I’ve always really liked Fortnite. I could easily say it’s probably one of my favorite games ever made, and the memories I’ve made playing it are irreplaceable.
I started playing the game not too long after it came out — which was over eight years ago — and I’ve followed it pretty consistently almost ever since. I could even argue that following Fortnite news when I was younger may have led me down the path of journalism.
In elementary and middle school, I would always keep up with the latest updates and events going on with Fortnite, and I would make sure all my friends who played knew about it too.
If you couldn’t tell from my writing, I’ve kept up similar practices, as I always like to keep up with what’s going on with my favorite games. Over time, Fortnite has remained a consistent part of this, but it has slowly lost my interest for a multitude of reasons.
Like with many games, this isn’t a recent thing and has been slowly happening over the years. It’s not at all surprising that someone like me, with thousands of hours playing the same game, will get burnt out of it eventually.
My burnout for the game has been going on for years now, as I can remember seasons back in 2024 or 2025 where I almost had to force myself to play them out of obligation.
But outside of burnout, multiple noteworthy events have happened regarding Fortnite and my gaming overall that have drastically made me lose interest in the game.
Late last year, Fortnite Chapter 7 began with a relatively uninteresting start. The new map was somewhat interesting, but the battle pass and overall gameplay were extremely boring.
On top of that, Chapter 7 Season 1 ended up being one of the longest and most drawn-out seasons in Fortnite history, with Season 2’s release being delayed a few weeks near the end.
You would think with all of this in mind, Epic Games would be conscious of the negative opinions going around in the community and try to not upset people any further.
You would sadly be wrong.
Not too long before Season 2 was set to be released and Epic was creating excitement within the Fortnite community with various teasers, Epic announced they would be making the now infamous V-Bucks changes.
Essentially, Epic decreased the amount of V-Bucks that each tiered pack would give you while keeping all the prices the same. They also decreased the amount of monthly V-Bucks from the Crew subscription and the amount within the Battle Pass as well.
Once Season 2 finally released a bit over a week ago, despite community morale being relatively low, many enjoyed the new season. However, a good number of people and I have found that it is too similar to last season, which, as I said before, was notoriously boring.
Well, at least it’s not an absolutely terrible season, and Epic will probably acknowledge the community’s reaction to all of this and not make things even worse, right?
You’d be wrong once again.
About a week ago, only a few days after the release of Season 2, Epic announced they were laying off over 1,000 people, estimated to be over one quarter of Epic Games’ workforce.
Many of these employees were discovered to be crucial developers, some of whom had been very involved within the Fortnite community.
It also came out that one of these employees was a man named Michael Prinke, who is a terminal brain cancer patient. As a result of the layoffs, Prinke lost his life insurance, and he and his family had to scramble to figure something out.
The publicity this story attracted resulted in Epic getting back in contact with Prinke to figure something out, but they wouldn’t have done anything if the story hadn’t come out.
Outside of this, Epic has done little to acknowledge that these layoffs even happened, and morale around Fortnite is pretty much at one of the lowest points I’ve ever seen, with some people even saying they can’t see the game going for another year.
While I don’t necessarily believe that’s going to be the case, it’s still a tremendous loss for the game, and more importantly, for every one of the workers who lost their job. Many of them dedicated years of their lives to the game.
The layoffs have also brought significant attention to Epic’s UEFN program, a software built into Fortnite to create games that will then be published within the game. Creators are able to monetize these experiences and generate extreme amounts of revenue simply for creating a game within Fortnite.
This program has been criticized over the years for filling up the front pages of Fortnite with what many have called “slop” — hundreds of copy-and-pasted games made for the sole purpose of making money through UEFN.
Although slightly minor, along with these layoffs, Epic also announced they would be shutting down Rocket Racing, Festival Battle Stage and Ballistic, three of Fortnite’s “metaverse” modes. Shutdowns like this lead me to have very little confidence in any of the game’s other modes.
In the end, while all of these things are major reasons, the biggest reason for my loss of interest in Fortnite is just other games.
Overwatch, COD, ARC Raiders and The Finals are just a few I can think of that have held priority over Fortnite for me many times over the last couple years.
While I might still end up playing it from time to time, Fortnite has turned into something I play mostly out of habit rather than enjoyment. That’s a bit of a sad thing to think about, but the game is still there if I ever want to come back to it, and more importantly, the years of memories I have with it aren’t going anywhere anytime soon.
Whitford can be reached at [email protected].
