The launch of Fortnite Battle Royale has been a huge success for Epic Games, bringing in hundreds of millions of dollars in gross revenue since the game exploded in popularity. And even though the co-op mode is less popular than the juggernaut Battle Royale segment, there’s still plenty of interest in the mode getting free access for all players. Sadly, the launch of this mode into free-to-play has been delayed, citing the need for other changes and updates to the game ahead of the full launch.
In a blog post made today, Epic has extended their wait, stating that the free-to-play launch will no longer take place in 2018.
To quote the Fortnite team:
We’re working on a broad set of features, reworks, and backend system scaling we believe are needed to go free-to-play. Save the World has grown consistently since our launch in July 2017 and Fortnite overall has experienced unprecedented growth. Scaling up for the legions of player heroes who will be joining the fight is key to providing an excellent experience. This applies to all of our players, old and new, so we’re taking the time to get this right.
Epic plans to polish many aspects of the game ahead of the free-to-play launch. Everything from textures, meshes and models will eventually get a fresh coat of paint. There is also a planned UI revamp to make the game easier to handle and navigate. No details were provided in terms of a full roadmap though. Epic did recently deploy the 6.10 patch adding new vehicles like the Quadcrasher. We can expect more of that kind of thing in the future.
If you want access to the Save the World mode, all Founder’s Packs come with access to Save the World.
In Save the World, a group of players work cooperatively within the sandbox map to defeat waves of AI enemies. This mode was the original version of the game prior to the launch of Battle Royale, and has remained as part of the paid version of the game. The gameplay is a unique spin on the co-op hero shooter mixed with Fortnite‘s iconic building systems, it’s pretty cool.
A new free-to-play launch date has not been confirmed, so you’ll need to keep your eyes peeled for that over the coming months. If I were a betting man, I’d say mid-2019 is a good point to start banking the free-to-play launch of the mode.
