Houseparty, the social video chat app acquired by Fortnite maker Epic Games for a reported $35 million in 2019, is shutting down. The company says Houseparty will be discontinued in October when the app will stop functioning for its existing users; however, it will be pulled from the app stores today. Related to this move, Epic Games’ “Fortnite Mode” feature, which leveraged Houseparty to bring video chat to Fortnite gamers, will also be discontinued.
Founded in 2015, Houseparty offered a way for users to participate in group video chats with friends and even play games like Uno, trivia, Heads Up, etc. Last year, Epic Games integrated Houseparty with Fortnite, initially to allow gamers to see live feeds from friends while gaming, then later adding support to Livestream gameplay directly into Houseparty. At the time, these integrations appeared to be the end goal that explained why Epic Games had bought the social startup in the first place.
Now, just over two years after the acquisition was announced and less than half a year since support for livestreaming was added to the app, Houseparty is shutting down. The company didn’t offer any solid insight into what, at first glance, feels like an admission of failure to capitalize on its acquisition. But the reality is that Epic Games may have something more significant in-store beyond just video chat. That said, all Epic Games would say today is that the Houseparty team could no longer give the app the attention it required — a statement that indicates an executive decision to shift the team’s focus to other matters.
While none of the Houseparty team members are being let go due to this move, we’re told they will join other teams to work on new ways to allow for “social interactions” across the Epic Games family of products. The company’s announcement hinted that those social features would be designed and built at the “metaverse scale.” The “metaverse” is an increasingly used buzzword that references a shared virtual environment, like those provided by large-scale online gaming platforms such as Fortnite, Roblox, etc. Facebook, too, claims the metaverse is the next big gambit for social networking, with CEO Mark Zuckerberg describing it as an “embodied internet that you’re inside of rather than just looking at.”
To some extent, Fortnite has begun to embrace the metaverse by offering non-gaming experiences like online concerts you attend as your avatar and other live events. After its shutdown, Houseparty also toyed with live events that users would co-watch and participate in alongside their friends. An Epic Games spokesperson tells TechCrunch the Houseparty team has worked on (and continues to work on) several other projects that focus on social. But we’re told that some of the “multiple, larger projects” Epic Games has in the works remain undisclosed.
Regarding social products, Houseparty’s technology now underpins all of the Fortnite voice chat. The features they built are widely available for developers through Epic Games Services. For free. They also worked on building new social experiences, ranging from the social RSVP functions for Fortnite’s global events, like the recent Ariana Grande concert, to the upcoming “Operation: Sky Fire” event for collaborating quests and other game mechanics. More social functionality and new experiences are also built into Fortnite’s user-generated content platform, Create Mode. While it may seem odd to close an app that only last year experienced a boost in usage due to the pandemic, the COVID bump didn’t have to stay power.
