[STEAM] Epic design lead says V-Bucks price increase is a necessary evil, but players aren’t impressed: ‘We need to fight this hard’

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Not having your IP in Fortnite nowadays is almost taboo. Screenshot by Destructoid And given this strong reliance on selling cosmetics, purchasable exclusively with V-Bucks, it only makes sense that Epic would want to buff their primary revenue stream. The fans, at least those vocal enough to speak out, are having none of it, though.

"We need to fight this hard,"

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. Epic thinks the game has grown to a point where it’s unkillable, but with how many bad decisions they have been making, Fortnite might actually be gone for good," they added.

Others immediately started advocating and calling for a boycott of the game, at least its financial side, in an attempt to force Epic Games into rescinding its price increases. So far, there hasn't been much success, and Fortnite's lead designer Andre Balta actually came out to defend this move in response to the boycott campaign.

"We put a ton of work and care into Fortnite’s gameplay, and this focus is only growing. Paying the bills frees up our teams to continue driving stories and building stuff you love,"

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. The responses to his comments weren't so positive, though, as many believe Fortnite has long been focusing on microtransactions, cosmetics, and collabs, propping them up instead of actual gameplay and content, making this price increase feel that much more hurtful.

"For me personally, just my own experience lately, it seems to me that the collabs and item shop cosmetics have been the most important factor in promoting the game and it just doesn’t feel right," Fortnite content creator MoonNite

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Selling skins is a huge revenue stream for Epic Games. Screenshot by Destructoid Others were of the opinion that the price increase would probably be fine if there were content to justify it. "Something tells me these price increases aren’t coming with more content in each pass,"

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.

It's been a few days since the initial announcement of the price increase. Epic Games plans to start implementing these changes as of March 19, i.e., next Thursday. You'll now be getting some 20 percent less V-Bucks per pack, with popular choices like the $8.99 pack now giving 800 instead of 1,000 V-Bucks. The exact amount packs, which let you decide how many V-Bucks you want to buy, are essentially doubling in price, going from $0.50 per 50 V-Bucks to $0.99 for the same amount.

To compensate for some of these changes, Epic Games is lowering the price of certain store-bought items. As such, battle passes are going down from 1,000 to 800 V-Bucks to maintain the same real dollar price as they had before.

Actual cosmetics and outfits are staying the same, however, making them quite pricier than they were prior to the changes. Whether or not the boycotts will achieve anything remains to be seen, as community action can affect publisher behavior, even if some would disagree.

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