Fortnite: Save the World Might Finally Be Going Free-to-Play Soon

Just yesterday, I poked fun at Fortnite: Save the World for being in development for six years only to get quickly surpassed by Battle Royale. And back in January, one of my predictions for 2019 was that we wouldn't see StW go free-to-play this year.

It seems like I might miss that one. Polygon has noticed some unusual verbiage in the latest Fortnite patch notes that could point to an imminent F2P transition for Save the World, which launched (as just "Fortnite") into early access two years ago this month.

The "Save the World" portion of those patch notes carries this important change:

Quests, missions alerts, and daily login rewards will now grant X-Ray Tickets instead of V-Bucks to players who are non founders. Paid Founders will not be affected by this change.

V-Bucks are the real-money currency of Fortnite (both versions), and some players have taken to farming them up in StW to spend in BR. I've heard that mentioned as a reason why Save the World has had a long delay before going free-to-play, as Epic Games didn't want to make it too "easy" to earn V-Bucks. That will no longer be possible for new players, though players who already have purchased an early access Founder's Pack are apparently unaffected.

While this patch has already gone into effect, we wouldn't expect any F2P move to take place until the start of Season 10, which should be kicking off at the beginning of August. Or maybe they'll delay it until the start of the year, just so I can have one more accurate prediction. C'mon, Epic Games, do it for me!