Fortnite’s battle pass price hike shows sometimes less is more

My Fortnite locker, the name of the UI interface that contains all of my cosmetic items, has become the video game equivalent of a junk drawer. Rummage through my account, and you’ll find a backpack version of Ninken from Naruto lined up next to a rainbow gun wrap I got from the 2021 Pride collection. The game contains sub-menus for emotes, wraps, cars, instruments, and Lego kits. It’s all too much, and to be frank, I’m worried that recent changes in the Fortnite subscription service from Epic Games ignore a simple truth: Sometimes, less is more.

On Wednesday, Epic Games announced a big change to Fortnite Crew, its monthly subscription service that awards players with the Battle Royale battle pass, V-bucks, and other perks. Starting on Dec. 1, Fortnite Crew subscribers will get content from the Music Pass and Lego Pass at no additional cost. So once the change goes live, players who subscribe to it will be able to progress and redeem cosmetics on the other games on the platform, like battle passes from Fortnite Festival and Lego Fortnite.

On the surface, this looks extremely pro-consumer — and in many ways, it is. It’s essentially giving people more items for free. If I subscribe and I only want to play the Battle Royale mode, I’ll still end up with a whole lot of other cosmetics from other games on Fortnite. In addition to that, Epic Games has also changed how the battle pass works, so leveling up one pass will unlock the items on another. This way, you don’t need to grind each game individually if you’re interested in earning cosmetics from other battle passes.

It sounds great, but the announcement came with another notice: The standard price of the Battle Royale battle pass (outside of the Crew subscription) will be raised in price from 950 to 1,000 V-bucks.

The price hike doesn’t significantly change how much you pay in dollars. You can purchase 1,000 V-bucks for $8.99 from the in-game shop. Additionally, 50 V-bucks isn’t exactly an exorbitant amount of currency, and it isn’t even enough to buy a low-tier emote. However, if you’re a regular player, that amount can add up, and even a paltry 50 V-bucks could make or break whether or not you are able to purchase a certain skin in the store on any given day. (Which matters, because who knows when your favorite cosmetic will return to the Fortnite shop, since it rotates items in and out!)

For me, gradual price hikes like this only serve to enhance the value of the subscription service and allow players to justify springing for the full-on premium Fortnite subscription. It’s almost like the modern video game equivalent of bundling cable or streaming services — you might not want everything in there, but because all the individual parts are getting so expensive, it eventually makes financial sense.

What’s more is that changes like this are catered toward how Epic Games wants its users to engage with its platform, rather than the actual way the majority of its players do. At time of publication, Lego Fornite has 24,600 active users, and Fortnite Festival has 8,500 players. In comparison, the unranked version of the Battle Royale mode has more than 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 shove a bunch of unneeded items into the lockers of its Fortnite Crew subscribers.

As a Battle Royale player, I don’t want more junk. I want a transparent pricing system when it comes to cosmetic items. I want a consistent battle pass price. I want a locker and emote wheel that I can actually organize. I don’t want to grind the battle pass leveling, and I’d like the ability to buy old skins. So while the Fortnite Crew change might seem all right on the surface, it sure does feel like the company is throwing a whole lot of junk in my face.