Epic says "the cost of running Fortnite has gone up," so it's increasing V-Buck prices

Epic Games has announced that the price of V-Bucks is increasing because “the cost of running Fortnite has gone up.” While that seems like a cue for criticism and anger from players that love to splurge on its constant stream of cosmetics and crossovers, Epic has, to its credit, softened the blow by reducing the V-Buck cost of battle passes, meaning they will technically cost the same dollar amount. It’s also retaining the incentive that a completed battle pass will give you enough V-Bucks to buy the next one.

Announced in the middle of some exciting teasers about Fortnite’s Save the World co-op experience (which sounds like it’ll be going free-to-play, from what the leakers are saying), this seems like a convenient time for Epic to deliver some news that might upset players. However, if its justification is genuine and the cost of running one of the biggest multiplayer games in the world has significantly shot up, then Epic has at least gone about this in a somewhat measured way.

“The cost of running Fortnite has gone up a lot and we’re raising prices to help pay the bills,” begins a new blog post outlining the V-Buck bundle changes. While the monetary cost of buying bungles of V-Bucks will actually stay the same, the amount of V-Bucks you get is reducing. For instance, the $22.99 bundle used to get you 2,800 V-Bucks, but following this change you’ll now get 400 fewer. You can see just how much the values are shifting in the table further down in this article.

The $8.99 bundle, which used to offer 1,000 V-Bucks, was always conveniently set at the cost of a seasonal battle pass in Fortnite, but for anyone concerned about these value changes meaning they’d have to spend more money on multiple bundles to get one, Epic has you covered.

“The Battle Pass will now cost 800 V-Bucks and award 800 V-Bucks for completing it,” it says. “Previously it cost 1,000 V-Bucks and you could earn 1,000 V-Bucks plus 500 in the Bonus Rewards.”

It’s the same story for the Fortnite OG Pass – that will also be reduced to 800, starting from the next one that gets released. The battle passes for Lego Fortnite and Fortnite Festival are also coming down from 1,400 to 1,200 V-Bucks.

To reflect the price change, the grant that subscribers to Fortnite Crew receive is changing from 1,000 to 800, which means you’ll still get enough for a regular or OG battle pass on the house.

It’s worth noting that Epic hasn’t commented on whether the cost of individual skins or cosmetic bundles are also being adjusted – I feel like if they were, that would’ve been mentioned. That means that items in the store at certain V-Buck values may now require you to spend more money on currency bundles than before to be able to afford them. For example, this 2,600 V-Buck Icon bundle for the band Gorillaz would previously have been obtainable just by purchasing the $22.99 bundle, which contained 2,800 V-Bucks. Now that it includes 2,400, you’d need to top it up by buying another bundle of V-Bucks (or the pricier $36.99 bundle), if you didn’t already have some spare on your account to make up the difference.

This is of course just one isolated example, but I’m sure there will be more instances where store prices aren’t going to align as nicely with V-Buck bundle costs as they once did. While that will no doubt be disappointing, Epic has at least thought ahead when it comes to battle passes.