Fortnite: Save The World leaves early access, but isn't going free-to-play
The end of an era
You will be forgiven for thinking that Fortnite: Save The World had already left early access. This is what many see as a strange appendage to Fortnite Battle Royale, but is actually the original PvE game that arguably birthed an entire epoch - all, apparently, while remaining in early access. It's a brazen assault on the fabric of meaning, but it's also maybe not all that weird, because developers Epic Games say that yesterday marks the point where "development of new content will slow down". "The main story is complete", they say.
It doesn't mark the point where it will go free-to-play, as was once planned. I suppose that may well make business sense when part of your videogame is big enough to worry Netflix.
Epic themselves have stayed shtum on the decision to not go free-to-play, simply saying that Fortnite "will remain a premium experience". The linguistic bullishness continues. Although, they are also removing "the legacy Early Access label" from the battle royale mode, calling that "a holdover" from the launch of Save The World.
Epic do say they will keep doing new stuff. They're introducing "Ventures", with the first one coming up in the near future. It's billed as "a new season-long excursion that takes place in a seasonal zone with new and unique modifiers to tackle", and the plan seems to be to roll a new one out every season - which will be separate to Fortnite Battle Royale's 10 week cycles.
Epic say they aren't done telling stories, mind, even before Venture's start. Pirates are going to invade in a separate upcoming update will see, bringing "a brand new tropical biome" and "an all new narrative questline". They also say that Seasonal events like "Frostnite and Dungeons" will "continue on a seasonal rotation unique to Save the World and separate from Battle Royale."
If you've already bought the game, you'll (maybe) be pleased to hear that your Founder's Pack has been "upgraded to the next level" for free. There are more details about what the release means for cosmetics (a lot) over on Fortnite's blog.
The world will forever remember July 30th as "that day when Fortnite left early access", and everyone went "oh huh".
You can grab Save The World from inside the Fortnite client, for $40. I can't find a reliable price point in pounds without installing it and giving up 80gb of hard drive space I can't spare, soz.