The cost of Fortnite’s V-Bucks is going up this month, with individual packs, battle passes, and Crew subscriptions all yielding less currency.
So many publishers have been desperate to replicate the success of Fortnite over the years, that it’s still perceived as the perfect ‘forever’ game. But anyone who’s paid attention to Epic Games will know the grass isn’t as green on its side as it may appear.
For as its successful as it’s been, Epic Games still let go hundreds of employees and raised the price of Fortnite’s V-Bucks currency in 2023, due to dwindling profits, with CEO Tim Sweeney admitting they were suffering ‘financial problems.’
Now, Epic is bumping up the prices once more, blaming increased costs for keeping Fortnite running. Unsurprisingly, fans aren’t taking the news well.
In a blog post from earlier today, Epic says that these changes will come into effect on March 19. At a quick glance, it doesn’t seem like anything’s become more expensive, but that’s because it’s not the prices that have been adjusted.
Instead, V-Bucks packs will contain less currency than they did before. So, for example, an £6.99 pack will only have 800 V-Bucks instead of 1,000.
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The new value of Fortnite V-Bucks packs as of March 19
- £6.99 – 800 V-Bucks instead of 1,000
- £17.49 – 2,400 V-Bucks instead of 2,800
- £27.99 – 4,500 V-Bucks instead of 5,000
- £69.99 – 12,500 V-Bucks instead of 13,500
The battle passes have been affected too. While they will become cheaper – going down from 1,000 V-Bucks to 800 – they’ll offer fewer V-Bucks as unlockable rewards.
Currently, the battle passes come with 1,000 V-Bucks (enough to buy the next battle pass) plus an extra 500. Going forward, they’ll only reward you with the 800 you need to buy the next pass.
Even Fortnite Crew subscriptions, which cost £9.99 a month, will start rewarding people 800 V-Bucks each month instead of 1,000.
V-Bucks gift cards are the one exemption, with Epic assuring fans that you can still redeem them for whatever their printed values are. So, a £6.99 gift card that says it nets you 1,000 V-Bucks will not change.
Epic says this is being done to ‘help pay the bills,’ painting itself as some struggling start-up and not one of the biggest video game publishers on the planet worth billions of dollars.
The fan reaction is as you’d expect. ‘Maybe you should stop overpaying s****y Creative maps, or just go layoff more employees since you clearly don’t give a shit anymore,’ reads one comment by ThisIsITalk on X, referring to how you can make money through custom Fortnite maps, provided they’re extremely popular.
‘So we can’t earn free V-Bucks anymore?? Slop,’ complains KSyndra, ‘You already expect us to by so much overpriced s*** with skins, kicks, and sidekicks as well as all the passes.’
One jaydiiel says, ‘Maybe y’all stop spending on collabs, and make good original skin and content that actually people like.’
That’s not entirely inaccurate; Fortnite’s many, many collaborations with franchises like The Simpsons, brands like Mercedes, and celebrity cameos like Chappell Roan must have accrued quite the tab that needs paying off.
It’s not as if Epic plans to slow down on that front either. It’s rumoured that Fortnite has plenty more in the pipeline, including collaborations with He-Man and Game Of Thrones.
The one responsible for those rumours is a former Epic producer who is currently being sued by the company for sharing confidential info, making their claims all the more viable.
Things aren’t any better on Reddit, with a number of fans admitting this may be what makes them quit Fortnite. ‘The battle pass and saving V-Bucks was one of the things that kept me coming back to the game,’ admits therubyminecraft.
‘Changing the battle pass V-Bucks amount from 1,500 to 800 is literally game breaking. This season was already kinda bad but now I’m just uninstalling,’ says Fogforevery.
Meanwhile, Redditors like JBCronic and MisterDudeFella have sworn to cancel their Fortnite Crew subscriptions.
It remains to be seen whether these changes will have substantial impact on Fortnite’s player count but it’s still worrying that even one of the most played video games in the world – one with financial backing from Disney – apparently isn’t making enough money.
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