Three years later, Fortnite finally loses "Early Access" label
As Epic "slows" development of original PVE mode.
After three years and 13 battle royale seasons, Fortnite is finally losing its Early Access label across all modes.
It comes as Epic Games signals a winding down of the game's original Save the World portion, which will soon shift to a recurring annual schedule offering "long term replayability".
"Development of new content will slow down after this official release," Epic said, while Save the World's main story is now "complete" - dousing fan hopes of any further major expansions.
The mode, released in paid early access, will now not go free-to-play as had long been Epic's plan. It will also begin to lose compatibility with some future battle royale cosmetics - though when this will happen is still to be announced.
But it's not all bad news. A new seasonal activity named Ventures is coming soon to add a fresh way to climb levels and unlock Supercharger materials to upgrade existing items. This will slot into the regular schedule of events like Frostnite and Dungeons, which will rotate annually from here on, separate to the game's battle royale portion.
Save the World's price is being lowered to $20 and offered via a new bundle with a skin and 1000 VBucks of premium currency, plus a bunch of in-game item tickets. At the same time, the daily login VBucks bonus will become exclusive to older "Founder" owners of the game, who will get an upgrade to their version of the game to the equivalent next level.
In truth, it has been a long time since Save the World fans felt the game's PVE mode was being prioritised over its mega-successful battle royale portion. Today's news has been a while coming, after repeated delays to the mode's eventual free-to-play full release. It does at least provide confirmation Save the World will stick around for a while yet, for those who do enjoy it.
Meanwhile, in Fortnite's battle royale portion today: flare guns! Movable upgrade stations! And leaked cosmetics that indicate Captain America will be released as a skin on 4th July.