I’m an old. A millennial hag. The aging portrait hanging in my better half’s attic. One of the last people you’d expect to have gotten into the popular “free” to play game, Fortnite. But I have. And I’m obsessed.
Developed by Epic Games and released in 2017, Fortnite began as a 100-person battle royale shooter in which players compete either solo or in teams of two to four. Since then, Epic has introduced all sorts of different modes, for better or worse. There’s the Minecraft-like Fortnite Lego Odyssey. A Festival mode where players can jam together. The game even hosts special events like the recent Daft Punk virtual concert. Frequent additions and constant updates that change the gameplay have allowed Fortnite to stay fresh, while growing its player base from roughly 125 million users in 2018 to over 650 million registered accounts and about 225 million monthly active users. That’s an astonishing achievement for a game that has been around for eight years.
A Pop-Culture Sandbox
What has helped Fortnite to maintain its hold on gamers—and what attracted me like a moth to the flame—is the consistent introduction of new collaborations with popular IPs. Each year features a new chapter split into different seasons, often revolving around exciting collabs with other titles. Chapter 6: Season 4 brought the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers into the game and allowed players to pilot the Megazord around the map while wreaking destructive havoc. Netflix’s K-Pop Demon Hunters also made an appearance recently, giving players the chance to play as or team up with Rumi, Mira, and Zoey. Around the map, you could find ramen power-ups, Rumi’s sword, and a Derpy Tiger teleportation mask.
What does all this have to do with horror, you ask?
Fortnitemares 2025: An Event to Remember
Each October, Fortnite brings back their annual Fortnitemares event. During this month-long period, the map transforms into a Halloween-y wonderland filled with creepy decorations and themed items. It’s also a time when new horror collabs come to the game. Other years have seen the likes of Michael Myers, Leatherface, Ash Williams, and Billy the Puppet enter the fold. But 2025 takes the proverbial cake. This month has seen the release of skins for Ghostface, Jason Voorhees, Scooby-Doo and the Gang, Black Phone’s Grabber, Terrifier’s Art the Clown, Wednesday Addams, and more.
Needless to say, there’s never been a better time to get into Fortnite if you’re a horror fan. After all, where else can you gather a team of Ghostface, Leatherface, Michael, and Jason together in the Mystery Machine and drive around causing chaos? That’s the only sales pitch I need.
Yet, amidst all the excitement, I’ve started to ask myself…is this really where we want the future of gaming to go? And at what point is the game playing you?
Nostalgic Wonderland or Capitalist Hellscape?
For as much as I love watching Leatherface dance to Doja Cat’s “Woman” or Ghostface doing the Scooby-Doo run, I’m not so starry-eyed that I can’t see Fortnite for what it is: A capitalist hellscape. Or, rather, a symptom of the disease that is our consumer-driven society.
See, Fortnite is technically free. But if you want to enjoy the game to its full extent, you have to spend a little. Like every other FTP (free to play) game, Fortnite lures gamers in with the promise of fun with friends for zero cost. You approach this curious-looking van of a game, thinking it harmless enough. And then bam! Some pale weirdo carrying black balloons grabs your ass and throws you in. Before you realize it, you’re stuck in some dark basement, wallet full of nothing but dust.
You didn’t think FTPs profited off good vibes, did you?
The Slippery Slope of Micro-Transactions
The cool skins, the silly emotes, the weapons and back bling, and yes, even shoes, that you can purchase for your characters are all what’s known as micro-transactions. Rising in popularity during the early aughts through online and mobile games, micro-transactions are when players spend real money on virtual currency to buy in-game items. Titles like Fortnite, Call of Duty, or EA’s Madden franchise have found enormous success through this model. Tekrevol reports that Fortnite rakes in between $3.7 to $6.2 billion a year. Most AAA titles are lucky to make even $1 billion, if they make a profit at all. Through the item shop, battle passes, and a monthly subscription that gives players access to all passes and exclusives, Tekrevol estimates that the average Fortnite player spends over $100 on the game annually.
