Epic Games is gearing up for its biggest shake-up to Fortnite Creative since the introduction of the Unreal Editor for Fortnite. Soon, Epic will allow developers who use UEFN to make Fortnite Creative modes, or “islands,” to sell in-game items using V-Bucks, the game’s real-money currency.
The news, which Epic announced during the Veteran’s Day holiday in the US, was not met with much excitement from fans. The way the Fortnite Creative ecosystem is currently crammed with clones of tycoon, boxfight, and platforming islands, it’s easy to see how adding microtransactions to any of the typical island types could be a bad thing. And it becomes much more difficult to see any possible upside when Epic’s example idea is to sell people a better shovel for 300 V-Bucks.
But the reality is actually pretty murky, because V-Buck transactions are a wildcard that could completely shake up the Fortnite Creative ecosystem and encourage creators to try new things. We’ve got a digital Wild West here, in a sense. Let’s try to understand the situation a little better, and get a better sense of where it may lead us, by taking a deep dive into the details.
