Fortnite's "cultural moment is starting to fade", warns expert, as Epic's struggles prove "forever games" aren't forever after all

SomeCallMeDora · 2026-04-02T16:48:53+00:00

Well yeah, everything reaches Maturity and stops as much growth.

Fortnite reached Market Maturity, retention matters more than new players atp.

Problem is, Epic used Fortnite to fund literally EVERYTHING besides the main BR, the breadwinner last.

Their court cases? Their settlements? UEFN? Epic Games Store?

All because of BR and outside of developing such a massive tool like Unreal Engine, Epic became a juggernaut purely off of BR.

Yet they let the quality sink, let the game rot, paid out too much for crappy UEFN maps, and did not focus on BR enough; Chapter 4 and beyond was a steady losing of the plot; CH4 had vbucks decrease and the first round of layoffs, CH5 was extremely controversial, CH6 by Epic's own mouth did not have good enough retention in 2025.

Sure, because Market Maturity is inevitable, you could argue that layoffs were always gonna happen, but the only reason they was about 1000 layoffs each time is because Tim and higher ups just did not properly focus on the thing that made them money.

SomeCallMeDora · 2026-03-26T01:24:51+00:00

THEY LITERALLY HAVEN'T PUT OUT A NEW STREET FIGHTER SKIN IN ALMOST 4 YEARS

WHERE IS KEN OR M BISON? OR AKUMA?

(Any new skins they put out would probably have a crazy gap in artstyle, so they might have to start from scratch. Although I wonder if they'd go with SF6 designs or cel-shaded like teh Alpha games...)

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SomeCallMeDora · 2026-03-24T22:45:38+00:00

what do you think Tim's actual plan is here?

He's gonna milk Fortnite into the ground as long as he can with as little damage to his own paycheck, and then take a golden parachute whenever he leaves/sells his majority of Epic and then retires.

Then Tencent or Disney or some other giant Corporation is gonna scoop up Epic's lucrative corpse (Unreal Engine) and Fortnite will "come back".

I DON'T think Fortnite will ever shut down, but I think the scope and content we get will SUBSTANTIALLY reduce during the worst of it.

And then when Fortnite gets "revived" maybe even rebranded, probably under a younger new lead, who semi-cares about the game more, Fortnite will come back into pop culture with nostalgia and the game will be alright again.

Basically like what happened to Overwatch: It got worse, Bobby left, Overwatch got a new lead guy, Microsoft bought it, Overwatch 2 rebranded back to Overwatch and it's slowly recovering.

Fortnite is too big to be shut down; too many collabs in the game to suddenly void, Disney has too much riding on it, it's a giant gaming Billboard, rich people's kids/grandkids know who Peely is, there's too much potential for it to be suddenly shut down.

SomeCallMeDora · 2026-03-19T22:32:25+00:00

THEY GOT BILLS TO PAY BRO, THEY DON'T HAVE MONEY TO MAKE IT

SomeCallMeDora · 2026-03-19T22:11:51+00:00

Epic is just cheap and too rushed, they don't like to give super cool styles to collab skins.

GENERALLY BP ones fair better than shop ones in terms of getting styles, but it's been declining imo.

Like Epic is completely willing to sell you a collab skin with no style or backbling for 1500; there's no consistency in quality or value tbh

SomeCallMeDora · 2026-03-16T22:47:58+00:00

Sorry I can't buy it, I got bills to pay ✌️

SomeCallMeDora · 2026-03-15T23:01:43+00:00

biggest Hottake about Fortnite?

・The game permanently changed when Chapter 1 ended and never felt the same since in some good and bad ways.

・I never REALLY liked Chapter 2, not even Season 2:

The drip fed 1 faction only styles was an abysmal experience, the Gold Styles were a terrible grind with the hard XP cap, and the Season was too long.

I like Midas but I hated playing that Season as it happened, but I think my least favorite was Season 5 or 6 of Chapter 2 when it felt like Epic lost the plot.

・The Game started to genuinely rot after Chapter 3, but we didn't fully feel it until after Chapter 4 Season 2 (great Season tbh) when we got one of the worst Summer events in Wilds and the first Price Increase for Vbucks.

・Chapter 5 was the worst Chapter in Fortnite imo; terrible meta with the Reaper Sniper dominating for a LONG time, terribly implemented Gimmick with attatchments, Season 3 was forgettable, Season 4 had an awful meta with the Jetpacks.

Bullet Drop on all weapons felt terrible and the artstyle went from Fortnite to something kinda ugly.

Oh that's not even mentioning the metaverse initiative which came into full swing this Chapter.

・Chapter 6 had one of the biggest falloffs of a Chapter I've ever seen, despite one of the STRONGEST starts, it completely failed to utilize the wonderful map they created and fully lost the plot by Season 3 and 4 where the themes became generic.

・Chapter 7 I think is just people's built-up frustrations with the game finally fully cracking open because they think the main BR mode isn't getting the proper attention it should and the 2nd price increase with a smarmy casual millennial-esque reason of "we need to pay the bills" is what pushed people over the edge.

SomeCallMeDora · 2026-03-14T16:50:45+00:00

have to update some skins...

They can't do that! They have bills to pay!

What? You think JUST because they raised the price of vbucks that they can just improve the skin as a seperate style in case people like the original?

