During the turbulent times of Fortnite Battle Royale, Epic Games doubled its competition with Roblox, allowing creators to sell their items for the first time

Fortnite Maker Epic Games will allow creators to sell in-game merchandise through their platform – and get more than Rob Less.

It was an interesting moment for Fortnite to announce the news, with the number of players in its core combat contest mode below average players throughout the summer. Meanwhile, Roblox's players have also intensified due to popular songs such as planting a garden and stealing a brain line.

Now, Epic Games doubles down on encouraging creators to get onto the platform, and after a few weekends, Fortnite version of the stealing Brain Rot has radiated the popularity. The next step for Fortnite's third-party products will be the ability to sell goods directly, and sales cuts are better than the ability to hand over Roblox to creators.

exist Blog Posts In the announcement, Epic Games stressed that it will exceed 50% of the value of V-Bucks purchases in third-party experience, followed by store/platform fees, an increase of 100% over the first year of the program (until December 31, 2026). Considering these store/platform fees, this translates to 37% of creators, accounting for 37% of sales in the game, doubling the first year to 74%. By comparison, as Epic Games itself points out, Roblox offers 25%.

The information here is clear: Come and launch your game on Fortnite’s platform, you spend more money and start more. This is similar to the epic games that have been used before to encourage developers to join their epic game store instead of Steam. But it's worth remembering that while a better percentage, Fortnite's player count is much lower than Roblox's player numbers, meaning that while creators may make less money, they may still see more money.

In addition to this announcement, Epic Games has also announced adjustments to its creators’ participation in third-party experiences, which have been better rewarded for those found to be introduced to new players or invalid players. Here, the epic game is clearly pushing the creator’s content to further expand the audience, rather than simply giving current players new things to do (another challenge it has faced in the past few months, with the additions all the way to go in the various Battle Royals products that feel like they’re just around the mode to disk existing players).

The push to emphasize creators-made content will continue to introduce a “sponsored” neighborhood on Fortnite's home screen, Discover, where creators will be able to pay for epic games for placement. Long-term, EPIC said it will use 50% of this revenue to creators’ engagement, although this will increase to 100% of revenue in the first year. After that, Epic Games will retain the other 50% for use of server costs, security and conditioning tools, as well as R&D. “In recent years, EPIC has been investing in and operating the business,” the company noted.

Another change in the angle of a better angle with the creator-made experience is the launch of the long-awaited game “Thin Thin Client”. Starting with mobile devices and PC, players will be able to download smaller versions of Fortnite, which includes its popular Blitz Royale mode and be able to play games created by creators. Other modes – even Fortnite's main combat Royals, will require additional downloads if needed. This is a wise way to get people to hit trends like hits like hits (such as brain-stealers) without requiring larger downloads. But it also feels like an eye-opening change in company priorities, and the core epic mode of acknowledgement for Fortnite may no longer be the game's hottest appeal.

Fortnite has changed repeatedly over the years, from PVE zombie experience to Battle Royale to meta-style platforms full of other genres. While Fortnite's next transformation isn't entirely unexpected – the percentage of players in the creation mode has been rising for years, it feels like it's probably the most compelling yet. Of course, no suggestion is that Fortnite Battle Royale is disappearing and there are good reasons to think its lucrative battle passes and live events will last for a long time, but as a differentiation from other platforms, and a way to introduce more IP crossovers. But with increasing emphasis on content creators making and the huge number of players who are now interacting with it on Fortnite and Roblox, the next era of the game is obvious.

Tom Phillips is the news editor for IGN. You can reach Tom at [email protected] or find him on the Blues @tomphillipseg.bsky.social