Summary
An Epic Games executive has explained that they have tried negotiating with Nintendo to add some of its iconic characters toFortnite, though with no success yet. Epic Games' third-person shooter has become one of the largest names in gaming, bolstered by the amount of collaborations with pop culture brands, IPs, and icons since its 2017 launch. Six years afterFortnite’s release, new skins, game modes, and seasonal content have been added to the game for fans to partake in, making it one of the biggest crossover games.
There is seemingly no end to what company, IP, or pop culture figureFortnitehas looked to collaborate with. This ranges from anime properties likeMy Hero Academia,Dragon Ball, andNarutoto real-life musicians like Eminem, The Weeknd, and Ariana Grande. Various video games have also been represented as character skins inFortnite, fromMetal Gear’s Solid Snake,Halo’s Master Chief, and evenStreet Fightercharacters like Ryu and Chun-Li. One company Epic Games has revealed that it has been trying to negotiate with in the past is Nintendo, attempting to get its characters into the mega-crossover battle royale.
Inan interview with Axios, Epic Games executive Saxs Persson reveals that the publisher has tried negotiating with the Japanese game giant more than once toinclude Nintendo characters inFortnite. According to Persson, Epic Games pushed Nintendo for a collaboration, though the negotiations seemed to be pretty one-sided, based on Persson’s comment. “I don’t know what the word for, like, making diamonds is,” Persson said.
Despite the number of players who would love to see Nintendo’s characters inFortnite, it doesn’t seem like it’s going to happen in the future. Nintendo is a family-friendly brand first and foremost, and it’s unlikely the Japanese giant would want to see its characters getting shot, doing any ofFortnite’s animations that might reflect badly on the company, or appearing on rival platforms. Even thougha collaboration between Nintendo andFortnitewill likely never happen, Epic Games still wants to try adding Nintendo’s characters to the roster of skins. “Nintendo has their strategy and we have our strategy, and we hope at some point to use their characters,” Perrson said. “Our players would love it,” he added.
Nintendo has their strategy and we have our strategy, and we hope at some point to use their characters. Our players would love it.
Perrson comments that he doesn’t expect the character crossovers to slow down anytime soon and how the recent addition of age ratings for certain islands inFortnitehas been a big boon. This implementation allows for greater crossover opportunities that had never been thought of before, such as the newLEGOFortnitemodeadded in Chapter 5 Season 1. For the time being,Fortniteand Nintendo characters are a collaboration that is off the table.
Fortnite
WHERE TO PLAY
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