Will Fortnite's Save The World Ever Be Free?

It's easy to forget Fortnite began life as a PvE co-op title called Fortnite: Save the World. No umbrellas, superhero cameo skins, or Victory Royales. Just several players working together to build traps and fend off waves of monsters — most of whom wear their discarded faces like hoodies.

Epic Games introduced Save the World in early access, just like the battle royale portion of the game that most people know as Fortnite. However, Save the World had a premium price tag while Fortnite was given away for free. Many players expected Save the World to turn over a free-to-play leaf when the game left early access. Well, that day came and went. Save the World is no longer in early access, and it isn't free-to-play.

This development confused and angered some gamers, who felt the game should be free to download. Will it ever turn free-to-play? Probably not.

When Save the World exited early access, Epic Games released a state of development post that detailed the game's long three-year path. The game has seen patch after update after hotfix, and it barely resembles its launch state. However, one thing has remained the same: according to the post, Save the World will remain a buy-to-play game.

No beating around the bush or anything. Epic Games stated in crystal clear terms that the game will remain buy-to-play for the foreseeable future. This might seem like disappointing new. However, Epic Games has a present that will soften the blow. If you purchased a Founder's Pack prior to the game's official launch, you will receive extra rewards. Plus, the game will soon add seasonal rewards in the form of Ventures.

It's not exactly the same as Epic living up to its promise and making the game free, but it's something, right? Right?

Trying to downplay Fortnite's popularity is an exercise in futility. The game sports over 350 million registered players, which means more people play the game than live in the United States. However, that number only applies to the battle royale part of the game. Epic has yet to say how many people play Save the World, which might explain the other important portion of the development post.

Normally, when a game exits early development, you would expect the dev team to roll up their sleeves, crack their knuckles, and start coding double time to keep the content flowing. Not with Save the World. Apparently, Epic will slow down the rate at which content is added from now on. You can only hypothesize why, but it might have something to do with the "Save the World is dying" rumors.

This news does not mean that Save the World will die anytime soon, but the writing may be on the wall. Epic appears to be prioritizing the battle royale PvP mode over the co-op PvE mode, so Save the World might not last long enough for it to ever turn free-to-play.