Fortnite finally releases in July as long as you pay for the free-to-play game

[Cal Jeffrey]

Epic Games has finally announced a release date for its hybrid co-op/tower defense/shooter. The game that was, and still is, intended to be a free-to-play title, will first be released for $39.99 on July 25 for those who want to start playing early. If you are willing to wait until sometime in 2018, the game will become a free-to-play download. Those who are really anxious to play the game can pre-order one of the Deluxe versions of game (starting at $59.99) and start playing it on July 21.

Why Epic has chosen such an unusual incremental release is unclear, but it probably has to do with unfulfilled promises.

It has been nearly six years since Epic Games announced Fortnite and in that time the game has struggled for release. The last we heard about it was back in 2015. Even then it had been four years since Epic announced the game. Mike Fischer, Epic’s VP of Publishing told Ars Technica that there were several reasons for the delay.

"The scope and scale of the game has increased from a game jam concept to a rich, full fledged world."

For one, they announced it too early. At the time Epic revealed it in 2011, the game was nothing more than an idea. Nothing had been hammered out, and pre-production had not even begun. Another thing that delayed the game was a change in scope and game engine.

They began developing the game on Unreal Engine 3, but sometime during development Unreal 4 was released, so the team decided to adapt it to their more powerful game engine. Along with that change, they decided to increase the “size and ambition” of the project.

Originally, the title was supposed to be a “game jam concept,” Fischer said, but they decided to develop “a rich, full-fledged world” instead. That is a nice way to say that the game suffered from scope creep. However, Fischer promised that the game would be released by the end of 2015.

Here it is 2017, and the game is apparently ready enough to charge $39.99 for it on July 25, but not ready enough to be free-to-play as it was originally planned. I am not convinced that this is a good way to go about a game's release, but we will see how it does.

The game will be available on Xbox One, PlayStation 4, PC, and Mac. In addition to the Standard and Deluxe versions, Super Deluxe and Limited Editions will also be available for $89.99 and $149.99 respectively.

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https://www.techspot.com/news/69641-fortnite-finally-releases-july-long-you-pay-free.html

 

[kapital98]

Nothing too wrong with this pricing model. I wouldn't hate for it to be more wide spread. Have people who want to play it right away pay more. Have people who want to play it less wait until it's free. It's the most basic tenet of a demand schedule.

With that said: Yeah, it seems more like a half-baked idea than something that was intended. I hate the entire F2P genre because almost all of the games end up costing money in some sense (all the F2P games that I've played and wanted to keep on playing ended up costing more than most of the single player games I've bought). I think the entire F2P genre is a scam.

The youtube demo video looks decent. I might give this a try on a free weekend.

 

[m4a4]

All I can say is keep your wallet away away from this game and it's monetization model. They are way too heavy into the RNG (you roll for all items). They need public backlash to change that (as it didn't used to be).

The hero's are all premade that you have to get by chance (and the rarer the hero, the more perks and abilities you get, so it matters). Guns, traps, and survivors (how you boost your stats) usually have crappy stat boosts associated to them, making it even harder to get a decent item.
Oh, and you currently have to grind to get ready for a defense because the materials to build your defenses and items get used up pretty quick.

 

[turismozilla]

Pay for the free-to-play game

is that an 0xim0r0n?

 

[mccartercar]

I'd get behind it if it was free to play with a credit card used for identification as a barrier for cheaters, but this is silly.