While Fortnite undoubtedly provides an incredible battle royale experience, a great deal of its success comes from Epic Games’ exciting crossovers with other popular franchises. Unfortunately for fans, a potentially epic collaboration apparently didn’t see the light of day because of Nintendo’s obstinacy.
As revealed by Epic’s former Chief Creative Officer Donald Mustard in an interview with Game File, Fortnite cosmetics inspired by the popular video game series Metroid were in the works, but Nintendo was apparently “hung up on their characters showing up on platforms that weren’t their platforms,” according to Mustard. “They would be thrilled to have Nintendo characters in Fortnite, but just only if it’s on their platform,” he explained.
If Epic had agreed to the deal, it’d have made Samus Aran-inspired content exclusively available in Fortnite’s Nintendo Switch version, barring players on other platforms (PC, Xbox, and PlayStation) from the crossover—and the publisher wasn’t a fan of the idea. “For me and for all of Epic, we’re like, ‘That is an absolute must. We want to make sure that Fortnite is the same experience, no matter what screen or device you’re playing on.’” Mustard shared.
For anyone unaware, Samus Aran is the main character of Metroid, one of Nintendo’s best action-adventure franchises. Considering how popular Metroid has been since its first iteration launched in 1986, cosmetics inspired by Samus Aran’s enigmatic appearance would certainly attract a significant section of the Fortnite community. Unfortunately, Nintendo has never been open to collaborations that aren’t exclusive, so the stubbornness isn’t surprising.
With Nintendo currently working on a fresh iteration of the Metroid franchise—Metroid Prime 4—a collaboration with Fortnite would definitely benefit both parties. Whether the video game tycoons can ever reach an agreement remains to be seen.