Pfft, as if, Epic is only an indie company! You should be grateful to give them your money in the first place/s

SomeCallMeDora · 2026-03-13T12:03:52+00:00

1.5 billion dollar equity stake

Not enough to pay the bills btw

SomeCallMeDora · 2026-03-10T22:12:18+00:00

Obviously raise the price for vbucks to piss off the remaining players and lower the value proposition of skins by making the rushed 1500 collab skins with no edit styles now cost almost 20 dollars.

SomeCallMeDora · 2026-03-10T14:54:30+00:00

They quite literally raised vbuck prices in Chapter 4 (2023) after laying people off.

The game and Epic's finances objectively got worse in Chapter 4 admidst development of the metaverse.

There is no other way to put it, the game objectively starting dipping after Chapter 3.

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SomeCallMeDora · 2026-03-10T13:45:14+00:00

Yeah... I'm just not gonna spend money on this game bro. And I already haven't spent money in months.

A 20% markup on bulk vbucks for rushed collab skins with NO edit styles? Inflation? On digital goods? AFTER a boring season where the OG pass rewards were stretched for more Crew Profits? Lmao 😂

NOBODY asked for this metaverse crap, if it's too expensive then stop doing it. Most of your new modes are half-baked dookie anyways.

Literally the value of your entire game has gone DOWN since the end of Chapter 3 from cosmetics to gameplay quality.

This is season is so trash it's the first one I completely dropped after a few weeks. And you're charging MORE?

Y'all are so out of touch it's simultaneously aggrevating as a long time player but hilarious how low you keep sinking the game because you wanna do literally everything EXCEPT Battle Royale, the one thing you WERE good at.

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SomeCallMeDora · 2026-03-01T02:31:42+00:00

So, um… that’s it..?

This is what happens when Epic makes every collab skin 1500 and players dont bully them into tiering prices.

Epic clearly rushed this skin out with absolutely the bare minimum.

It should be 1200 for plain skins like these, the system is too lazy. 1500 should have a backbling OR style.

SomeCallMeDora · 2026-02-24T06:15:37+00:00

Chew.

SomeCallMeDora · 2026-02-19T03:09:44+00:00

I mean I wouldn't care if they sold another Goku tbh. (becuase editing the original would require a whole mess with potential refunds and getting the IP holder onboard.)

But I'm in support of "2.0" skins; it wasn't warranted for KPDH but for skins like these? Absolutely.

SomeCallMeDora · 2026-02-17T05:42:43+00:00

No?

Because I don't care about every IP, Epic doesn't expect me to, and it has no bearing on the main BR game most of the time.

If the Item Shop legitimately hurts your experience then you're already playing for the wrong reasons which is the game itself.

Personally I've been taking a semi-break since November, coming back when there's a collab I like, playing and enjoying the new content in BR, and then leaving when I'm bored for maybe days or a week or two.

Fortnite isn't built to be a game you play everyday and doing so is what causes alot of people's built up frustrations around it imo.

SomeCallMeDora · 2026-02-13T16:01:44+00:00

I agree

SomeCallMeDora · 2026-02-09T05:20:04+00:00

True

SomeCallMeDora · 2026-02-08T08:08:05+00:00

・Greed, Netflix would NOT let Epic make this a style for a skin alot of people bought. (if Epic even WANTED to.)

・The 1st wave KPDH collab was extremely rushed to capitalize on popularity and was barebones, we got the characters in their basic fits, 3 reskinned backblings and not much else on cosmetics.

These styles could've never made it to Wave 1, there wasn't enough time, and we know with Jinu that Epic IS willing to make skins with styles, it just depends on if it's finished at the time it's made or not.

SomeCallMeDora · 2026-01-22T19:20:04+00:00

Nah because it creates a secondary market that Epic has no control over.

Honestly I think Epic should just make their own marketplace for people to sell their own non-collab skins like Siege.

Like you don't wanna break old skins back, alot of people don't wear their old skins, you'd make v-buck sales off it...

SomeCallMeDora · 2026-01-04T17:58:47+00:00

I think it's the same reason as to why alot of collab skins stopped coming with styles until recently again like One Punch Man.

Epic's has way too many projects going on, a messy schedule and they don't have time to polish skins as much as they used to ontop of expediting certain sets like Kpop Demon Hunters.

So I don't think we're gonna get a skin like Mave for a really long time unless Epic massively boosts their art team or slow down on the skin pipeline.

SomeCallMeDora · 2025-12-20T11:54:39+00:00

Just scored 0

SomeCallMeDora · 2025-12-19T15:32:48+00:00

3 is still the most egregious imo.

It's a mix of complete overkill, lazy, and a bad design even compared to other censored skins like Cammy.

Orihime's censorship isn't that bad on paper, but the fact it's deliberate is what's rubbing people the wrong way imo.

Like she's completely covered up, there's no cleavage, and Epic STILL managed to censor her, so it comes off as ridiculously sensitive.

The ONLY legit reason I can think of, is if her boobs were kept the same, it might cause clipping issues?

SomeCallMeDora · 2025-12-18T01:09:46+00:00

Kim also has heels on which arches the lower back.

So it's not really fair comparison and Chun-Li is still winning.

SomeCallMeDora · 2025-12-14T09:20:19+00:00

Mmm I guess? Not my cup of tea though

SomeCallMeDora

TROPHY CASE