One hundred of your hard-earned dollars per year may not sound like a lot for a game you plan on frequenting. Financially speaking, it’s a steal when you consider the average AAA title costs $70 (with prices rising). But keep in mind, $100 is only the average. For context, each skin costs between $15 to $20. Totally worth it to run around as Ghostface, right? Sure. But it’s a slippery slope. Buy one, and you’ll want another. Then another. Over Fortnite’s eight-year run, there are gamers who have dropped thousands on micro-transactions.
Keep in mind, adults are not the target audience for Fortnite. Kids are. And I’m concerned about what issues that combination of peer pressure to match skins with friends and ease of access to spending on in-game currency creates for such a young audience. According to the NIH, there are ties between gambling addictions and micro-transactions in gaming (though they admit that research on the subject remains scarce). At a certain point, it all starts to feel a little predatory.
The Not-So-Mysterious Mystery of Gamer Spending Habits
In addition to that worrisome issue, Kotaku recently reported that the average gamer only buys a new game once or twice a year. Those statistics came from Circana’s Future of Games report, where they surveyed players on their spending habits. A lot of it has to do with FTP games like Fortnite. Why spend $70 on a game you may play for 20 hours when you can spend $100 annually on a title like Fortnite that you come back to throughout the year?
Some of you might disagree with that sentiment, but the facts point to more and more players putting their gaming budgets into a single FTP title rather than a handful of original games. Either way you slice it, that little factoid is obviously bad for the gaming industry. If AAA and indie games are losing out on profits to FTPs, studios may be less inclined to make them.
Fewer voices and less originality in the industry hurt all of us.
Just a Game, or a Pre-cursor for Something Scary?
If all of this is starting to sound like the dystopic world of Spielberg’s Ready Player One, well, it should. Based on the novel by Ernest Cline, the 2018 film centers around a virtual reality hub dubbed the OASIS. There, gamers can plug in and lose themselves in a fantasy universe where they can join a variety of games and play as their favorite characters…for a price. Players spend hours in the OASIS because it’s an escape from the dystopian police state they live in, one with a devastated economy that has left the less advantaged struggling to survive. Released just one year after Fortnite, the film has a prophetic quality that’s proving more relevant by the day. Fortnite may be nowhere close to the level of OASIS, but it’s hard not to see how we’re well on our way to that imagined destination.
We do live in a world that grows more chaotic and authoritarian every hour. And I’ll be the first to admit that a draw of Fortnite for me has been the ability to escape into what I refer to as a nostalgic paradise for geeks. Escapism and nostalgia are fine. Necessary, even. But too much of that can lead to a detachment from reality that’s detrimental to each of us in the long run.
To be clear, Fortnite is not some evil dragon I believe must be slain. Does it represent everything that’s wrong with the predatory nature of a capitalist society that takes advantage of everyone outside the 1%? You betcha. It’s the most popular game in its category, sure, but far from the only one. Plus, the game has become a lifeline for me and my friends spread throughout the world. It allows us to connect and play together in an environment where we can express our personalities through skins, emotes, etc. It’s an arena where childhood dreams like piloting the Megazord become possible. If kids and adults like me who refuse to grow up are having fun, then who are any of us to say they shouldn’t indulge a little in what the game has to offer?
I can’t say whether Fortnite, the push for more games like it, and micro-transactions will ruin gaming as we know it. I gave up on becoming a time-traveler ala Marty McFly ages ago. But I can point to the creative sandbox of Fortnite and its array of collabs with my favorite characters as what I have needed in this moment. The game has been the source of some of the most fun I’ve had gaming with friends in recent memory. Considering everything going on, I’m thankful for that.
Play, But Understand What You’re Walking Into
Between the ability to drive around a Halloween-y map in the Mystery Machine with friends, run around as Ghostface or creep up on teammates as Art the Clown and honk that damn horn, there’s never been a better time to jump into Fortnite for horror fans. But be aware of the type of game you’re playing and understand the risks that come with it. Ask yourself, as I am, if this is the future you want for gaming?
At the very least, take one of the valuable lessons learned from Ready Player One and unplug once in a while. Touch grass. Remind yourself that there’s a real-world worth enjoying, for all its issues. There’s nothing wrong with a little escapism—IP-driven or not—as long as you don’t let it become your entire reality.
Categorized: Editorials
