Epic Games has introduced a main change to the costs and distribution of Fortnite’s in-game V-Bucks foreign money, and blamed the price will increase on the want to “assist pay the payments.”
Fortnite’s billion dollar-grossing battle royale mode launched again in 2017, and has steadily discovered itself as half of the cultural zeitgeist. However whereas current years have seen ever-bigger collaborations with films and pop stars, its participant numbers have been dwarfed by third-party recreation platform Roblox.
Earlier this yr, Fortnite started permitting its personal third-party recreation creators to start promoting microtransaction objects (whereas Epic Games took a lower), a transfer that Epic itself beforehand mentioned it would not entertain. The broader firm has additionally been busy spending huge on free video games to entice customers to its PC storefront, battling Apple and Google in the courtroom, and constructing an in-game mode backed by a $1.5 billion funding by Disney.
All of that mentioned, nonetheless, you will quickly be paying extra for V-Bucks. You will additionally get fewer free V-Bucks from the recreation’s battle move, and fewer from the recreation’s Fortnite Crew subscription.
At the identical time, Epic Games has lowered the V-Bucks price of the battle move (and the OG, Music and LEGO Passes) barely in a transfer that makes this appear a little extra palatable. However in a world the place all of the recreation’s huge collaborations land in the Fortnite store, it is the rise in V-Bucks costs that can possible see followers in the end forking over more cash than earlier than.
One other main change will see the Fortnite battle move solely embrace the precise quantity of V-Bucks essential to purchase the subsequent one, reasonably than offering half its worth once more as a bonus.
$8.99 will now get you 800 V-Bucks, down from 1000, which can also be the new price of the recreation’s important battle move and OG Cross. (The Music and LEGO passes will price 1,200 V-Bucks going ahead, as a substitute of 1,400.)
$22.99 will get you 2,400 V-Bucks (beforehand 2,800), $36.99 is now value 4,500 (down from 5,000), whereas $89.99 will get you 12,500 V-Bucks (as a substitute of 13,500). In the event you’re topping up your account with a precise quantity of V-Bucks to purchase a particular merchandise, in the meantime, it now prices $0.99 per 50 V-Bucks reasonably than $0.50, successfully doubling the value.
Aside from stating that it wants assist paying the payments, Epic Games has not made any additional touch upon the reasoning for the value rises. The modifications will go into impact on March 19, at the starting of the subsequent battle royale season — a trailer for which dropped to fan acclaim simply yesterday. (Absolutely Dwayne Johnson would not price that a lot? Perhaps he does.)
Tom Phillips is IGN’s Information Editor. You’ll be able to attain Tom at tom_phillips@ign.com or discover him on Bluesky @tomphillipseg.bsky.social