Despite record revenues of over $6 billion, Epic is raising the price of V-Bucks. Allegedly, this is because they have bills to pay. The community is up in arms about this.
Fortnite is one of the most financially successful video games of all time. Although six of the now seven game modes are basically free to play, developer Epic earns billions every year with its shooter thanks to the in-game store.
According to Statista, Fortnite could even break the record of $6 billion in 2025. And the sales forecasts for this year also look bright.
So you’d think Epic would have enough money in the bank to pay its outstanding bills. But even the makers of Fortnite are apparently not immune to the current weak economic situation and rising prices.
That’s why Epic is raising the prices for virtual currency in Fortnite’s in-game store in a few days. Unsurprisingly, the community is up in arms.
What happened?
As the Fortnite creators announced on March 10 in a blog post on March 10, new prices for the in-game currency V-Bucks will apply in the store starting March 19. While the package prices themselves will remain the same, you will get fewer V-Bucks for your money than before – a classic case of shrinkflation.
Epic justifies the changes with increased operating costs for Fortnite. The blog post states that prices must be raised to cover rising costs
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These are the new price packages:
- The $8.99 package now includes 800 V-Bucks instead of the previous 1,000 V-Bucks.
- The $22.99 package now includes 2,400 V-Bucks instead of the previous 2,800 V-Bucks.
- The $36.99 package now includes 4,500 V-Bucks instead of the previous 5,000 V-Bucks.
- The $89.99 package now includes 12,500 V-Bucks instead of the previous 13,500 V-Bucks.
Physically purchased gift cards for V-Bucks can still be redeemed at the old exchange rate after March 19. To counter the foreseeable anger of the community over the price change, Epic emphasizes in the blog post that buyers of the new packages will receive 20 percent cashback in the form of Epic rewards. This credit can be used in Fortnite or in the Epic Games Store.
In addition, Epic wants to make the battle passes for Fortnite cheaper. Instead of 1,000 V-Bucks, they will soon cost V-Bucks. However, since the price of the virtual currency has risen, players don’t really gain anything from this.
How are players reacting?
The Fortnite community is, of course, anything but happy about the upcoming price adjustments. No wonder, since players will soon be getting less in-game currency for their hard-earned money. They are venting their anger on Reddit and other social media platforms. One user shows how he is uninstalling Fortnite:
However, it’s not just the price changes that are causing frustration. In recent months, the mood in the community has been heated anyway due to matchmaking problems, bugs and glitches, as well as unpopular creative decisions by the developers. For many players, the current price changes are simply the last straw; they feel that Epic is not doing enough for the money.
User
FiRe_GeNDo writes on Reddit:
The changes to V-Bucks are a joke. They’re already making record profits, and now they’re reducing the V-Bucks we can earn so their profits can skyrocket even further. It’s obvious that they’re producing more skins and fewer gameplay innovations, which is why matchmaking has been garbage for so long and there have been very few entertaining weapons in the game for some time now.
And zdogg12 writes:
I’ve put up with all the terrible changes, but this was the last straw. Despite the terrible user interface, the changes to the emote wheel, the adjustments for sidekicks, and the prices for kicks, bundles, and skins, I stuck with it. But now they’ve gone too far, because this is really shabby.
Both my girlfriend and I have already canceled our Crew subscriptions. I also don’t plan on buying the new Battle Pass or any of the other passes. And I know we’re not the only ones who feel this way right now.
This could even spell the end of Fortnite… At the very least, I expect the game to suffer losses from which it will never recover. I’m already playing Fortnite much less due to unresolved bugs and a lack of compelling gameplay content, as gameplay is being neglected in favor of collaborations.
The reasons for the increased Fortnite prices are likely to be found in the declining economic performance and generally rising prices; however, they are probably not solely responsible for this.
Because reports, Epic’s in-house game store has been generating hardly any significant profits for years. The strategy of constantly giving away free games to attract new customers with high purchasing power does not seem to be paying off for the company so far. This is because the losses incurred by the game store have to be cross-subsidized by Fortnite. This is one of the reasons why prices are now likely to rise here.
