The Fortnite Battle Pass price increase shows that sometimes less is more
Mine Fortnite locker, the name of the UI that holds all my cosmetic items, has become the video game equivalent of a junk drawer. Scroll through my account and you’ll find a backpack version of Ninken from Naruto next to a rainbow weapon wrap I got from the 2021 Pride collection. The game includes submenus for emotes, wraps, cars, instruments, and Lego kits. It’s all too much, and honestly I’m afraid that the recent changes in… Fortnite Epic Games’ subscription service ignores a simple truth: sometimes less is more.
On Wednesday, Epic Games announced a big change for Fortnite Crewthe monthly subscription service that rewards players with the Battle Royale Battle Pass, V-bucks and other benefits. Starting December 1, Fortnite Crew subscribers will receive Music Pass and Lego Pass content at no additional cost. So once the change goes live, players who subscribe to it will be able to progress and redeem cosmetics for the other games on the platform, such as Fortnite Festival battle passes and Lego Fortnite.
At first glance this seems extremely consumer-friendly – and in many ways it is. It essentially gives people more items for free. If I subscribe and only want to play Battle Royale mode, I still get a bunch of other cosmetics from other games on Fortnite. In addition, Epic Games has also changed the way the battle pass works, so leveling one pass will unlock the items on the other. This way you don’t have to grind each game individually if you’re interested in earning cosmetics from other battle passes.
It sounds great, but the announcement came with one more announcement: the standard price of the Battle Royale Battle Pass (outside of the Crew subscription) will be increased from 950 to 1,000 V-bucks.
The price increase does not significantly change how much you pay in dollars. You can purchase 1,000 V-bucks for $8.99 from the in-game store. Furthermore, 50 V-buck isn’t exactly an exorbitant amount of currency, and it’s not even enough to buy a low-tier emote. However, if you’re a casual player, that amount can add up, and even a measly 50 V-bucks can make or break whether or not you can buy a particular skin from the store on any given day. (Which is important, because who knows when your favorite cosmetics will return to the Fortnite store, as it rotates items in and out!)
To me, such gradual price increases only serve to increase the value of the subscription service and allow players to justify the full premium. Fortnite subscription. It’s almost like the modern video game equivalent of bundling cable or streaming services: you may not want everything included, but because all the individual components become so expensive, it ultimately makes financial sense.
What’s more is that these types of changes are focused on the way Epic Games wants its users to interact with its platform, rather than the actual way the majority of its players do. At the time of publication, Lego Fortnite has 24,600 active users and Fortnite Festival has 8,500 players. By comparison, the unranked version of the Battle Royale mode has over 542,000 players, and Zero Build has 344,800 players. Instead of improving the battle pass experience around these games, Epic Games has decided to raise the price and put some unnecessary items in the lockers of its Fortnite Crew subscribers.
As a Battle Royale player, I don’t want more clutter. I want a transparent pricing system when it comes to cosmetic items. I want a consistent battle pass price. I want a locker and an emote wheel that I can actually organize. I don’t want to mess up the leveling of the battle passes, and I would like the ability to buy old skins. So while the Fortnite Crew change may seem like a good thing at first glance, it certainly feels like the company is throwing a whole lot of crap in my face.