Fortnite Save the World is going free-to-play almost a decade on from release

Before there was Fortnite Battle Royale, there was Fortnite Save the World – a tower defence styled co-op experience in which you must build and protect your base from waves of zombies. With the explosive popularity of the then-side mode ‘Fortnite BR’, support for Save the World was stripped back. Almost a decade on from its original paid release, Fortnite Save the World is now officially going free-to-play.

Making the surprise announcement on their blog, the team at Epic Games revealed that “Save the World is going free-to-play on April 16, welcoming even more players to join the fight on PC, PlayStation, Xbox, Cloud, and Nintendo Switch 2.”

Seeing as how it was initially released as a paid product, current owners of the game will continue to receive their founder's benefits, including the all-important V-Bucks. Additionally, players are set to receive Superchargers, Vouchers, and Gold on April 16 “as a thank you for the last nine years of world saving.”

As part of the announcement, Epic also unveiled a community goal in anticipation of the upcoming release, with pre-registration milestones being tied in-game rewards.

Full details on this free-to-play shift (including a full FAQ) can be found HERE, but one final interesting part of the announcement was confirmation that Save the World isn’t coming to smartphones nor the Nintendo Switch 1.

Following the rise in popularity of their free-to-play BR mode, it was expected that Save the World would eventually be folded into the wider experience. Though almost a decade later than expected, Epic Games is finally once again paying attention to Save the World. It will be interesting to see how much support the mode will receive moving forward.

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KitGuru says: What do you think of the announcement? Is it 9 years too late? Did you buy the founder’s pack back in the day? Let us know down below.

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