To be frank, we’re surprised it took this long – Epic Games has revealed the ‘Fortnite Crew’, a new monthly subscription model for the seminal battle royale game that’s dominating the market. The subscription contains some essentials for the freemium content of the game alongside some exclusive goodies to make it worth the price – depending on how into the game you are.
A Fortnite Crew subscription costs $11.99 per month and includes a full season Battle Pass, 1,000 monthly V-Bucks and a special outfit and item bundle not available otherwise. Whenever a new bundle is introduced, subscribers will get them so long as they have an active subscription at the time. Each Battle Pass covers several months, so we can see some people being on-and-off subscribers whenever a new one is released as opposed to being nonstop, since a one-time infusion of 1,000 V-Bucks goes for $8 a pop.
This price might be a bit of a tough sell without the item bundle for players who don’t usually drop cash on V-Bucks on the side, but the exclusive outfits – the first of which is the space-themed Galaxia skin, which fits a running theme in exclusive Fortnite skins evoking nebulae for whatever reason alongside a Unicorn Head pickaxe – are bound to draw a lot of buyers.
When Epic starts introducing zeitgeist pop-culture references to exclusive bundles, like the rumored upcoming subscriber-only content based on The Mandalorian, buyers are guaranteed to shoot upward sharply. With all the licensing power Fortnite has been running on – such as the rumored Galactus finale for the current season – adding popular icons to the subscription bundle is a sure-fire monetization method, and we’re a bit surprised they’re debuting the service with an OC.
The Fortnite Crew subscription will launch alongside Chapter 2 Season 5 on the 2nd of December, right after the rumored downtime following the Season 4 finale.
