We’ve talked about Fortnite enough on this site to make it clear that Epic Games isn’t just devoted to their battle royale title, but they’re also insistent on getting as many “classic characters” from all walks of media into their title. That’s part of the reason why the game has been so incredibly successful. When a new character arrives, people want to get the skin and play as them and then dominate the battlefield as them. However, there have been some notable “missing characters” within the game over the years, with one being Samus Aran from the Metroid franchise. She’s basically the “first lady” of gaming and “fits the mold” of the kind of character Epic Games would bring in, and yet, she’s MIA.
Now, on the one hand, Epic Games has made it clear that they’re open to working with Nintendo to bring their characters into the mix and even noted that a reason they couldn’t get Mario is that The Big N didn’t want their prized mascot holding a gun as he would in Fortnite. After all, it would “go against his character,” which is understandable. However, with Samus Aran, she wields a canon/blaster on her arm, so you’d think it would be a much easier transition into the game, but that wasn’t the case.
Fortnite’s former head, Donald Mustard, talked with GameFile and revealed that Epic Games had talked with Nintendo about bringing in Samus. The problem? Well, it had to do with exclusivity:
“They got really hung up on their characters showing up on platforms that weren’t their platforms. They would be thrilled to have Nintendo characters in Fortnite, but just only if it’s on their platform. For me and for all of Epic, we’re like, ‘That is an absolute must. We want to make sure that Fortnite is the same experience, no matter what screen or device you’re playing on.'”
You can see both sides of this argument here. After all, Nintendo is protective of its properties and wants them to be seen in the best light possible, with the focus being on its platforms. On the other hand, Epic Games is more than fair for wanting to have ALL content within its game available to ALL platforms it’s on, regardless of where the new characters originally come from.
The irony is that in the gaming space, this kind of “console exclusive content” is not only prevalent but has also been used in the past to market titles for specific systems. But Epic Games doesn’t want that, and thus, Samus isn’t likely to appear in their hit title anytime soon.
