When it comes to collaborations in Fortnite, not all of them are well-received with some even stating that the game has become a cesspool of pop culture characters that shouldn’t even be in Fortnite in the first place.
Compared to any other game in the market right now, Fortnite has one of the most collaborations in the video game industry so far. What once was a cartoony battle royale with unique building mechanics has turned into a hub of all sorts of weird and wacky characters. We don’t know how Epic Games did it, but they managed to put a lot of iconic characters, both in real life and in other video games, into Fortnite – but can that in itself become the reason for the game to drop off of everyone’s radar in the future? For many years now, Fortnite has had a massive influence over the youngsters thanks to its ever-growing narrative. As the community grows, however, so does the clout-chasing behavior and toxicity. Paired together with the lack of interaction between the community and the developers, Fortnite has slowly tumbled into a fiesta of collaborations that seems to never end. It’s no wonder that some of the most popular streamers have isolated themselves from the battle royale game despite it essentially giving a huge boost to their career. Household names such as Tfue, Ninja, Myth, and other iconic streamers only return to Fortnite and use their Fortnite account once in a blue moon.
The Ripples of the Collaborations Within the Community
There’s a lot of frustration within the Fortnite community that’s been keeping a lot of people worried about the future of Fortnite and their Fortnite accounts. It’s common sense at this point that Fortnite has become a melting pot for pop culture icons. These collaborations turned those real-life stars and video game characters into Fortnite outfits. While that’s not necessarily all that bad at first glance, in the recent seasons, Fortnite has taken a turn for a worse in terms of design.
Epic has been trying to spin the narrative in Fortnite even further by trying to create a rich multiverse filled with all sorts of characters such as the Mandalorian and even a bunch of Marvel characters such as Iron Man. Unbeknownst to them, however, this has caused a ripple effect in their grand design which in turn affected the Fortnite community adversely. Outbursts began to spread, especially when the Kratos outfit was introduced to the game. This alone has proved that Epic has been taking its collaborations too far. Yes, there was positive reception towards the other skins, but the seemingly neverending collaborations have turned Fortnite into a pop culture fest, therefore altering the game’s dynamics. This also led to the introduction of exotic weapons along with the characters which are crazy overpowered. Since there’s no skill required for having exotic weapons, basically anyone can wield them. As a result, the cesspool of collabs that Fortnite has done over the years has become a conundrum to players who just want to play without all the extra fuss.
What Players Want
Many veterans in the Fortnite community have been voicing out their opinions towards the non-stop collaborations that Epic just seems to be addicted to doing. What players want essentially is for Epic to keep the collaborations at a minimum – not necessarily wipe out the idea of future collabs, but to just keep it on the down-low. Restricting them to just cosmetics is more than enough as it gives the chance for players to play as their favorite character or star in the game. As for the live events and concerts that Epic has been doing for a while, those were entertaining to participate in. Since no one can shoot each other in the face while the concert is ongoing, everyone can just sit back and enjoy the visuals and tunes.
Instead of trying to hoard as many collabs to fit into Fortnite, players are urging Epic to instead focus on creating their characters and lore that would fit well into the universe that they’re trying to make. Stuffing the game with all of the characters in the pop culture realm isn’t going to cut it – they have to make their stuff once in a while. People have been worried that Epic has become lazy since they can just pick whatever famous in-game character or real-life icons and try to put them in the game. Licensing something that people would presumably like instead of trying to bother designing original characters is much easier to do, but doing too much of anything just comes off as negative.
In A Nutshell
While the collaborations didn’t necessarily ruin Fortnite at first, they’re becoming too ubiquitous. This has led to Fortnite coming off less like bringing those beloved properties from various media and more like using those properties just to garner attention. Fortnite Battle Royale has slowly turned into an advertising showcase where it’s not necessarily about the game anymore. It certainly proves how popular Fortnite has become and the collaborations are easy money, but at the same time, it can get pretty repetitive and makes Epic look lazy in terms of innovation. At the end of the day though, the collabs that Fortnite has done are mainly for cosmetic purposes (except the Marvel collab where it had tons of OP weapons). So long as they don’t pass that threshold of carrying over certain items from the Fortnite item shop or weapons in other games, then players will still have a reason to keep their Fortnite account. What do you think of Fortnite receiving all of these characters from different games and franchises? Let us know down below.