Fortniteis in the midst of its annual Halloween celebration. TheFortnitemares eventwill cap off Chapter 5 Season 4, and with Chapter 6 on the horizon, many new features are rumored to be arriving soon. These include possible game modes, mobility mechanics, and a new way for players to customize their avatars.
Fortnitehas set an industry standard when it comes to monetization. Though the base game is free,Fortnitehas continually offered a plethora of purchaseable cosmetics for players looking to stand out. These include skins, harvesting tools, weapon wraps, gliders, and more. According to a potential leak, Epic may soon be branching out to bring yet another category of cosmetics toFortnite: shoes.
The Impact of Bringing Shoes to the Fortnite Item Shop
This news comes from popularFortniteleaker HypeX in apost on X. The post states that Epic is currently working on shoe cosmetics that will be available in the shop to purchase individually or in bundles. One important note is that only certain skins will be compatible with these shoes when they are released.
HypeX has proven to be a reliable leaker in the past, which adds credibility to this leak. However, the leak remains incredibly light on details. It’s unknown how much the shoes will cost or when they will be released. This leaves plenty of room for speculation as to which shoes could be available in the game and how they might be implemented.
Likely Collaborations for Shoe Cosmetics
Fortnitehas already collaborated with several shoe brands in recent history. Within the past year, Nike and Adidas have both brought skins, emotes, and other cosmetics to theFortniteitem shop.Fortniteis also partnering with Crocsthis year on a line of real-world shoes inspired by Peely and the Battle Bus. With these partnerships already established, the chances of shoes from these brands — and subsidiaries like Converse — appearing as in-game cosmetics seems high.
Fortnite’s Struggle with New Cosmetics
When it comes to adding new categories of cosmetics to the in-game shop, this year hasn’t exactly been the most fruitful forFortnite. Chapter 5 started last December and brought with it three additional game modes: Fortnite Festival, Rocket Racing, and LEGO Fortnite. Introduced alongside these modes were cosmetics like instruments, car models, and virtual LEGO sets.
Epic had clearly put effort into designing these items, but players were far less motivated to purchase them than they were for other commodities like skins and gliders. LEGO Fortnite still sees some success, but none of the three modes added in Chapter 5 have been anywhere near as successful asFortnite’s Battle Royale continues to be. In fact, Epic recently confirmed it will no longer be releasingthemed updates for Rocket Racing.
Since these modes lack the draw of Battle Royale and are no longer guaranteed to receive continued support, players want cosmetics that have universal use. LEGO builds from the item shop are restricted to LEGO Fortnite. Cosmetics from Fortnite Festival and Rocket Racing do carry over into Battle Royale. However, items purchased for Festival can only be seen in Battle Royale when performing a jam track or certain emotes. Car cosmetics apply to some vehicles in Battle Royale, but with the car-centric Wrecked season over, most players would rather use mobility items likeIron Man’s flight kitor the chainsaw to get around the map.
Besides limited uses for these items outside their unpopular modes,Fortnite’s newest cosmetics have been criticized for their price tags. Some instruments, car customization options, and LEGO sets have been provided as free quest rewards, but a vast majority are locked behind a paywall. It’s often more expensive to buy a jam track than it would be to buy the actual song on a platform like the iTunes Store, and many of theRocket Racing car bodiesoffered cost over $20.
How Fortnite Can Better Implement Shoes
Given the rocky relations between players and the item shop this past year,Fortniteneeds to be careful when implementing these rumored upcoming cosmetics. If Epic is going to sell shoes in-game, then players need to feel like the shoes are a worthwhile purchase.Fortnitehas the resources to pull desirable collaborations for the shoes, but the developers will need to put in some serious time and care in order to verify that these cosmetics don’t come out looking unintentionally goofy.
As was mentioned earlier, shoes will only be available for some skins at first, which should prevent technical issues and visual clipping. That said, players could hold off on buying shoes if they won’t eventually be used on their favorite skins.Fortnite’s shoes need to have a wider range of applications than cosmetics like LEGO sets and instruments. Epic should also consider offering a wider range of prices with more affordable options included if it wants shoes to be on the same level of desirability as backblings.
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