Netflix and Enthusiast Gaming bring One Piece to Fortnite

Netflix and Enthusiast Gaming have launched a game on Fortnite inspired by the live-action version of the popular manga series One Piece, the companies announced on Wednesday. 

Created in collaboration with Metavision, the One Piece gaming experience features custom graphics and animations that depict the three classic ships shown in One Piece, which launched on Netflix on August 31. 

“Battles” in the game map center around two factions depicted in the show: the Straw Hat Pirates and the Marines. 

Similar to other battle royale games, when players join the experience, they are assigned to one of the two crews and equipped with swords, flint-knock pistols and cannons. The object of the game is to attempt to destroy the opponent's ship in order to be crowned the winner.

The game comes as anime, particularly One Piece, continues to grow in popularity internationally, as global audiences become increasingly attracted to the Japanese animation style. 

According to Polygon, One Piece is not only the top-selling manga series of all time, estimating approximately $516.6 million in sales, but it also broke the world record for the most copies published for the same comic book series by a single author in 2015 and again in 2022. 

Meanwhile, the anime series, which was created by Toei Animation and licensed in North America by Crunchyroll, is estimated to draw “40.7 times the demand of the average TV series in the last 30 days,” according to Parrot Analytics. 

The live action series on Netflix by the same name has also already broken viewership records held by Wednesday and Stranger Things. Despite its release less than a week ago, it is already the No. 1 ranked TV series in 84 countries. 

The experience was created using the Fortnite Creative tool called the Unreal Editor for Fortnite (UEFN), which allows users to design, create and share custom gaming experiences with other players. The toolset, which was released earlier this year by Fortnite developer Epic Games, lets developers create custom audio and visual assets from show productions without requiring a direct Epic Games partnership. 

“We're super excited to be bringing a cultural heavyweight like One Piece to the metaverse, where the world can be explored and enjoyed by an entirely new audience,” said Ashley Lewis, managing director at Metavision, in a statement. “It was particularly inspiring to see how far we could push things with the recently launched UEFN toolset, and it's safe to say it's remarkable what can now be achieved on the platform.”

The new One Piece map and gametype will be featured on the September 12th episode of Enthusiast Gaming’s NFL Tuesday Night Gaming, a weekly gaming competition featuring NFL players and legends goingo head-to-head with gaming creators across popular video game titles. 

Players can find the experience through the Fortnite Discovery tab by entering the code “7374-8187-1871” or heading to a dedicated sublink. 

“This collaboration with Netflix is an exciting example of how Enthusiast Gaming is creating unique and immersive experiences for brands that are scalable across digital entertainment and gaming platforms,” said Amanda Rubin, EVP, brand solutions at Enthusiast Gaming, in a statement. “NFL Tuesday Night Gaming continues to offer a distinct opportunity to engage diverse communities through shared passions of gaming, sports, and entertainment.”