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Fortnite’s battlepass pioneered the seasonal microtransactions that have fueled the free-to-play game with billions in revenue

Fortnite enticed groves of players, young and old, due to the fact that you didn’t have to spend a single dime to have a great time. But given that Epic is a business and they need to make their game a profitable venture, introduction of character skins, pickaxes, wraps and other add-ons have made their way through the item shop and seasonal battlepasses. Recently, however, it was uncovered that Epic considered a massive shift in the month-and-a-half battlepass rotation model

The v11.30 patch update from last night quickly turned into a data mining frenzy for many prominent leakers. Much was uncovered about Fortnite’s direction, including FireMonkey’s startling revelation: Epic was considering an annual battlepass

Tucked away in the files, FireMonkey uncovered that some sort of extended battlepass was in the works. The annual battlepass would offer you many more perks than if you were to simply buy each battlepass separately - to entice more users to commit to a year’s worth of battlepass purchases in one go

It’s unclear exactly how many perks users were to receive, but I assume it would have to be enticing. Since there’s typically around 4 seasons/battlepasses in one year, it would come out to roughly $40… Given that the average Fortnite user is pretty young, it’s a big ask. The files suggested the first 25 levels of each battlepass would be automatically unlocked, which is usually a $15 surcharge per battlepass. Additionally, there may be exclusive skins that only annual battlepass owners have access to. If pitched at the right price, I could definitely see this being a home run

… That is, unless Epic decides not to swing in the first place. After the aforementioned story garnered more and more attention, an Epic spokesman squashed the speculation. In an official statement to Eurogamer, “We've seen discussions around a 2020 Annual Pass as a result of data mining the v11.30 build," an Epic spokesperson told us. "Occasionally prototype features make it into our build that end up not being released. While the 2020 Annual Pass was considered, we have no plans to release it... unlike the Bao Bros,” said the developer

The idea of an annual battlepass is really interesting to me, and I think they definitely could have made it work. People love this game, and people love good deals. To the naked eye, putting the two together is an obvious play

But I also see why it could flop. Buying “in bulk” doesn’t feel like major savings when buying intangibles from a niche video game. Sure, I’ll go to Costco to buy my 24 pack of Monster for a couple dollars cheaper (so I can write these articles at 3 AM), but would I do the same for digital pixels? Probably not - but to each their own. Regardless, Epic ultimately made the final decision to kill this project entirely

I think that the biggest takeaway from this is that Epic is experimenting new revenue models. Corporations do this all the time, so don’t expect Epic to fall into complacency when profits are on the line. If I were a betting man, I would say that this killed project wasn’t the only trick up their sleeve…

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Author Bio

Michael Hindi

Michael “Hindog” Hindi is an active Fortnite player and journalist from San Diego, California. His involvement with competitive Fortnite dates back to Season 5 - both on the battle bus and with a pen & paper.

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