Fortnite is Leaving Early Access at last but in an Unexpected Way

It has almost been three years since the Fortnite launched back in 2017. Fortnite has been the most successful creation from Epic Game Developers. Also, Fortnite has become the only game in the Battle Royal genre, which got a World Cup level event last year. Fortnite kept their long time record of being the highest-grossing and most-watched game on Twitch.tv live stream. Fortnite also has been the pioneer of the Cross-Platform Multiplayer gameplay support, which has been appreciated by the fans from each of the platforms. After three years we can see the fan base Fortnite is quite saturated right now, and the developments by the Epic Games are also slowing down. Which has already been indicating a big change in the current Fortnite scenario for the past couple of months?

It is now confirmed that Fortnite is about to leave its Early Access status and going to finalize the version of the game with minimal player supports. Though it is not confirmed if there is going to be any big update before the Early Access era ends. In this article we are going to talk over this matter in detail, so let’s roll out with all the information we have up to date.

All Confirmed Details on Fortnite Leaving Early Access

As we know, if a game is tagging itself with an Early Access tag, that means the game is still under development, which we can see with the Fortnite till date. As Fortnite Battle, Royal receives regular weekly updates, and seasonal updates along with new contents and modes, the developers have been working hard to improve the game and gameplay experiences till date.

But last month in a media event, Epic Games’ official announced that epic is slowing down their development projects on Fortnite Save the World Cosmetics and Fortnite Battle Royal items. Also, the game is going to lose the tag of Early Access in the coming months. So, it clearly implies that the after launch development phase, a.k.a Early Access phase of Fortnite is about to be over very soon.

But an unexpected thing happened when in the same event, the Epic Officials confirmed that the “Save the World” mode is not going to be free at all. As the cosmetic and item developments are going to end soon, the “Save the World” paid version would become the only port of revenue for the Fortnite project, so they can not make the Save the World mode free, not at least now.

Back in 2017, when Fortnite was launched, it was initially a multiplayer co-op game featuring “Fortnite Save the World” as its main mode, and “Fortnite Battle Royal” as a secondary mode. Even the Fortnite official developers confessed that the “Save the World” was a combined rip-off from the Left 4 Dead and Minecraft. But, after the launch within a couple of weeks, it has been noticed that the Battle Royal mode is getting more attention than the primary Save the World mode. Then to gain more fan base and also to compete against the PlayerUnknowns BattleGrounds (PUBG), the Epic games released Fortnite Battle Royal as a Spin-off model, where the Save the World mode had been featured as a paid but secondary mode for co-op story-driven multiplayer gameplay.

Since the beginning, of the Fortnite spin-off launch, the Fortnite Save the World has been featured as a paid model, but with a message displayed along with the title where it promised to become “Free at Future”. However, along with the latest announcement from Epic Games all the free Fortnite Battle Royal lovers who expected to play the Save the World someday when it would become free, are in grief. Many players also have shown their grievances on Fortnite’s official tweets and on various Reddit posts & threads.

The Epic Games officials announced that all the available cosmetics and items would be accessible and usable even after Fortnite left the Early Access stage. Also, officials confirmed that the “Save the World” mode features a seasonal model, where the game would have events like Winter Event, Christmas Event, Frostbite Event, etc automatically.

According to reports, Epic Games is considering new Ventures and Seasons where new zones in Save the World and new map changes Battle Royal mode and also some additional modifiers can take place; though nothing much has been confirmed.

Also reportedly the owners of the “Fortnite Save the World Ultimate Edition” are going to receive a new character called Metal Team Leader and 8000 V-Bucks along with the last featured update. The V-Bucks can be used to unlock most of the remaining unlockables cosmetics in the game. Although the microtransaction enabled in-game store would still be available in the game, after the end of Early Access. So, the developers are still hoping for business and more investment from the players’ side.

Fans Reaction

As the player count of Fortnite was dropping, due to the huge competition in the Multiplayer and Battle Royal gaming sector, leaving the Early Access of Fortnite was inevitable. So, most of the players anticipated an end to the Early Access stage during the past couple of months. The COVID-19 scenario also played a part in this, where continuous production is kind of a burden, and all the developers are trying to get rid of unwanted burdens.

But, most of the players (including me) looks unhappy due to the confirmed news of Fortnite Save the World is not going to be free anymore. As the developers promised the game to be free, millions of the players have never bought the game, as they waited very long for the mode to be free to play. Well, here the Epic Games betrayed the trust of such millions of fans.

The Epic games may have a made business approach with this decision, as after the confirmed news of Save the World to become a paid mode forever.

Also, there are many fans who are happy as they have bought the “Save the World” mode years before, and now they are feeling like a premium member of the club. Many players are there who do not give a damn about the Save the World mode, as they are just freaking Battle Royal lovers, so they have nothing to say in such a decision. Hence, there is kind of a mixed reaction if you consider the overall Fortnite Fans Base.

Wrapping Up

Whatever the decisions are from the Official Developers, according to the business approach, I must say it had been a wonderful journey along with the Fortnite game. I personally have enjoyed the game a lot, though Fortnite BR has a hard learning curve. I am going to play the Fortnite Battle Royal game as long as I can, though I am disappointed with the latest announcements. The Fortnite surely managed to create a loyal Fan base of there own, just like PlayerUnknowns BattleGrounds and Counter-Strike, where there are thousands of players around the world who would keep playing Fortnite Battle Royal even after the game is out from Early access. You can see the situation with PUBG Lite, where the game is officially dead now as no developer support is available anymore since April 2020; but there are still thousands of players who are playing the game till date. While Fortnite has a much bigger and deeper fan base than the PUBG Lite, so you do not need to worry about matchmaking even after one or two years from now.