Hate: Inflation
Inflation hit Fortnite very hard in the past year, thanks to a multi-pronged approach from Epic to increase the price of everything. It began in late 2023 with the increased price of V-Bucks, and continued into the new year with two major changes in Epic’s item shop philosophy: Aside from some Icon skins (skins of real celebrities like Shaq) and ultra-customizable skins like the Skratch Company set, Fortnite stopped released new collaboration skins that have multiple style options.
In Chapter 5 Season 4, for example, Epic released 21 new non-Icon collaboration skins. Only three of them had any style options at all, and those three only had toggleable features–Iron Spider’s helmet, Black Cat’s mask, and Spider-Woman’s webbing. These days, Epic defaults to selling additional styles separately, as we’ve just seen with the Platinum Festival skins, which are minor recolors of existing skins being sold for 1,800 V-Bucks each. In the past, styles like that would have been added to the existing skins as a value-add to motivate new purchases, but those days are over.
And on top of that, Epic developed a troubling habit of bundling collaboration skins with accessories for a higher price and not allowing you to buy them on their own. Once a rare practice, Epic pulled this move at least 30 times in 2024, mostly on collab skins. There were only five total examples of Epic trying this tactic in 2023, and four of them were the TMNT skins the company released at the very end of the year.
And, finally, on top of all that, bundle prices have gone through the rough. These used to max out at 2800 V-Bucks, presumably because you can buy that exact amount. But all the big collaboration bundles in 2024 went past that, with 3400-3800 apparently becoming Epic’s preferred price range for big bundles. Fortunately for everyone, Epic seems to be retreating from this new standard a little bit with most of the new bundles in December.