Epic has revealed a new change to how Battle Pass items work in Fortnite.
As they explained in a new blog post, Epic has decided that they will make Battle Pass items available 18 months after the Battle Pass period ends. They won’t be all available permanently, but it will still be added availability, especially for players who don’t have time to finish a Battle Pass.
It seems the big reason for this new change is the many licensed characters and items that pass through Fortnite every few months. Even if it looks like players have sufficient time to play through Battle Passes, and earn those included licensed items, Epic isn’t happy with the number of actual players who actually earned said items.
So, as Epic explained here, every item is eligible to return, but they are not all guaranteed to do so. In their own words:
“Shop selection is dependent on a variety of factors, and there is no guarantee that a Battle Pass item will come to the Shop after this change goes into effect. If an item in a future Battle Pass will never be available outside the Pass, we’ll let you know!”
Alt Styles are also not guaranteed to be available again, with the only exception being those Lego Styles. Of course, Epic has a different deal lined up with their Lego license to everything else.
It’s an interesting change, even if you don’t play Fortnite, because it’s something other live service games may also adopt in the future. These changes are all about improving player metrics, by working around and even shaping player behavior.
And if a player finds out, for example, that items they wanted but missed out on during the Battle Pass are available again, that will increase the likelihood that those players will jump back in to play.
Epic also revealed that this change will not affect the pricing to their Battle Passes, so there’s clearly an element to this new change that is experimental. Whether this change succeeds in retaining players, or bringing lapsed players back, will determine if we’ll see other live service games follow suit as well.
Would this cheapen the value of Battle Pass? If the players involved don’t feel the change, then it may not be something that truly matters. Since items are still not guaranteed return, the urge to skip on buying all Battle Passes may not be there. But with that, we’ll see soon enough how this all plays out.
