Fortnite V-Bucks are now 20% off, and this isn’t a limited-time offer – the new pricing is permanent. The discount is live today on PC, PlayStation, Xbox, and Switch versions of the game as well as the mobile versions (with some caveats). If you recently spent money on the store, you’ll get some V-Bucks back, too.
All real-money purchases on the Fortnite store are now 20% off, including both the usual V-Buck purchases and special offers like Summer Legends or Yellowjacket pack, which include both unique Fortnite skins and V-Bucks. If you’ve made any purchases between July 14 and August 13, you’ll get 20% of the money you spent back as V-Bucks.
As part of all this, everyone’s also getting the Shooting Starstaff pickaxe for free. In the announcement, Epic also confirms that the discount won’t affect the Support-A-Creator programme – every 2,000 V-Bucks spent will still reward creators with $1 USD. “So when players spend the same amount of money in Fortnite as they have previously, creators can now earn even more when those additional V-Bucks are spent!”
This seems to be happening at least in part to protest the fees implemented by the iOS App Store and Google Play Store. Those payments have historically been handled directly through Apple and Google payment services, but now Epic is offering a direct payment service at the new 20% discount. You can still use the platform-holder payment services, but there you’ll be paying full price.
“Currently, there are no savings if players use Apple and Google payment options, where Apple and Google collect an exorbitant 30% fee on all payments,” Epic says in its FAQ. “If Apple and Google lower their fees on payments, Epic will pass along the savings to players.”
“If every developer could accept their own payments and avoid the 30% tax by Apple and Google we could pass the savings along to all our consumers and players would get a better deal on items,” Epic chief Tim Sweeney told CNBC in July. “And you’d have economic competition.”