Where Do Your Fortnite Dollars Really Go? - The Origin Story of Tim Sweeney - Extra Credits

Now, in a few months, we're going to be doing an episode on why Fortnite makes so much money. But, while doing the research for that, we stumbled upon something else. Where your Fortnite money really goes. You might be surprised to know where that money you spent on a battle pass actually ends up. I know I was. Because honestly, I was skeptical. I mean, how could I not be? With all of the heartbreaking news recently surrounding the business side of gaming, it's hard to think of game companies as anything but big corporate money machines. But, sometimes, just sometimes, some of those people in those companies do really admirable things. So, while our next video on Fortnite will be all about looking into questions like why spending money on it is something that almost any parent of a middle schooler has been asked to do, today's episode is going to be about Tim Sweeney. Tim Sweeney founded Epic. He's been there since the beginning. He was there when it was nothing. He's been there during the hard

times, and he's still there today when Epic's riding high. But, there's something he's always loved outside of his company. Actually, quite literally. The forest. Now, specifically, the forests of his home state of North Carolina. And in the long run, that, rather than Fortnite or Unreal, might be what he's truly remembered for. It may be those acres of unspoiled land that's his true legacy. Because quietly, he's been pouring millions of dollars into protecting them. He's now become, unobtrusively, with barely anyone noticing, one of the biggest private land owners in North Carolina. He's picked up nearly 40,000 acres of land all across the state. And just for reference, that's larger than the entire country of Liechtenstein. But, what's really exceptional about this is that he's pledged to give much of it to conservation groups that can take it on, or to give it back to the state when they're able to maintain it as state parks. Not to mention, he's let biologists and conservationists study the land while he holds it in trust.

He's also given millions to state park expansions and donated tens of millions to other conservation efforts. In 2016, a power company was trying to run power lines through the Box Creek Wilderness. This unique piece of ecology filled with rare and endangered species. So, Sweeney gave 15 million to protect the land and buy the power company an alternate route for their power lines, which he offered to give them free of charge. In 2018, in Stone Hills, he picked up 1,500 acres of longleaf pine that was going to be bulldozed to make a high-end golf resort. Longleaf pine used to cover the majority of the Southern United States, but now there's only around 3% of it left that hasn't been logged. But, thanks to his efforts, there's one more resort's worth of longleaf pine that won't disappear. And when you hear him talk about the acres of forest he's already purchased, he really understands what it is he's conserving and how conservation is done. It's clear that this isn't just some foundation or charitable arm that's

making investments for him. He set out to take his wealth and preserve some of the planet for all of us. And it makes sense. Tim Sweeney has often said that when he was a child, there was only one game that really captivated him, Adventure on the Atari 2600. He said that it reminded him of the wonder of walking in the woods. That's what got him into games. That's what got him to learn to program. After playing Adventure, he wanted to make Adventure 2. So, he sat down as a child and started to learn how. Without that wonder, we'd never have Unreal or Gears or Fortnite. He's also spoken of another incident that drove him. When he was young, his grandmother had to sell the logging rights to the land around her farm to pay medical bills. The memory of the way the land transformed is what drove him decades later when he was in a position to begin picking up land in North Carolina that was under threat. So at the end of the day, it's good to remember that these titans of industry, the games that are making upwards of a

billion dollars a year, they're produced by people. And while sometimes those people turn out to be in it for nothing more than personal gain, every once in a rare while you get surprised and find out that some of them are using that money to do some real good. Indeed, Zoey. Thanks, Tim. No, he's not going to let you on THE BATTLE BUS. WHAT THE HECK? HEY, great story, EC. It's good to know those V-bucks are going somewhere cool. Hold on. Who are you? And did you just break our studio? You mean your new skylight? Don't worry about that. Skylight? What the Hey, I'm John, editor-in-chief at Fanbyte. If you like the story you just watched as much as I did, you'll love what we're doing over at fanbyte.com. All right. Well, first off, that actually sounds very cool. But but secondly, did you just call that smoldering hole a skylight? Semantics. Well, who's going to pay for those semantics?

Woah. Wow, look at the time. I am super late for my gliding lesson. But uh hey, check the link in the description and I'll see you over there. Okay. Um bye. We should really get some animated security in here, don't you think?