So here’s a weird double crossover story for your Wednesday morning: The company best known for War Thunder just poured a ton of money into the Fortnite ecosystem, marking firsts for both Gaijin and Fortnite. Basically, Gaijin bought a major player-generated map in Fortnite in the hopes of making even more money from it.

“Gaijin Entertainment is thrilled to announce the acquisition of The Pit, one of the most successful user-created maps in Fortnite. This multi-million-dollar deal in the Fortnite Creative ecosystem signals a new strategic direction for Gaijin, as the company makes a major move into the user-generated content space. Originally developed by renowned Fortnite creator Geerzy (Gavin Gear), The Pit has been a standout success in Fortnite, attracting millions of players. With Fortnite operating as an expansive ecosystem where creators can monetize their maps through Epic Games’ engagement payout model, this acquisition represents a highly profitable and scalable opportunity for Gaijin.”

Apparently, Gaijin substudio EndoWorlds has already been managing and building out the Pit map for two months, and now the formal deal has been struck. The presser links to the map, which launched in 2020 and saw its all-time peak concurrency of around 140K players seven months ago, ranking it number 69 (nice) in all-time concurrency among Fortnite maps.

The press release argues that “traditional publishers [are] embracing UGC as a core growth strategy” as they pivot to “scalable, creator-driven ecosystems” with “millions of players.” Gaijin, which has already been publishing third party titles for years, says this is all just part of its ongoing diversification strategy.