You’d think that figuring out how to squeeze loot from a battle royale clone wouldn’t be all that complicated, but in Fortnite, you’d be wrong. Epic Games has a new dev blog out this week on its Battle Pass system ahead of the switchover from season 2 to season 3, and it’s reminded me just how convoluted Buying Stuff has become.
Essentially, you pay for the Battle Pass, which gets you some loot. And then with that unlocked, you can play and level up the tiers to unlock even more loot. Or you can just buy tiers and skip all that playing stuff. In fact, there are more tiers this time around.
“Even though we added 30 tiers, you’ll still be able to complete the Season 3 Battle Pass in the same amount of time as the Season 2 Battle Pass (typically 75-150 hours),” Epic says. “Don’t have the time? You can always purchase tiers for 150 V-Bucks each.” That’s about $1.50, if you’re wondering. $28 will get you the pass and 25 tiers at a discount.
In other words, there’s barely even a pretense that you’re paying for a game or gameplay; you’re paying for the ability to get loot. Detachment ensues. Shrug.
