Epic's Fortnite Goes Free-To-Play, Alpha Sign-Ups Open
Gears of Legendary Minecrafting
As Epic told me during GDC, sugar-cereal-colored buildy blaster Fortnite isn't fourscore feet under, as a) that'd be total overkill and b) it's doing just fine. After a lengthy period of radio silence, the Unreal Engine mega-maven has finally seen fit to re-reveal the game and begin taking sign-ups for an upcoming alpha. The biggest (noticeable) change so far? Fortnite is now officially free-to-play.
You can find the alpha sign-up page right through here.
Meanwhile, as part of an impending Game Informer cover story, Epic confirmed what more than a few people expected: Fortnite will be free-to-play.
The game's visual style has also received a bit of an overhaul - or at least a tune-up - pushing it into ever-so-slightly less cartoony territory. Beyond that, details are pretty scarce at the moment, though the alpha sign-up survey does include a couple interesting tidbits.
Frequent references to League of Legends, especially, stand out. Given that Fortnite is already a chunky zeitgeist stew that's one part Gears of War and one part Minecraft, it wouldn't be too surprising to find a few freshly basted bites of LoL in there as well. I suppose we'll see.