I lost count of how many crossover skins are in Fortnite a very long time ago. There is a relentless barrage of new collaborations with other videogames, movies, anime, and celebrities. However, a lot of these crossovers often manifest within a seasonal battle pass, and the main issue with that is once the season is over, they vanish into the void for those who didn’t manage to get them. Well, Epic Games is about to change that, revealing that battle pass items can now return to Fortnite in the future through the game’s store, but there are some caveats to consider.
In an announcement post on Wednesday, August 7, Epic finally confirmed what many Fortnite fans have been begging for for many months. “Items in future Fortnite Battle Passes might be offered for purchase in the Fortnite Shop after 18 or more months from the Battle Pass’ expiration.” While this is great news, a year and a half is a long time to wait if you did miss out on a battle pass skin. However, it’s better than the battle royale game’s current approach, which is to just lock them in the Epic vaults for all eternity.
A big motivating factor behind this appears to hinge specifically around the licensed characters that are appearing consistently in Fortnite battle passes these days. Over recent seasons, players have been able to earn skins and items based on Fallout, Family Guy, and Transformers. There have also been Marvel-themed battle passes further back in the game’s history too.
Plus, some of Epic’s best in-house creations, which can often include variants of beloved characters like Peely or Jonesy, are locked behind battle passes too. However, if you didn’t fork out enough or grind the game enough to unlock these cosmetics, that’s it – you’ll never be able to earn them again.
Themed seasonal questlines can also be a route to get desirable skins and collab cosmetics – a few months back, you could earn Solid Snake from Metal Gear Solid through one such questline.
From now on, anything you can earn through these seasonal mechanics will be eligible to return to the store after that 18-month period. It’s not just skins either – backblings, emotes, loading screens, and much more can be purchased later down the line.
However, Epic does clarify that not everything is guaranteed to come back – it will be select items only, and by the tone of the announcement post, it sounds like anything tied to other IP will be the main focus of this. The wording of its statement also suggests that it’s not going to retroactively go back and re-release past battle pass items – this change only applies to content featured in upcoming battle passes, so will come into effect when the Fortnite Chapter 5 Season 4 release date arrives in a few days time.
Sure, there are caveats, but this is a great change for the free PC game. For more experiences like Fortnite you can play with your pals, there are plenty of options in our best multiplayer games guide.
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