Fortnite developer reveals reason why Metroid’s Samus didn’t join the game, says Nintendo ‘hung up’ because the characters were on other platforms
A former Epic Games developer has revealed why Metroid’s playable protagonist Samus Aran never joined Fortnite.
Fortnite‘s character roster has grown exponentially over the years, from original Epic designs, to introducing the likes of John Wick and Geralt of Rivia, to collaborations with big names like Star Wars And Miracle to offer full casts from popular movies and TV shows.
We’ve even seen PlayStation and Xbox icons Kratos and Master Chief appear, and more recently Avatar: The last airbender. It doesn’t look like Epic Games will be slowing down the collaboration any more and it seems like pretty much every company is willing to work with the Fortnite developer; apart from just one.
For years, players have wondered when Nintendo will finally decide to bring its characters to the game Fortniteespecially after PlayStation and Xbox’s ongoing partnership with Epic, but it doesn’t seem like that’s going to happen anytime soon.
In 2021, however court documents from the Epic vs. Apple trial were revealed, detailing plans for Epic to add Samus Aran to the Battle Royale, among other things, but they never were.
According to former Epic Games chief creative officer Donald Mustard, the collaboration didn’t work out because Nintendo didn’t want to see its characters on a platform other than its own.
“They really got hung up on having their characters appear on platforms that weren’t their platforms,” Mustard said in an interview with Game file. “They would be really happy if it had Nintendo characters in it Fortnitebut only if it is on their platform.”
This suggests that Nintendo would have cooperated if the Samus skin appeared exclusively on the Nintendo Switch, which Mustard said went against Epic’s vision for the game.
“For me and for all of Epic, we say, ‘That’s an absolute must,” he said. “We want to make sure of that Fortnite is the same experience no matter what screen or device you’re playing on.”