Surprisingly, Epic has announced that the Free2Play launch for Fortnite Save the World needs to be postponed. It will no longer take place in 2018. Epic does not provide a new release date.
This is what Epic says: After “careful consideration,” Epic has decided to launch Fortnite “Save the World” as a free-to-play game outside of 2018.
Numerous new features and quality of life improvements have already been added to the game, including new heroes, items, and events.
However, they want to bring even more before they unlock Fortnite: Save the World for free.
They want to ensure that both old and new players have a good gaming experience, so they will continue to work on the technology and performance. Epic announces this in a developer video.
This is how it has been so far: Since the Early Access launch of Fortnite: Save the World on July 25, 2017, it was clear that Fortnite was supposed to become free in 2018. However, there has been no discussion on the topic for months. It was only mentioned as an announcement in the FAQ.
Everything new in the interface and gameplay systems
This is how it should proceed now: Fortnite promises several changes to Save the World in 2018 and 2019.
- They plan to completely overhaul the interface for players and give “Save the World” a new look. They will change the menus and turn the old tutorial quests into a new system.
- As much as possible will be moved directly from the menu into the game.
6 Heroes instead of 3 Heroes in the Team
- The hero system is set to be upgraded to give players more options. Players will then have six heroes instead of three. They will play one hero, while the other five will influence the perks and traits of the first one.
Epic will present these major changes in individual blog posts. In the coming days, the “Fortnitemares” event is set to start, the “ghouliest” of all events.
This is how players are reacting: On YouTube, the video currently has 12,449 upvotes with only 800 downvotes. Fans seem to agree with the decision. Many probably think that Save the World simply needs more time. Even though the community wants new players, Fortnite Save the World is still in beta and unfinished.
On Reddit, some players say they saw this coming because there is still so much left to do. They believe the difficult part is the transition of the V-Buck system to Free2Play.
Currently, many players of Fortnite: Battle Royale are using the possibilities in Save the World, to get V-Bucks for free. If the game went Free2Play, Epic could face problems here.
Save the World still needs a lot of polish
This is what lies behind it: Fortnite Save the World was announced as “This will be Free2Play in 2018” since its Early Access launch in the summer of 2017. Many players hesitated to buy it for this reason. The question kept coming up: “When will it finally be free?”
Due to the rise of “Battle Royale,” the development pace of “Save the World” has slowed down. Epic has spent a lot of time overhauling the heavily cash shop-reliant reward systems and experimenting with new “side missions”.
In 2018, there has been relatively little change to the actual game and content, especially in comparison to the rapid pace of Battle Royale.
Even though new content is supposed to arrive in November, large parts of the campaign are still missing. It just stops in the middle of the third area, Bru-Tal. After that, the missions have no more story. Furthermore, Epic seems to want to reorganize the entire game. Up until now, Save the World was clearly divided into:
- one menu section with countless screens and options
- and a gameplay section with a clear map and the actual gameplay
Apparently, they want to break up these elements, which resemble a mobile game a lot due to their progression system, now.
When will it finally be free? Epic does not mention a new time frame. Without a firm release date in 2018, a release early in 2019 is also unlikely.
This means our theory about the developments in Fortnite Battle Royale has likely been put to rest:
