Epic Games’ PvE multiplayer zombie tower defense survivalbox MMO thing Fortnite is doing well in its launch week, at least in terms of non-Steam PC early access sales. Creative Director Darren Sugg tweeted out yesterday the presale numbers.
“Absolutely humbled by the response to this week’s @FortniteGame launch,” he wrote. “500k+ digital pre-order sales and just getting started!”
But the storm brewing on Reddit suggests the sale part is working as intended — the game’s current issues aren’t in the early game at all but in the paywall monetization that comes later. As one Redditor put it, the game is pay-to-progress after a certain point: “This process of churning items continues with the material requirements growing exponentially with each step of progression. You will need more and more items that are time/money gated and no amount of playing the game will alleviate that.”
Another invoked gacha mechanics, likening the model to Skyforge’s: “Same UI. Same skilltree and unlocks. Same time/paygates. Same way of obtaining stats (Survivors to followers). Same early access time to release. Both went to console to milk, because console players share more similiarities to mobile gamers.”
Intriguingly, most of the complaints heavily praise the game, studio, and dev team but express sorrow and frustration strictly over the business model.
Massively OP’s MJ Guthrie took her first foray into Fortnite on last night’s stream; you can watch the recap down below.
