Approach again in 2021, paperwork shared as a part of Epic’s courtroom battle with Apple confirmed what Nintendo followers had lengthy suspected: that Samus was deliberate to seem in Fortnite’s bounty hunter season however, for causes unknown on the time, by no means made the lower. However these causes have now been revealed, with former Fortnite boss Donald Mustard explaining Nintendo “acquired actually hung up” about its characters showing on different platforms when approached.
Fortnite’s bounty hunter season ran from December 2020 to March 2021, and included appearances from two main console mascots: Xbox’s Grasp Chief and PlayStation’s Kratos. Inevitably, there was loads of hypothesis Metroid protagonist Samus Aran can be subsequent to signify Nintendo, however the character by no means arrived.
When courtroom paperwork shared later that yr confirmed Samus had at one level been deliberate for Fortnite’s bounty hunter season, hypothesis solely elevated. Followers have lengthy questioned if Nintendo’s sticking level was that it did not need its characters stepping exterior the bounds of its personal consoles – and it seems, as per a brand new interview with Epic’s former chief artistic officer Donald Mustard, these theories had been precisely proper.
“[Nintendo] acquired actually hung up on their characters exhibiting up on platforms that weren’t their platforms,” Mustard revealed in a dialog with Stephen Totilo’s Sport File. “They’d be thrilled to have Nintendo characters in Fortnite, however simply provided that it is on their platform.” That, although, was seen to be counter to the spirit of Fortnite. “For me and for all of Epic,” Mustard continued, “we’re like, ‘That’s an absolute should. We wish to be sure that Fortnite is identical expertise, it doesn’t matter what display or machine you are taking part in on.'”
That is to not say Epic has given up on courting Nintendo; chatting with Axios final yr, the corporate’s government vice chairman Saxs Persson defined, “Nintendo has their technique and we now have our technique, and we hope sooner or later to make use of their characters. Our gamers would adore it.” Persson did, nonetheless, admit securing Nintendo’s characters was a troublesome activity.
However whereas Samus mightn’t be making the bounce to Fortnite anytime quickly, there are nonetheless loads of huge names lining as much as get entangled. Following Woman Gaga’s long-rumoured Fortnite debut earlier this yr, Billie Eilish will quickly be a part of the sport, including weight to a much-discussed “leak” pointing to Metallica, Pirates of the Caribbean, and Lego Star Wars collaborations later this yr.
