Fortnite: Save The World Officially Launches, Will Be Buy-To-Play

The day long expected has finally arrived. Fornite: Save the World, the nearly forgotten PvE component to the massively more popular free-to-play battle royale version, has finally launched. It was initially touted as being in paid early access for an eventual free-to-play launched, but now neither of those are true, as Epic Games announced today that it was both shedding its early access label and going buy-to-play permanently with a price tag of $20.

There's also a new piece of content in the works: Ventures, which take place a seasonal-themed zone and have scaling challenges based on your experience level. Save the World's seasonal events will also rotate on their own schedule, separate from Battle Royale's. That might be all that Save the World fans see for a while, though, as Epic said that "Development of new content will slow down after this official release."

If you purchased a base Founder's Pack for Save the World, you'll receive all the bonuses of the Ultimate Edition Founder's Pack, while owners of that edition will receive the new Metal Team Leader Pack and 8,000 V-Bucks. The Metal Team Leader Pack will be available starting Thursday and includes a variety of new items and challenges to be completed.

Going buy-to-play also means that we'll no longer cover Save the World here on MMOBomb, though we probably should have predicted this a while ago. (Maybe we did? I'm too lazy to look back at old podcasts.) Considering its relative lack of development and marketing since Battle Royale exploded onto the scene, it shouldn't come as a huge surprise that StW never quite fulfilled its earlier promises. Epic's got much more on its plate now and it just doesn't make sense to give StW the resources it might have demanded if it had been the company's flagship title.