Fortnite now allows creator-made games to sell in-game items — and immediately, the platform’s most popular experience Steal the Brainrot has added $45 premium item bundles and a chance-based roulette wheel.

and here we go…

  • TORFdot0@lemmy.world
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    10 hours ago

    Pretty obvious what was going to happen when they decided to go the Roblox route. Fortnite and Roblox are both predatory slop. Quite frankly the developers (even if they are kids) releasing paid “experiences” (aka slop) are just as immoral and predatory.

    Talk to your kids about not falling for scams like f2p monetization schemes.

  • Ledivin@lemmy.world
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    14 hours ago

    Don’t forget that while this is all happening, Tim Sweeney (Epic CEO) is actively defending child porn on X.

    • NOT_RICK@lemmy.world
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      20 hours ago

      Tim Sweeney really decided to lean in on this by defending the pedo AI gen bullshit on twitter

  • bridgeenjoyer@sh.itjust.works
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    18 hours ago

    These games are so disgusting. Sad that kids get so addicted to them.

    At least in my day they only took a few quarters from ya, unless you had skills

    • III@lemmy.world
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      13 hours ago

      unless you had skills

      Tell that to Altered Beasts. By the late 80’s they were designed to take your quarters. No skills could avoid it.

  • Ledz@lemmy.ml
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    22 hours ago

    I am impressed, I dont play fortnite, but still its interesting they allowed 3erd party customizations.

    • mushroommunk@lemmy.today
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      22 hours ago

      They probably saw how much money Roblox makes and that public opinion is (finally) starting to turn on Roblox. They want that pie

      • Ledz@lemmy.ml
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        18 hours ago

        Yeah a slippery slope if children start making content and not paid enough

        • Virtvirt588@lemmy.world
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          5 hours ago

          Children, paid?

          Sentence that makes the capitalists blood boil - because why pay them a fair share when they can work for free, while basically sustaining their services.

    • simple@piefed.socialOP
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      21 hours ago

      it’s not actually fortnite, they now have a roblox-like game mode browser where players could create games in an editor.

      • paraphrand@lemmy.world
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        20 hours ago

        But you launch Fortnite to access it on every platform. There isn’t an “Epic UGC” app. So this is what Fortnite has become. An umbrella for experiences that include Battle Royal, Zero Build, Concerts, etc.

  • Pika@sh.itjust.works
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    22 hours ago

    I’m surprised that fortnite was willing to front the liability of allowing third party micro-transactions. Especially gatcha or gambling mechanics based ones. That could get fortnite as a whole banned in a few countries.

    Fortnites rating is Teen and their target demographic is mostly minors. Some countries have pretty big laws on allowing gambling mechanics with minors.

    • logan_hero@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      5 hours ago

      It started with having a pretty scummy loot box monetization, with plans to bring game to f2p(br was always the f2p it does not count). All they got few slaps in 2018-2021 and removed loot boxes as a result. This is not new thing for them, they already knew what they were setting up

      • Pika@sh.itjust.works
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        19 hours ago

        yea fair, although some countries get super iffy about it. That was a big reason Overwatch ended up swapping to a rolling store with OW2 instead of keeping the loot box system, and that was a first party MTX system.

    • village604@adultswim.fan
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      21 hours ago

      I’m sure someone did a risk analysis and determined that they’d make more money on this than they’d lost on being banned from other countries. Only time will tell if they were right.

  • Bobby Turkalino@sh.itjust.works
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    17 hours ago

    The most insane part of Steal the Brainrot having MTXs is someone can steal the thing you spent real money on, leave the lobby, and you’ll never see it again

      • Final Remix@lemmy.world
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        16 hours ago

        I thought it was a third person shooter with bafflingly shitty gunplay…I.guess things have changed since it came out.

        • Holytimes@sh.itjust.works
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          3 hours ago

          Fortnite like roblox and warcraft 3 at this point are almost entirely played for their custom games.

          Some of the most popular games of all time in terms of player base are currently roblox custom games and fortnite custom games right now.

          It’s truely absurd how many players some of these games pull in.

        • SkunkWorkz@lemmy.world
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          15 hours ago

          Fortnite is turning into Roblox. You can now make games for Fortnite with Unreal Editor for Fortnite. This Steal the brain rot game is made by a third party dev.

        • Agent_Karyo@piefed.world
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          7 hours ago

          With full loot? I would have thought that full loot wouldn’t be popular among the Fortnite demographic.

    • Fizz@lemmy.nz
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      13 hours ago

      Ok thats actually funny to add $45 mtx. If people wanna spend money on a meme game like that who cares. If parents leave their card hooked up to their kids account thats on them.

      I dont see the issue here.

      • TORFdot0@lemmy.world
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        10 hours ago

        Exploiting children isn’t funny. Stealing from fools is not ok. Having it be legal is not good for the health of society.

        Normalizing antisocial behavior is not a good thing

        • Fizz@lemmy.nz
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          9 hours ago

          The game that this is within already targets children with expensive micro transactions. So pretending like this changes anything is kinda dumb.

          If its ok to buy fortnite skins its fine to buy whatever a $45 brain rot skin gets you and its extra funny that it can be stolen.

          • TORFdot0@lemmy.world
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            44 minutes ago

            I can understand your viewpoint and agree with it even that Fortnite is overly engineered to sell overpriced cosmetic items to children.

            I think where we differ is that one wrong (regular Fortnite skins), doesn’t excuse another, worse wrong (brainrot lootboxes and expensive mtx that can be lost)

            The whole operation should be shut down, I think we agree there. Fortnite is actually the majority profiteer in this case, the “experience dev” only gets 34% of the revenue from the sale. Infuriating how hypocritical epic is after fighting apple and google over these practices only to do the same thing.

            At least Apple and Google try to protect their users from this kind of thing

  • Agent_Karyo@piefed.world
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    2 hours ago

    Best option for non-US countries is to ban scrip currencies and illegal gambling.

    If the oligarch doesn’t immediately comply and starts parroting American-style “legal roleplay” polemics, put them on a wanted list and storm their yacht when it is in international waters.

    No sacred cows on this, should apply to Epic, Valve or whoever.

    • Holytimes@sh.itjust.works
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      2 hours ago

      Valve doesn’t use any form of script currency tho. Everything is straight government currency.

      Steam wallet is just a glorified gift card with USD/euro/etc

      So weird you call valve out on this one when they literally are the sole exception to this problem.

      • Agent_Karyo@piefed.world
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        2 hours ago

        Valve removed lootboxes from their games? When did this happen?

        I stand by what I say, we need consistent enforcement and not picking favourites.

  • paraphrand@lemmy.world
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    20 hours ago

    Those in the industry know that the guy running the content in question is just using the most profitable techniques available to him.