Epic Games assures Fortnite’s Item Shop changes won’t impact skin pricing

Epic Games announced Item rarities will be leaving Fortnite with update 29.20, and after much fan disappointment, the studio has shared how this will impact the game moving forward.

Chapter 5’s arrival has seen Epic Games rethink how the Item Shop works, with the studio dropping the shop’s refresh timer in the inaugural season of Chapter 5. Season 2 sees the studio change the shop yet again, this time removing the rarities from a majority of in-game items, something that’s been a tradition since Fortnite arrived.

While it may not seem like an issue, players are concerned this will see Epic tinkering with pricing models. For example, the arrival of the Avatar skins has left players furious as it captures the previous sentiment.

Amid the discourse, Epic Games took the time to share their approach to the change. In response to Fortnite community member HappyPower blasting the rarity changes, the official Fortnite account shared that the changes were made to “remove outdated Battle Royale-inspired systems.”

“Hey – the change to remove color labeling from Shop items doesn’t change our approach or the way we price things. We just wanna simplify the appearance of Fortnite (Locker, Shop, etc) and remove outdated Battle Royale-inspired systems.”

The reply didn’t instill much confidence in the player base, with many questioning Epic’s definition of simplicity. Many of the replies said the Locker UI changes are exactly against simplicity and that Epic is trying too hard to simplify the game. Others simply restated that this would impact pricing models.

Chapter 5 has been an interesting one for the Fortnite developers since several changes have rubbed the community the wrong way. Each time, the studio has reverted the changes, so time will tell what the future holds for item rarities and Fortnite’s Item Shop.