Fortnite practically runs on FOMO (fear of missing out). if you don’t get the item you want in a battle pass, you’ll most likely never get the chance again. So if you wanted to run around as Goku and missed when the excellent skin was available? Tough luck.
But that policy is changing soon. Developer Epic Games announced in a blog post that items could be made available in the Shop 18 months after their respective battle passes expired at the least. That includes alt styles, which might also come to the Shop, along with licensed outfits you may have missed out on. This also applies to items that may have been unlocked after a battle pass launch.
Those “coulds” and “mights” might not sound definitive, but while all items can get added to the Shop, not all will. Epic Games clarifies that there isn’t a guarantee that an item will come to the Shop, although it says it’ll let players know when that’s the case. We also don’t know if this will be the case just for future battle passes or all battle passes, including past ones.
“One reason for this change is that we want players down the road to enjoy Battle Pass content such as outfits based on popular licensed characters,” the blog post read. “While there is no guarantee that a Battle Pass item will come to the Shop after this change, IP content from future Battle Passes might come to the Shop at least 18 months after the Battle Pass expires.”
Nothing else about the battle pass is changing: the price will remain the same (950 V-Bucks or $8.50), and Epic says you’ll still get the same amount of rewards.
This is a solid move for both players and Epic Games. Players get the chance to score items they may have missed the first time, and Epic can sell more items in the shop that people will actually want to buy. However, that 18-month window is a doozy, and because it’s not guaranteed an item will come to the Shop, Epic still gets to benefit from FOMO.
Google Play is borrowing one of the Nintendo Switch’s most useful little tricks. A new Sidekick tool called Playbacks captures a short clip after something interesting has already happened, sparing players from running a screen recorder throughout an entire game.
Playbacks is part of Google Play Store v53.8 and keeps saved clips on the phone. Google first announced it earlier this month, but the new Play Store update marks its arrival for players. Anyone who has watched a perfect win vanish because the record button came too late already understands the appeal.
Imagine tapping a Zelda icon on your iPhone and jumping straight into Hyrule. A new open-source project called nxnative makes that possible by repackaging Switch games you’ve bought into apps for iPhone, iPad, and Mac, with no emulator in the middle.
Why does this run so well on Apple devices?