Epic are really shaking things up on Fortnite, and it’s a little bitter sweet. From 16th April, Epic have decided to make their game Save The World, free. Over in Fortnite Battle Royale though, v-bucks are being reduced in the purchase packs.
Fortnite – What’s Happening With V-Bucks?
Well today is the day – the new season is going live on Fortnite today and changes to v-bucks are already here. Epic has decided to alter the amount of v-bucks you get from your purchases – and it’s not great for players.
£6.99 ($8.99) used to get you 1,000 v-bucks, it was a decent bundle – enough to buy a new skin. Unfortunately that same cash will now only net you 800 v-bucks. Check out the table below:
| Bundle Price | Old v-bucks | New v-bucks |
| £6.99 ($8.99) | 1,000 | 800 |
| £17.49 ($22.99) | 2,800 | 2,400 |
| £27.99 ($36.99) | 5,000 | 4,500 |
| £69.99 ($89.99) | 13,500 | 12,500 |
| Average v-bucks cost | ~£0.27 per 50 | £0.30 per 50 |
The largest decreases coming from the smaller packs at a 20% decrease in v-bucks for the same price. However purchasing one of each pack would net you 13% less v-bucks than before – 2,100 less v-bucks than before…
It’s not just the bundles that are changing! Why stop there? Fortnite Crew is also having it’s v-bucks reduced – to 800 v-bucks a month (down from 1,000) whilst the price stays the same.
What About The Battlepass?
It’s funny you should ask about that, it’s probably one of the bigger shake-ups. The battlepass previously cost 1,000 v-bucks, with the opportunity to earn 1,500 v-bucks back – amazing for those mostly free-to-play players that would use the v-bucks gained from the battlepass to buy the next one, and save a few v-bucks back for a new skin occasionally.
Well now the Battlepass costs just 800 v-bucks, but you also only have the opportunity to earn 800 v-bucks back. This essentially keeps the battlepass itself free – as well as the rewards within it, but if you want any skins from the Fortnite shop, you’re going to have to dig deep in those pockets and fork out for them with real cash.
These changes will be coming in with the new Fortnite season on March 19th – and after that, only the physical in store cards will be honoured with the original vbucks amounts.
Save The World Going Free?
Save The World was released by Epic Games in 2017 and it saw some relative success, but after spending 6 years in development, the games industry and player interests had shifted a bit since development started.
Epic then released Fortnite Battle Royale – this was intended to be bundled with Save The World, but Epic decided to pivot away from the bundle idea, and released Battle Royale as a standalone free-to-play game – easily accessible, free, and with something new in the Battle Royale genre introducing a building mechanic.
Save The World came with several options, including the base game, up to Founders Edition. The founders Edition came with v-bucks, and lots of them… Daily login rewards would award up to 1,000 v-bucks, just for logging in, this has since been retired, but there are still many ways to get v-bucks, from daily quests or completing Storm Shield Defenses.
The Founders Edition still runs today, with that Founders status being honoured, and for that reason alone, people still hunt for old Founders Edition codes today.
When Save The World goes free to play, none of those perks will be available for new players, only the original Founders Editions will still be able to get daily v-bucks, but that’s not to say you shouldn’t play. Save the world is still fun today – although it has been in maintenance mode for the past 5 years. This however might be about to change.
Epic have teased a massive content drop for Save The World to coincide with the free-to-play launch and Nintendo Switch 2 release. While save the world is going free with the big update, it remains to be seen if it will last as Fortnite have already started cutting other game modes, axing over 1000 staff in the process in a bid to save money.
In the mean time will you be dropping into Fortnite? or seeing what other games Epic gives away for free! With Xbox’s new Project Helix announcement and Playstation no longer porting exclusives, players are facing some uncertain times ahead.