paid seven years earlier for Leitch Technology, its final acquisition for the Broadcast division.

On May 29, 2015, the purchase of competitor Exelis Inc. was finalized, almost doubling the size of the original company.

In July 2015, Harris Corporation sold its healthcare division, Harris Healthcare Solutions, to NantHealth.

In January 2017, Harris sold off its government IT services division to Veritas Capital for $690 million.

In October 2018 Harris announced an all-stock "merger of equals" with New York-based L3 Technologies, to be closed (subject to approvals) in mid-2019. The new company, tentatively called L3 Harris Technologies, Inc., will be based in Melbourne, Florida, where Harris is currently headquartered.

The Harris Communication Systems segment serves markets in tactical and airborne radios, night vision technology and defense and public safety networks.

The Harris Electronic Systems segment provides products and services in electronic warfare, air traffic management, avionics, wireless technology, C4I, undersea systems and aerostructures.

Electronic Systems (ES) division provides the "ALQ-214" radio frequency jamming equipment for the U.S. Navy's F/A-18 Hornet aircraft. The ALQ-214 was originally developed by Exelis ES, which Harris acquired in 2015. ES is also a provider of components in the avionics package and targeting systems for the U.S. Navy's F/A-18 and EA-18 Growlers.

The Harris Space and Intelligence Systems segment, formed when Harris purchased Exelis, provides capabilities in Earth observation, weather, geospatial monitoring, space protection and intelligence, including sensors and payloads, ground processing and information analytics.

Harris Corporation produces multiple cell-site simulator products, such as the StingRay and Hailstorm phone trackers (see table below); These masquerade as legitimate cellphone towers duping mobile devices to connect to them instead of real cellular networks, so all wireless voice and data traffic originating in a given area are intercepted by the systems, enabling Stingray operators to conduct mass surveillance and triangulate the position of mobile devices.

Originally developed for the U.S. Navy and later used in the global "war on terror" outside the US, they've increasingly been used by US police agencies. More than six U.S. federal agencies use these platforms, including the FBI, Drug Enforcement Administration and Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) says at least 53 law enforcement agencies in 21 states, use this or similar devices.

These platforms are controversial as they surveil communications of all mobile devices in their vicinity, including those of individuals not suspected of any crimes. Harris have been criticized by civil rights advocates for requiring local municipalities, police and state governments to enter into non-disclosure agreements (NDA) and to conceal usage of these platforms from citizens and the courts. Such NDA may violate public record and open access laws. The ACLU, Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC), Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) filed two successful civil lawsuits over denied Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests and violations of the public records laws of Florida.

In September 2014, as a result of successful litigation, ACLU received documents and emails between Harris Corporation and the Federal Communications Commission relating to FCC approval of Harris' surveillance systems. ACLU then sent a letter to FCC stating, in their view, Harris misled FCC Office of Engineering and Technology staff during the regulatory review process by falsely claiming the systems were only used in emergency situations and not criminal investigations.

In 2006, Harris employees directly conducted wireless surveillance using StingRay units on behalf of the Palm Bay Police Department—where Harris has a campus—in response to a bomb threat against a middle school. The search was conducted without a warrant or judicial oversight.

In 2015, Santa Clara County withdrew from contract negotiations with Harris for StingRay units, noting the reason was the onerous restrictions imposed by Harris on what could be released under public records requests.