Fortnite’s ‘Save the World” free-to-play version has been pushed back to 2019

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While the hype around Fortnite has finally plateaued, the game is still extremely popular and played by millions of people. Something that is often forgotten about when discussing the battle royale game, however, is that Fortnite is more than just a PVP battle royale. Heck, it started as a PVE title called Fortnite: Save the World.

That PVE mode is available for players, for a price, but Epic Games had stated the plan was to also make that portion of the title free to play before the end of 2018. That is no longer the case, according to a blog post from Epic.

According to the blog post, there are various reasons for the delay, as well as changes developers suggest are needed in order for free-to-play aspects to work. Namely, “a broad set of features, reworks, and backend system scaling” due to an unexpected and unprecedented growth since Save the World’s launch in July 2017.

What is being improved?

With the delay, comes improvements to the front-end UI. Most of these will be cosmetic and quality-of-life updates, including putting characters on the home screen and changing how tutorial quests and missions are presented.

The bigger changes will come character changes and (obviously) how a for-money game transitions to free-to-play. This will include an update to character slots, both in quantity and functionality. With the update, players will now have six character slots and more loadout and customization options.

It is a bit disappointing to hear of the delay, but honestly, considering the success of the battle royale portion of the game, the delays make sense.

Discounts on the current version of Save the World

To make up for the delays, Epic Games has announced that “starting this week, we’ll be hosting a 50% off sale for the Standard, Deluxe, Super Deluxe, and Limited Founder’s packs.” No word on how long that sale will go, but it’s definitely a good deal.

What do you think? Will you play the Save the World mode once it goes free-to-play? Let us know below.

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Josiah Motley

Former KnowTechie editor.