Fortnite is in a state of limbo regarding Epic Games’ recent change of the V-Bucks bundles, which players now empathically speculate about and ponder the reasons for. The question is who in their right mind would want exactly 3250 V-Bucks? But, the company is not leaving the issue hanging as it has introduced a lot of bundles based on such specific amounts in the game.
The data miner “@iFireMonkey” was the one to break the news about the skin bundles appearing in that recent update. He posted the amounts with a picture and the entire Fortnite community started flooding the comment section immediately. Players were split into two camps: one supporting it as useful and the other totally mystified by the issue.
Vergy10_, a player tagged with that username, was the one to make a defence of the companies decision saying “Well it’s so much better than needing to spend 50 bucks for 5000 vbucks when you only need like 3000.” Okay, that could be a fair point? Nevertheless, there were also voices like Neox_Yaps who pointed out the madness in the whole area.
What happened? The V-Bucks bundles. Instead of simply letting the gamers acquire and buy exactly what they want, Epic made a conscious decision to extensively set up a different / dozens of bundles in 50 V-Bucks increments. Among the bundles are thousands for 50, 100, 150, all the way up to for the like more than a thousand. It is ridiculous.
Some of the players who responded to the tweet were also asking when these bundles will be available on the PlayStation platform. Others made funny remarks, like the one from the user “pourinhellawock” saying, “Oh wow thank you so much epic games I was short 3,250 V-Bucks and y’all saved my life 🙏🏾🙏🏾🙏🏾🙏🏾😭😭😭😭💯💯💯” – sarcasm quite strong in this instance.
Moreover, another player called Vincent shared that he would buy the 50 V-Bucks bundle just to get rid of the 50 V-Bucks left in his account. This is most likely what Epic wants, right? if you look at it, it is a smart but sneaky business move.
The user zhakiboii proposed a better idea: “Why not just make it 50 vbuck increments that you can increase/decrease with a counter?” – which is indeed more rational than having countless separate bundles.
It all started when iFireMonkey’s bot detected all these new bundles and he initially thought something was broken. Then the archer_fortnite commented, “bro i was in the shower and heard my phone go off like 40 times and thought all hell was breaking loose” – which really gives an idea of how many bundles he is talking about.
There has always been that peculiar thing about the V-Bucks system being in Fortnite, where more often than not, you have leftover amounts that are useless. But this new method could be a solution to that problem, even if it seems a bit too complex. For example, regarding 50 V-Bucks, instead of the player being stuck with 50, can’t he/she buy exactly 50 more for it to be 100? Or something? The writer seriously gets confused when trying to explain.
The timing of the event is rather strange also, as it takes place just prior to the new season which begins on October 14th at 6 AM ET as per iFireMonkey’s response to another user. It’s probably not a coincidence. Epic is aware that people will want to buy the new Battle Pass and cosmetics and thus, will make it impossible for anyone to say he/she is not spending the money.
Some players wondered if these bundles were in the game already or just files waiting to be opened – it seems the answer is they are already in the game. Adam mentioned that “They were in the storefront since downtime tho” so yeah, they’re real and you can get them right now if you have some reason to want that specific 3,250 V-Bucks bundle.
The overall community reaction has been quite mixed. To an extent, it is simply a case of Epic being greedy and trying to get every last dollar from the players while others see it as a positive quality-of-life enhancement. Honestly, both views are somewhat valid depending on how one looks at them.
In the end, this is just another demonstration of a constant overhaul and changes of the Fortnite’s monetization system by Epic. Whether this is a good or bad change is likely to be determined by how often you find yourself needing a few more V-Bucks to buy something from the item shop. For the casual gamers who only buy the Battle Pass, it probably won’t make much of a difference. But for hardcore cosmetic collectors, this could actually be a great help.
It is all now up to you – whether you need V-Bucks or not Fortnite has still the option of bundles for all possible amounts. It may either be a great facilitation or the most confusing thing ever and I am not really sure which one it is. But do you know what? At least no one can hold Epic responsible for not attempting to cater to players’ needs, even if it is for extremely specific amounts of the virtual currency.
