Fortnite is hiking up the price of V-Bucks in the US and Europe following mass Epic layoffs
Says the “adjustments are based on economic factors such as inflation and currency fluctuations”.
Fortnite is to increase the price of its in-game currency V-Bucks in a number of countries, including the US and across Europe. While publisher Epic Games attributed the decision to economic factors - citing previous “pricing alignment” in countries including the UK over the summer - the move will follow hundreds of job losses at the company, partially as the result of lower than expected revenue for their immensely popular battle royale shooter.
The pricing change on October 27th will impact every country where V-Bucks are priced in US dollars, as well as the Czech Republic, Denmark, Eurozone countries, Hungary, Japan, Norway, Poland, Romania, Sweden and Turkey.
The price increase will only affect bundles of V-Bucks, gifted battle passes and content packs sold via the Fortnite store, with the cost of Fortnite Crew - the game’s monthly subscription service that includes a monthly injection of V-Bucks - remaining unchanged.
After the change, 1,000 V-Bucks will now cost $8.99 - up from $7.99 - with 5,000 increasing from $31.99 to $36.99, and the bigger 13,500 V-Bucks bundle rising accordingly to $89.99 from $79.99.
Packs affected from the changeover date will include the Extinction Code pack and Untask’d Courier, with the price of other packs - including the Final Reckoning Pack, Skull Squad Pack, Graveyard Drift Quest Pack, Saint Academy Quest Pack and Transformers Pack - all due to rise in line with the changes once they rotate back into the store.
Epic said that the “adjustments are based on economic factors such as inflation and currency fluctuations”, referring back to similar price increases made in the UK, Canada and Mexico in July.
However, the timing of the announcement is hard to detach from yesterday’s starling news that Epic will lay off more than 800 people - around 16% of its workforce - in an effort to achieve “financial sustainability”. Among the reasons given for the brutal cuts were Epic’s costly investment in the metaverse and Fortnite’s lower than anticipated revenue due to growth being driven by “lower margin” creator content.