Tyler “Ninja” Blevins, quite possibly the most well-known professional Fortnite streamer and player, has signed a three-book deal with Random House with and Ten Speed Press. The agreement will produce a guidebook, notebook, and graphic novel.
The guidebook, tentatively titled Ninja: Get Good, is written with the intent of helping players become better at the game, featuring tips and tricks to up their experiences each match. The Ninja Notebook, simply for jotting down whatever one likes, comes with stickers and prompts written by Ninja, and will release alongside the guidebook in August of 2019. Lastly, and perhaps most interestingly, Ninja: The Most Dangerous Game, is the first in a series of graphic novels by author Justin Jordan and artist Felipe Magaña with an expected December release.
Along with his other sponsorship deals, this is primarily a cash grab that comes with Ninja’s success in the Fortnite game. For the unfamiliar, Fortnite is one of the largest, more profitable online video games in the world right now, owned by Epic Games. It focuses on the Battle Royale genre, which pits 100 players against each other until only one is the victor, and all others are eliminated.
The publishing deal clearly has young children in mind as seen with the notebook and its accompanying stickers. The guidebook, as well, feels like a novelty for younger children or teens to look at with friends. The game Fortnite changes so quickly, often on a biweekly or monthly timeline that any specific information about the map or weapons could already be outdated by the time the book hits the shelves. Still, general tactics described by Ninja will likely always be useful.
The graphic novel is the most interesting because it must be adapting the character of Ninja from a popular entertainer who spends all day on his computer to something of an action star. Otherwise, the graphic novel would probably be boring if it was page after page of Ninja in various sitting positions while playing the game.
The success or failure of this initial deal is sure to lay the groundwork for future deals as well. Success will mean more of the same, both for Ninja and other popular streamers, while failure is most likely to see the project buried for some time.
If successful, it also means that streamers may follow in Ninja’s footsteps by actively making their streaming channels, most of which are on Twitch, more family friendly by limited profanity and adult content so as to expand their younger audience base. While there are many other streamers that cater towards an older audience, it feels doubtful that older viewers would purchase any of those items to be published.
Fortnite is available on Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, mobile, or Mac/Windows PC.