Fortnite’s latest trial carves its own spaces across the globe. The now-open Fortnite Cloud Gaming x Discord Trial Session website allows a player to come in through Discord and step right into the battle royale. The reaction, however, from the community had been, shall we say, rather mixed!
And what is this? Where basically streaming of Fortnite would now be served from the cloud through Discord: No downloads. You just go to the webpage, follow the instructions, and you’re in. Being only a trial session, it fits the needs of someone curious about the game but does not have it installed or if their personal devices do not have strong enough performance. Svarfdal Nexus called it befittingly, “it’s just for those who don’t have fortnite installed to try it out before going for it fully.”
And then the drama began. There were all sorts of ‘What about rewards?’ The obvious answer, going by the noted leaks and what’s on the very website, appears to be… nothing. No cosmetics; no V-Bucks; nada. The only thing in for a player is this unique kind of experience of playing a kind of classic game. Diogo basically said, “No rewards= no One Cares.” Then MaidenViking added: “What do you get? You get to play fortnite? Is that all? No reward?”
Confusion would only deepen because the look of the trial events’ website is very close, if not the very same, as those past events that did really have rewards for them. Leaker iFireMonkey made a point: “they did re-use the layout of previous trial events that had reward popup data on the website,” setting exactly wrong expectations.” So, yes, quite a few felt jebaited right about then, as stated by another user.
And that was just aside from the rewards. This whole idea for the collab is making the creator’s context wonder about Discord. Cloud is making perfect sense in terms of accessibility but teaming with a chat app? Hock_100 said, ‘Cloud gaming makes sense however this Discord collab does not.’ Good point, right? It really does feel like a weird combo, but perhaps Epic Games might be testing waters for a deeper integration sometime soon?
Then the trial is region-locked, or at least partially so. Hailing from Slovenia, KillerGapiSLO shared a screenshot showing the slight sting of their country being excluded. Rollout seems not-so-universal with another from Brazil, one omattnunes, just posted ‘Brazil F’ with a crying emoji.
Now, some chaotic elements might be just jumping in anyway. After:- “Not bad at all,” said NiteFade. The way it goes seems straightforward; just hit the link, follow the instructions on-screen, and there you go. One match a week at best, so it doesn’t cut into anyone’s free time, said UniversAl_Vlad. More so a “casual try it out concept.”
But that crucial question remains: for whom? A full-on Fortnite player would most likely already have the game installed. EpicTG said bluntly: “Just download Fortnite bro.” Those who do the trial are all curious casuals or people with underpowered hardware. A very low-pressure way of getting a slight taste of the game without any installation barriers.
And then, timing. With Fortnitemares, the Halloween event, just around the corner, some players are more focused on that. prodromos61 commented, “We want Fortnitemares teasers,” basically attesting to where the real hype lies with the core audience.
So, where does that leave us? Cloud gaming trials are here and there, but what’s missing is the one thing that gets gamers excited in general: freebies. In a live service world, rewards become a lingua franca most players understand. Without that, the event feels kind of empty, even if very fulfilling on the tech end. It’s a nice proof of concept on cloud gaming accessibility. But, well, as of now, most players still seem firmly tied to the legacy client, especially with a huge seasonal update just around the corner. The trial goes on for a few weeks, so if you want to check out cloud gaming—or just want to see how good or bad this really is—then do so. Just don’t expect a new QB (Quick-build) skin waiting for you at the end. PlayStation and Xbox players might also find this trial interesting.
