Epic Games launches Fortnite’s Spy Within social game with Houseparty video chat

Epic Games is launching a new social game called Fortnite’s Spy Within, which is the company’s version of popular social deduction titles like Werewolf and Among Us.

This new Fornite experience is based on and named after the popular Fortnite Creative user-generated map, Spy Within, which gamers/creators KKslider and Dolphin Dom made. A lot of players might view this as predatory, as Epic Games is trying to muscle in on the turf of Among Us, a popular indie title. But it’s a familiar pattern, as Among Us is based on the older Werewolf title and Fortnite’s battle royale mode is based on the design of PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds. Epic’s model is to evolve Fortnite to be whatever it needs to be to hang on to its users as it becomes a sort of proto “metaverse.”

Spy Within is a new limited-time event for the holidays.

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

In Spy Within, 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, trying to eliminate other players in the space station without revealing their identities. They must do this before the rest of the crew (eight other players) completes their tasks or votes the spies out.

Players can use the new Fortnite video chat feature from Houseparty to meet and find the spy. Epic Games acquired Houseparty as a synchronous face-to-face social network with video communication on mobile and the desktop.

Houseparty is bringing together eight of Twitch’s most popular streamers, like Ninja and Dr Lupo, to play Fortnite’s Spy Within with comedian and actress, Sarah Silverman, and TV personality and digital star, David Dobrik. Spy Within is a new limited time Fortnite event for the holidays where players have to team up to root out a player who’s working to undermine them within their team. Sarah, David and the streamers will use the new Fortnite video chat feature from Houseparty to meet, collaborate and find the spy. It is airing starting at 3 p.m. Pacific time on December 15.